498655

2013
DCM7410.1177/1750481313498655Discourse & CommunicationKoskela

Article

Discourse & Communication

Same, same, but different: 7(4) 389­–407

© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permissions:
Intertextual and interdiscursive sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1750481313498655
features of communication dcm.sagepub.com

strategy texts

Merja Koskela
University of Vaasa, Finland

Abstract
This article examines the types of textual and discursive relations that can be found within a
genre system and across the borders of such a system. Based on the results, the need for and
possibility of drawing genre boundaries between texts with different genre labels is discussed.
The study is based on four communication strategy texts from two Finnish insurance companies.
Communication strategy texts, such as communication strategies, policies and plans, are used in
organizations to regulate the corporate communication function. The analysis is based on genre
theory and the model of intertextual analysis presented by Charles Bazerman. The results indicate
that the intertextual profile of the texts studied is relatively uniform, whereas the interdiscursive
profile tends to vary according to the company and the intended audience. The texts studied
form overlapping combinations of genres with multiple communicative purposes, which reflects
the somewhat labile character of strategy texts in general.

Keywords
Bazerman, communication policy, communication strategy, communication strategy texts,
corporate communication, disclosure policy, discourse analysis, genre, genre analysis, genre
system, interdiscursivity, intertextuality

Introduction
Intertextuality and interdiscursivity are often mentioned as important concepts for study-
ing professional genres. Intertextuality can be defined as a text-level phenomenon
describing how a text refers to other, prior texts, whereas interdiscursivity is understood

Corresponding author:
Merja Koskela, Communication Studies, University of Vaasa, PO Box 700, 65101 Vaasa, Finland.
Email: merja.koskela@uva.fi
390 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

as a more abstract kind of borrowing of features of discourses or genres in text or talk

(Bhatia, 2010: 35). These two concepts may be said to represent two perspectives for
studying professional genres: the point of view of the text as a representative of a genre,
and the point of view of professional practices and cultures.
This article illustrates how these two perspectives can be applied to the analysis of
connections between texts belonging to the same network of texts, a genre system. The
genre system studied consists of communication strategy texts. In this article, the term
communication strategy texts is adopted as a cover term for the documents that are used
in organizations to regulate the communication function. Communication strategy texts,
and potential genres, include communication policies, strategies and plans. These texts
can be categorized as strategy texts in the sense of Vaara et al. (2010: 686), but they are
traditionally not considered by their users to be a specific genre of their own. Instead,
these texts are often understood as parts of the network of texts used in the strategic
management of an organization (see e.g. Steyn, 2003). As the networks are sequences of
interrelated communicative actions (Yates and Orlikowski, 2002: 14), the genres form-
ing them must be closely linked so as to reach their communicative goals. In the present
article, instances of intertextuality and interdiscursivity in communication strategy texts
from two Finnish insurance companies are discussed. The aim is to explore which types
of intertextual and interdiscursive connections can be detected between texts belonging
to a genre system and across the borders of such a system, and how these connections are
realized. Ultimately, the existence of and the need for drawing genre boundaries between
different types of communication strategy texts in the increasingly intertextual and inter-
discursive world of corporate communication is discussed. In earlier research in genre
analysis, the focus has been on intertextuality, whereas interdiscursivity has received less
attention (Bhatia, 2010: 33). However, unlike in the current study, these have seldom
been combined with the idea of a genre system.

Genre and genre system

Genre analysis is one of the most well-established frameworks for studying professional
discourse. Within this framework, the concept of genre is typically defined on the basis
of Carolyn Miller’s original definition that characterizes genre as a form of ‘typified
rhetorical action based in recurrent situations’ (Miller, 1994/1984: 31). Another oft-cited
definition has been given by Martin, who sees genres as ‘configurations of meaning that
are recurrently phased together to enact social practices’ (Martin, 2002: 269). Combining
these ideas of typicality and frequency, in this article ‘genre’ is defined in line with
Garzone (2012: 22) as a standardized discursive response to certain situations
Irrespective of how it is defined, a genre must be sufficiently recognizable and stand-
ardized, following conventions that the members of an organization share. One of the
most important characteristics of a genre is that it has a name given and shared by its
users. The communication strategy texts that this article is concerned with have several
names. The most common term used seems to be communication strategy. Other terms
that have been used for related genres in earlier research are corporate communication
policy (Gilsdorf, 1987), strategic communication plan (Steyn, 2000), corporate com-
munication strategy (Steyn, 2003) and communication policy (Grove Ditlevsen and
Koskela 391

