Linguistic framing of CEO succession in large Japanese firms : Rules, identities, and human agency - “Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly” -In ‘Instructions for Life’ by Dalai Lama

Linguistic framing of CEO succession in large Japanese firms : Rules, identities, and human agency

  This paper studies how linguistic framing of CEO succession events in the Japanese business news media helps preserve the community identity in Japanese corporations by promoting rejuvenation of the top management. The paper adopts the institutional theory of action (March, 1994; March and Olsen, 1989; Ocasio, 1999) as an overall framework, to motivate the focus on linguistic framing and its interplay with human agency. A particular organizational challenge for the Japanese corporations holding the community identity is to struggle to stay young, as the community logic tends to promote the seniority principle and the lifetime employment. The analysis of linguistic framing in the business media shows how linguistic framing contributes to the preservation of the community identity by systematically encouraging management rejuvenation and criticizing old-guard entrenchment.