Identifying Knowledge Values and Knowledge Sharing Through Linguistic Methods: Application to Company Web Pages

Abstract

How can three linguistical methods be used to identify the Web displays of an organization’s knowledge values and knowledge-sharing requirements? This chapter approaches this question by using three linguistical methods to analyse a company’s Web sites; (a) elements from the community of practice theory (CoP), (b) concepts from communication theory, such as modality and transitivity, and (c) elements from discourse analysis. The investigation demonstrates how a company’s use of the Web can promote a work attitude that actually can be considered as an endorsement of a particular organizational behaviour. The Web pages display a particular organizational identity that will be a magnet for some parties and deject others. In this way, a company’s Web pages represent a window to the world that need to be handled with care, since this can be interpreted as a projection of the company’s identity.