The struggle over meaning: Rethinking the car in automotive industry
Title:
The struggle over meaning: Rethinking the car in automotive industry
Author:
Styhre, Alexander Kohn, Kamilla
Appeared in:
Journal of change management
Paging:
Volume 6 (2006) nr. 1 pages 21-34
Year:
2006-03-01
Contents:
This paper presents a study of the struggle over meaning in the marketing department of one automotive producer, the Volvo Car Corporation. Meaning, a shared set of beliefs and worldviews, serves as the basis for organizational activities as well as organizational change. Moreover, meaning is jointly produced in organizations on the basis of global, regional, local and personal problems and opportunities. The construction of meaning is thus based on the alignment of various worldviews and ideologies. In the automotive industry, the very notion of the car as either a consumer commodity or the central entity of a 'transportation experience' is under discussion. By inscribing various changes and tendencies for change in society and the industry into the notion of the car, the co-workers of the industry de-naturalize the car as we know it, thus paving the way for new dominant types of logic and new conceptualizations of the industry. As a consequence, new opportunities for organizational change emerge.
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