Kastberg, 2007). The many terms used may signal that a similar communicative func-
tion can be carried out in different ways in different organizations, which might lead to
separate genres or substantial variation in one genre. Alternatively, the different names
could imply that the genre is evolving and not yet established, or that it is not suffi-
ciently connected with a specific discernible professional activity.
Genre names that resemble each other, such as those listed, normally imply that the
texts share other features as well and that they may be seen as parts of a more or less
established network of texts. Such networks are formed in professional contexts when
certain recurrent communicative functions must be regularly carried out. In her seminal
oft-quoted study of how tax accountants use genres in their work, Amy Devitt (1991)
uses the term genre set to describe networks of texts that serve serial and established
communicative functions. In a similar vein, Bazerman (1994: 97–98) uses the term genre
system to describe genres that are dependent on and interact with each other in certain
situations. Bhatia (2004: 55) discriminates between the scope of Devitt’s (1991) genre
set and Bazerman’s (1994: 97–98) genre system. According to him, a genre set is indi-
vidual whereas a genre system is based on an activity. He characterizes a genre set as ‘a
class of typical professional genres that a particular professional engages in as part of his
or her routine professional activity’ and a genre system as ‘a complete set of discursive
forms that are invoked in a professional activity’ (Bhatia, 2004: 55). Both of these terms
represent tools of analysis applied in order to understand how texts work together. In this
article the term genre system is used because the analysis focuses on social action and not
on individuals. However, the study does not cover the genre system in its totality, but
concentrates on relationships between potential genres that function as parts of a
system.

Intertextuality and interdiscursivity

Deriving from the original ideas of Kristeva (e.g. 1967) and Bakhtin (e.g. 1981), the
concept of intertextuality has been popular in the study of literature as well as in the
study of language and discourse. For example, Fairclough (1992, 2003) locates intertex-
tual and interdiscursive analysis at the level of discursive practice. According to his
model, intertextuality is the term used for describing how a text carries references to
other texts, whereas interdiscursivity stands for the features and resources shared with
other genres, discourses, practices and cultures (Fairclough, 2003: 218; see also Bhatia,
2010: 35; Devitt, 1991). According to Fairclough (2003: 37, 218), the analysis of inter-
discursivity combines the linguistic analysis of a text with the analysis of social events
and practices.
In his multidimensional and multi-perspective model for the analysis of professional
communication, Bhatia (2004, 2010) understands intertextuality as the borrowing, mix-
ing and embedding of resources across texts. In comparison, he sees interdiscursivity as
the function of the appropriation of generic resources across the contextual and text-
external boundaries of professional genres, professional practices and professional
cultures (Bhatia, 2010: 35–36).
In addition, what further distinguishes intertextuality from interdiscursivity is that the
former tends to be conventionalized and standardized, whereas the latter is often
392 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

characterized by more innovative mixing, embedding and bending of generic norms (Bhatia,
2010: 35). Therefore, it seems natural to assume that texts belonging to the same genre tend
to share similar types of intertextuality patterns. However, when it comes to interdiscursivity
the situation is more complicated, because interdiscursive appropriations can be exploited
by expert members of discourse communities ‘to achieve private intentions within the
framework of socially recognized purposes’ (Bhatia, 2010: 36). Nevertheless, when it comes
to professional texts, the question arises why the features of interdiscursivity would be less
conventionalized and standardized than features of intertextuality. This question is espe-
cially relevant for texts that are not written by one author, but are typically planned and
produced by teams, as are communication strategy texts (see Cornelissen, 2011: 81). In such
texts, the idea of ‘private purposes’ comes into an interesting light and might need to be
raised to the level of professional disciplines, such as marketing or accounting, or to the
organizational level emphasizing, for example, corporate values, image or branding.

