Discourse and Strategy Implementation: A Qualitative Meta-synthesis of Linguistic Tools

Purpose:

With the expansion of discursive approaches in strategic management studies, language has moved beyond being a mere vehicle for message transmission and is now recognized as an active force in shaping, interpreting, and implementing organizational strategy. Within this perspective, the role of language in constructing organizational realities, producing legitimacy, and facilitating strategic interactions has increasingly gained scholarly attention. This study aims to identify, categorize, and analyze the linguistic tools utilized in the process of strategy implementation. By developing a conceptual framework, the study seeks to provide a coherent understanding of how language functions within strategic practice and to address conceptual gaps in the fragmented existing literature.

Methodology:

This research adopts a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology, based on the seven-phase framework proposed by Sandelowski and Barroso. Initially, a systematic search was conducted in the Scopus database using a combination of keywords related to discourse, language, and strategy, yielding a total of 1,939 articles. Following the PRISMA screening protocol and quality assessment using the CASP checklist, 64 eligible qualitative studies were selected for analysis. The data were coded and analyzed using MAXQDA software across three levels: open coding, axial coding, and thematic categorization. Additionally, the discursive level of each linguistic tool was analyzed across four layers—micro, meso, grand, and mega—based on the framework by Alvesson and Kärreman (2000), in order to determine their functional positions within organizational interactions.

Findings:

The analysis yielded 162 open codes, which were then synthesized into 45 axial codes. Ultimately, these were grouped into eight main conceptual categories, each representing a key linguistic tool involved in strategy implementation:

1. Metaphor

2. Narrative

3. Storytelling

4. Rhetoric

5. Humor

6. Politeness

7. Ideology

8. Sensemaking

The analysis of these tools across different discourse levels revealed that metaphor, sensemaking, and narrative operate across all four levels (micro, meso, grand, and mega) and play structural roles in meaning-making and guiding strategic actions. In contrast, tools such as humor and politeness predominantly function at the micro and meso levels (individual and group interactions), contributing to relationship management, maintenance of hierarchy, and conflict reduction. Rhetoric and ideology primarily operate at the grand and mega levels, facilitating the legitimation of strategic decisions, the stabilization of organizational culture, and the institutionalization of dominant discourses.

Functionally, each linguistic tool plays multiple roles, including persuasion, legitimation, meaning construction, identity formation, coherence-building, and even resistance. For example, metaphors help simplify and concretize abstract strategic concepts; narratives foster semantic coherence and organizational memory; storytelling evokes emotional engagement and empathy; rhetoric reinforces power structures; humor serves to normalize or question norms; politeness maintains face and authority; ideology provides interpretive frameworks and discursive control; and sensemaking acts as a foundational process for navigating ambiguity.

Conclusion:

This study demonstrates that language in organizations is not merely a medium for conveying strategy, but rather a dynamic foundation for its creation, interpretation, and implementation. The linguistic tools identified here are discursive agents through which organizational actors construct meaning, exert influence, resist, or align with strategic goals. The conceptual framework developed in this meta-synthesis facilitates a more nuanced and practical analysis of how language contributes to the enactment of strategy at multiple discursive levels.

From a theoretical perspective, this study integrates fragmented findings and offers a functional typology of linguistic tools, thereby enriching the literature on “strategy as discourse.” From a practical standpoint, the findings can help managers, consultants, and strategists consciously leverage these tools to interpret change, legitimize decisions, reduce resistance, and enhance organizational coherence.