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Lookup NU author(s): Professor Mairi Maclean, Professor Charles Harvey, Professor John Sillince, Dr Benjamin Golant
This is the authors' accepted manuscript of an article that has been published in its final definitive form by Sage Publications Ltd., 2018.
For re-use rights please refer to the publisher's terms and conditions.
This paper draws upon archival and oral history research on organizational transition at Procter & Gamble (1950-2009), during which P&G evolved from a multinational to global enterprise. Intertextuality, the ways in which texts appropriate prior works to produce new texts, illuminates the practical workings of rhetorical history, accentuating interpretive agency. The uses of the past at P&G involved an authorized historical account relating to socialization, invented tradition, and lessons from past experience, facilitating change within continuity. We show that in transforming from multinational to global enterprise, recognition of the value of history to strategy intensified, engendering rhetorically intense variations on time-honoured themes. Our main contribution to theory is to demonstrate how sensitivity to intertextuality casts light on the nature of organizational history as historically constructed through language, subject to the agency of skilful interpretive actors who engage in intertextual adaptation in pursuit of strategic change as purposes and contexts evolve.
Author(s): Maclean M, Harvey C, Sillince JAA, Golant BD
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Organization Studies
Year: 2018
Volume: 39
Issue: 12
Pages: 1733-1755
Print publication date: 01/12/2018
Online publication date: 16/07/2018
Acceptance date: 14/05/2018
Date deposited: 25/05/2018
ISSN (print): 0170-8406
ISSN (electronic): 1741-3044
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840618789206
DOI: 10.1177/0170840618789206
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