Talking in Organizations: Managing Identity and Impressions in an Advertising Agency

Abstract

This paper treats discourses in organizations in relationship to the management of identities and impressions. It is based on an ethnographic study of an advert ising agency and explores how advertising professionals describe themselves, their work and organizations, the profession and their clients. Various functions of such descriptions are proposed, from identity work to marketing. The relation ship between the level of discourse and deeper cultural levels is investigated through the cultural sociologies of Asplund and Bourdieu. The 'habitus' of advertising workers is discussed and 'anti-bureaucracy' is proposed as a concep tual figure — a basic way of conceptualizing vital segments of one's cultural reality — characterizing the advertising industry (in Sweden), informing the meaning of the particular ways of talk that is typical among advertising workers.