Communication strategy and its genre system

In studies of strategic management, there is a common understanding that strategy con-
sists of the pre-defined principles that guide action within an organization and offer in
each case the logic for choosing appropriate means to an end (Johnson and Scholes,
1993: 10). However, the concept is complicated, to the degree that some researchers are
unwilling to resign themselves to only one definition: ‘. . . strategy (not to mention ten
different schools about it) requires a number of definitions’ (Mintzberg et al., 2009: 9).
In addition, the term strategy seems to be used in at least two ways. On the one hand it
is an abstraction, a leading principle that can, but need not necessarily, be written down
in a strategic plan. If it is not written down, researchers speak about an emergent strat-
egy (Mintzberg et al., 2009: 12–13). On the other hand, the term strategy alone may
sometimes stand for a concrete strategic plan.
In spite of the various forms it takes and the definitions that have been given, earlier
research claims that strategic plans form a genre of their own. Based on a study of a large
corpus of strategic plans from public and third sector organizations, Cornut et al. (2012:
47) conclude: ‘The genre clearly exists and has very definite institutional characteristics
that establish it as a distinctive form of communication.’ Referring to the definitions of
the concept of genre presented above, strategic plans seem to perform the rhetorical and
social action of codifying the long-term goals of an organization and prioritizing the
ways of reaching them. They form a central intertext of many other texts within an
organization and are relevant for their interpretation. In addition, the strategic plan is in
active use when it is being renewed, planned and introduced to the members of the
organization. In the routines of organizational life, the strategic plan performs its social
action mainly by just ‘being present’ in the minds of the members of organizations.
By way of comparison, Steyn (2003: 179) characterizes communication strategy as
follows: it ‘provides focus and direction for an organization’s communication, building
relationships with strategic stakeholders’. For Steyn (2000: 11), corporate communica-
tion strategy is a functional strategy, which means that it is located below corporate
level but above operational level strategies. Steyn (2003: 180) also claims that commu-
nication strategy must be emergent rather than deliberate because its goals are based on
a continuous analysis of stakeholders’ needs and key strategic issues. Consequently, a
Koskela 393

communication strategy can be seen as the standardized discursive response when an

organization is deciding what to communicate to whom. As such, it tends to include the
configurations of meaning needed as guidance when people within the organization are
making such decisions.
From these characterizations it can be inferred that communication strategy is in
many ways related to and dependent on other strategic and less strategic documents
within the organization. It is highly intertextual by nature (Grove Ditlevsen and Kastberg,
2007: 16, 33). For example, it is subordinated to organization-level strategy, the mission,
vision and values of the organization, and superordinate to various operative plans.
Together these form the genre system of strategic management.
On the basis of the definitions and characterizations outlined here, there is reason to
believe that different communication strategy texts have tight intertextual and interdis-
cursive relationships both to other texts and to each other. This is natural because com-
municative action in practice often requires the use of multiple genres, with the
consequence that genres interact with each other in different ways (Orlikowski and
Yates, 1994: 544–545). According to Titscher et al. (2000: 150–151), genres and dis-
courses are dynamic in that they are combined, blended and modified according to the
requirements of the social context. The dynamics can lead to linguistic, stylistic and
semantic heterogeneity within a genre. In a similar vein, Caballero (2008: 18) states that
genres are heterogeneous by default because they are the product of a diversity of voices
that meet generic conventions in a textual locus. Therefore, inherent intertextuality may
be one of the underlying factors behind the dynamism and heterogeneity of genres.
For example, Grove Ditlevsen and Kastberg (2007: 27–31) found that the communi-
cation strategy texts they studied, consisting of the communication policies of Danish
municipalities publicly available on the Internet, were highly heterogeneous both in form
and content. As a reason for the apparent lack of generic conventions they gave the nov-
elty of the genre in public organizations, which is why the genre is not yet established.
This might well be the case. However, another plausible explanation is the inherent inter-
textuality of communication policies that represent different organizations and thus par-
ticipate in different networks of texts (Caballero, 2008: 18). For communication strategy
texts, this would mean that each organizational context might have its own specific net-
work of genres that surrounds the communication strategy text and is reflected in the
texts in different ways, causing heterogeneity between potential representatives of the
same genre. Another explanation for the heterogeneity would be that there is not just one
genre, but several related genres that perform similar but not entirely the same commu-
nicative function in different organizations. For example, as Cornut et al. (2012: 47)
point out, it is possible that there might be a difference between publicly presented strat-
egy documents and internal strategy documents. In particular, the increasing use of
PowerPoint presentation as mode of communication for strategic plans within organiza-
tions seems to be leading the genre in a new direction.

