'SMART Goals' and 'HR Language': Technologised Literacy Practices and Counter-Conduct in the Workplace

This presentation will examine the use of discourse and literacy practices in a performance management system to produce reflective practitioners, and how a counter-language ideology resisted these practices.

The research project will draw on employed linguistic ethnographic methods, using interactional data, interviews, field notes, and documentation to research technologised literacy practices. These practices were a form of technologisation of workplace discourse. Usually, they took the form of writing connected to the performance management system, which also worked to position reviewees as reflective practitioners.

However, running parallel with these was a counter-language ideology that variously portrayed these practices as HR language, KPI language or managese. Implications for workplace discourse, the interplay between institutional and professional discourses, and the relationship between class and discourse practices will be explored.

Date

Friday 3 May 2024

Time

4 to 5 pm

Location

Parramatta South Campus, EB.3.36

Speaker

Dr Alex Luke
University of Sydney