Material and research questions

In the present article, intertextuality and interdiscursivity in professional texts as parts of
a genre system are discussed in the light of four texts. The number of texts is limited to
four in order to allow for an interpretative and descriptive approach common in
394 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

interdiscursive analyses. Consequently, the analysis does not strive to reach quantitative
conclusions. Instead, the point is to describe typical connections between texts belonging
to a genre system, and on the basis of the results, discuss the possibility and the need for
drawing genre boundaries.
The four example texts have been chosen with heterogeneity in mind and with the aim
of covering a wide range of communication strategy texts. Consequently, the material
encompasses texts that represent the category of communication strategy texts but carry
different names. Based on these criteria, the material comprises an information policy, a
communication policy, a disclosure policy and a communication strategy written in
Finnish. The texts represent two insurance companies with banking activities functioning
in Finland, and the texts studied include both company-internal (Company 1: information
policy, communication strategy) and company-external (Company 2: communication
policy, disclosure policy) documents available freely on the Internet. Two texts from each
company are included because users of genres normally have a motivation for differing
between genres, for example by using different genre labels. Because company-internal
material is used, the names of both companies have been replaced by the label Company
in the analysis. From a genre system point of view, two companies within the same busi-
ness sector are represented in the material in order to avoid limiting the discussion to what
Bazerman (2004: 90) calls intra-corporate intertextuality, that is, the internal practices of
only one company. Instead, the material that represents one business sector exemplifies a
limited set of intrasystem intertextuality in which typically ‘corporate documents attend
to larger corporate policies, government law and regulations, documents of other compa-
nies’ (Bazerman, 2004: 90).
The research questions are:

• RQ1: What kind of intertextual references do the texts include?

• RQ2: What kinds of interdiscursive mixtures of different genre conventions can be
detected in each text, which genres and discourses are involved, and how are these
similar or different for the texts studied?
• RQ3: To which extent is it possible to draw conclusions about genre boundaries
on the basis of these analyses?

The operationalization of the concepts of intertextuality and interdiscursivity is based

on Bazerman’s (2004: 91–92) model of intertextual analysis. He divides the analysis
into the following four phases, which in this article are applied to both intertextual and
interdiscursive analyses:

• identifying the research material;

• identifying the concrete objects of study (explicit traces of other texts and/or
implicit clues of ‘background intertextuality’; here interdiscursivity);
• making observations and interpretations and looking for patterns;
• developing conclusions.

Bazerman (2004: 88–89) also lists what he calls techniques of intertextual representa-
tion, which form the concrete objects of study referred to in phase 2 above (see also
Griffig, 2006: 93). The techniques have been listed in Table 1.
Koskela 395

Table 1. Techniques of intertextual representation by Bazerman (2004: 88–89).

Techniques of intertextual representation

Direct quotation
Indirect quotation
Mentioning a person, document, or statement
Comment or evaluation of a statement, text or voice
Recognizable phrasing, terminology or ‘voice’ of a group of people or document
Echoing certain ways of communicating, discussions or types of document

In this article, intertextuality and interdiscursivity will be discussed under their own
sections. The first four techniques on Bazerman’s list will be discussed in connection with
intertextuality, whereas the last two will be treated as instances of interdiscursivity. The
reason for this is that intertextual analysis will here be limited to types of explicit intertex-
tual representations and types of sources, that is, the genres used. The last two items in
Table 1 represent more implicit clues and thus belong to interdiscursive analysis.
Because the analysis is based on the idea that the texts studied form part of a genre
system, genre is a central concept in both parts of the analysis. For the interdiscursive
analysis this means that all instances where an oral or written text, document, statement
or genre was mentioned were systematically gathered in a table. Because the material
concerns regulating the communication function of an organization, the instances listed
include both concrete, actual, texts that exist in the real world as well as classes of texts
or genres that might be used in certain situations for certain purposes. The next step was
to reorganize and categorize the lists according to the type of discourse they represented
(see Appendix Table 1). The categorization was based on earlier studies of typical busi-
ness discourses (see e.g. Bhatia, 2004). Because certain discourses tend to be connected
with specific social actors, the analysis was supported by identifying the central actors
presented in the documents, thus indicating the presence of the discourse in question or
a potential mixture of discourses (see Fairclough, 2003: 145–146).
The limitation of this type of genre-based operationalization of interdiscursivity is
that it can only account for texts that are explicitly mentioned. However, the assumption
that lexical mentions of genres invoke certain discourses in certain contexts is relatively
safe to make for professional texts, because their institutional nature tends to constrain
the number of influences that can normally be expected to be involved in the context. An
additional limitation of this type of analysis is that some important genres surrounding
the documents studied can be taken for granted and not mentioned at all. Nevertheless,
interdiscursive analysis is always subjective by nature, and the analysts can only make
sense of texts in relation to what other texts and discourses they are able to draw on when
interpreting them (see Fairclough, 1995: 61). Therefore, relying on explicit linguistic
mentions of (potential) genres, texts, documents or statements, and categorizing them
according to the discourses they typically represent, can reduce the subjectivity of the
analysis. In this way, a conceptualization of the textual world and genre system surround-
ing the four texts in the material can be created. However, not all interdiscursive influ-
ences can be traced, but the analysis can reveal interesting regularities in how discourses
and genres interact with professional practices and cultures.
396 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

Table 2. Features of the texts studied (C = company).

Information policy Communication Disclosure policy Communication

(IP, internal C1) policy (CP, (DP, external C2) strategy (CS,
external C2) internal C1)
Length 2 pages 1 page 4 pages 34 pages
Form Written text Written text Written text PowerPoint
Privacy Company-internal On the web On the web Company-internal
Main Goals, Media Goals, principles, Strategic positioning,
content responsibilities, relations, types of messages, image and vision,
planning, investor channels, internal tactical choices,
implementation communication, communication, summary, concern-
internal responsibilities level organization,
communication follow-up,
measurement

Findings and analysis

Communication strategy texts are used in order to regulate the communication function
of an organization. Depending on the organization, this function can be carried out in
different ways and by means of different documents. Some general features of the four
texts studied are presented in Table 2.
The length of the texts studied varied. Three of the texts were linear texts one to four
pages long, whereas the fourth text was a PowerPoint presentation (34 pages) in which
the space for text on each page was limited. The texts had some shared content, indicat-
ing membership in the same genre system. For example, all texts discussed who was
responsible for organizing the communication, what would be communicated to whom
and which communication channels would be used. Next, the results of the intertextual
and interdiscursive analyses will be discussed.

Intertextual analysis
Genres tend to have their own intertextual patterns that reflect the type of social action
that the genre participates in. For example, Scollon (2004: 171, 173) has demonstrated
that intertextuality, or what he calls discourse representation, varies across genres.
According to him, journalistic writing is basically built on direct and indirect quotation,
whereas academic writing shows a more variable pattern including, among other types,
presupposition and assertion, and advertising typically refers to fictional speakers.
Comparably, Koskela (2008: 118) found three typical forms of explicit intertextuality in
administrative texts (a chain of texts concerning tax laws). The forms of intertextuality
found were a) mentioning another text without explicating the content of that text, b)
citing another text and giving the reference and c) referring to a law, a statute, a directive
or another administrative text.
In the communication strategy texts studied, the patterns of intertextuality were
more characteristic of administrative texts than journalistic or academic ones, or of
advertising. Of the techniques of intertextual representation presented by Bazerman
Koskela 397

Table 3. Examples of intertextual representation in the material.

Techniques of intertextual Examples

representation (Bazerman,
2004: 88–89)
Direct quotation
Indirect quotation with
attribution
Mentioning a person,
document, or statement
Comment or evaluation of a
statement, text or voice
Not used
(1) The position of the Company in the media is very
good (sources Cision, Aalund, questionnaires to business
journalists). (CS)
(2) The Company publishes its news releases and
financial report as well as annual report on its website
in Finnish, Swedish and English according to the
requirements of the Securities Markets Act and Helsinki
Stock Exchange. (CP)
(3) The aim of the internal and external communication
is to support the strategic and business goals of the
Company, build and strengthen a strong company image
and promote co-operation within the Company. (CP)
Not used.

(2004), direct quotation attributed to a source was not used in the material at all.
Additionally, an aspect characteristic of administrative texts was that no indirect quo-
tation was attributed to named people, but only to genres, documents and institutions
(see examples in Table 3). For considerations of space only the English translations of
the Finnish originals are presented in the analysis.
Lexical mentions of other texts without any explication of the content seemed to be a
pattern that communication strategy texts shared with administrative texts (see Koskela,
2008: 118). References to company strategy, values, vision, mission, reputation, profile,
culture and business goals reinforce the place of the communication strategy texts in the
hierarchical structure of the strategic management function of the organization and reveal
the importance of the genre system for the social action the documents are participating
in. Because these texts are constitutive of the company-internal context, it can be presup-
posed that the reader is familiar with the content and that there is no need to explicate it to
the reader. However, there seems to be a tendency for indirect quotation of company
external sources to be attributed explicitly to the source (see examples 1 and 2 in Table 2).
Of the four texts studied, the information policy, communication policy and commu-
nication strategy seemed to share an intertextual pattern where there was no direct quota-
tion, only some indirect quotation with attribution and many mentions of company-internal
documents without explicating the contents. The one text standing out from the others
with its intertextual pattern was the disclosure policy with fewer company-internal refer-
ences and more indirect quotation of company external sources. The main sources were
the Securities Markets Act (SMA), the regulations of the Financial Supervisory Authority
(FSA) and their recommendatory guidelines. These documents seemed to form a genre
system of their own: the genre system of stock market regulation. The sources were listed
at the beginning of the disclosure policy but not repeated in the text, indicating that the
398 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

readers should be familiar with their contents. Example 4 shows how the document
attributes its contents to the central sources. Example 5 is an indirect quotation of the
Finnish Securities Markets Act without explicit attribution to the source.

(4) In its disclosure policy, the Company follows Finnish legislation, rules of the NASDAQ
OMX Helsinki and, when applicable, other stock exchanges as well as regulations of the
Financial Supervisory Authority. (Disclosure policy (DP))
(5) The interim report contains both an explanatory statement section as well as a table section.
(DP)
Cf: The interim report shall contain an explanatory statement and a table section. (Securities
Markets Act 5 a §)

Judged by the intertextual patterns, the communication strategy texts shared many fea-
tures with each other, and many of these features were reminiscent of the intertextual
patterning of administrative texts. In other words, the ‘how’ (techniques) was shared,
whereas the ‘what’ (types of source) was necessarily not. The intertextual references also
highlighted the role of the texts as parts of the genre system of strategic management of
the company, or in the case of the disclosure policy document, seemingly as parts of
several genre systems simultaneously.

Interdiscursive analysis
The most dominant discourses the genres mentioned in the material reflected were
Strategic Management Discourse, Corporate Communications Discourse, Legal
Discourse and Stock Market Discourse. In addition, traces of Accounting Discourse as
well as Marketing Discourse could be detected (Appendix Table 1).
The discourse of strategic management has become dominant in the business world
over the past few decades (Greckhamer, 2010). In the material, strategic management
discourse was mingled with corporate communication discourse; or in Greckhamer’s
terms, corporate communication was being written into the umbrella of strategic man-
agement. For example, the texts studied revealed that long-term strategic goals for the
communication function were defined and its performance was analyzed in different
ways. As stated previously, communication strategy texts belong to a hierarchy of texts
within the realm of strategic management. Therefore, it is natural that the most important
interdiscursive resource shared by the texts studied was the discourse of strategic man-
agement. This discourse was easily recognizable by references to entities such as corpo-
rate strategy, mission, vision, image and profile. In this discourse, the management as
well as stakeholders and employees were mentioned, but the most actively functioning
subject was the Company. The Company was described as a rational entity that has
objectively set goals and knowledge of how these goals can be reached. As ways of
reaching these goals, different types of plans and policies were presented, resources and
performance were mentioned, together with ways of measuring the results. This ideo-
logical, even hegemonic background has made the documents possible: developing poli-
cies is a basic function of strategic management. The combination of strategic
management discourse with corporate communications discourse also reflects the
Koskela 399

current trend in corporate communication, which is increasingly trying to ‘harness the

strategic interests of the organization at large’ (Cornelissen, 2011: 5).
The four texts studied differed from each other somewhat when it came to how strong
the presence of each type of discourse was. The information policy and communication
policy shared the strongest presence of strategic management discourse. For example,
company strategy, profile and image were mentioned as starting points for all communi-
cation of the companies. Also, within the corporate communication discourse the two
documents listed basically the same genres (e.g. press releases, annual reports), commu-
nication channels (such as Internet, email, telephone) and oral forums (discussions with
journalists, press conferences, investor meetings). However, there were differences
between these documents as well. In the information policy, corporate communications
discourse was more heavily mixed with strategic management discourse: for example, a
hierarchy of strategic plans for communication in the form of short-term and long-term
plans was distinguished and goals were highlighted, whereas in the communication pol-
icy, traces of legal discourse were evident. This feature was even more highly emphasized
in the disclosure policy, which showed the strongest ties between corporate communica-
tion discourse and legal discourse. Finally, the communication strategy document shared
many features with information policy and communication policy, but showed a some-
what stronger influence of marketing discourse since, for example, customer strategy,
customer promise and customer forums were referred to. The presence of customer orien-
tation in this document tallies with the results of Skålén et al. (2006: 275–291), who claim
that in today’s marketing discourse, customer orientation has become a dominant rational-
ity and all members of the organization are reframed as part-time marketers.
All in all, the results of the interdiscursive analysis again indicated that the disclosure
policy document stood out as different from the three other documents and therefore
seemed to have a clearer status as a separate genre. In the interdiscursive profile of the
disclosure policy, corporate communication discourse was combined not only with stra-
tegic management discourse, but also with legal discourse and stock market discourse,
which brought about certain aspects of accounting discourse. The presence of these dis-
courses was clearly indicated by the fact that the Financial Supervisory Authority, stock
markets, investors and analytics were represented as central actors in this context.
The type of mixture of discourses that was present in the corporate disclosure policy
document studied can be illustrated with the aid of Bazerman’s (2004: 88–89) category
of ‘Recognizable phrasing, terminology or ‘‘voice’’ of a group of people or document’.
In example 6, the aim of the disclosure policy is expressed:

(6) . . . the purpose of the disclosure policy is to ensure that everybody functioning on the
market has simultaneous access to adequate and correct information of the company and the
group for an informed assessment of the price formation of the Company stock, and to make
sure that the information is published without delay and fairly. (DP)

Example 6 shows how the disclosure policy resorts to the ‘voice’ of the FSA without
explicit attribution. However, the ‘voice’ of the FSA in turn reveals interdiscursive fea-
tures in relation to the SMA. The similarities in the voice become evident when the
description above is compared with the following text published on the website of the
Authority (2013):
400 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

The Securities Markets Act (SMA) obliges issuers of securities [. . .] to publish all its decisions
and all information on the issuer [. . .]. The information must be disclosed without undue delay.
The purpose of the disclosure obligation is to ensure the possibility of equal, equitable and
simultaneous access to information by the investors. The information must therefore be reliable,
comprehensive, timely and comparable. The objective is that the investors have access to
adequate information for an informed assessment of the issuers and their securities. (FSA,
2013)

Recognizable phrasings revealing interdiscursive influence have been marked with ital-
ics in the passage above. These phrasings attest to the presence of legal language in the
disclosure policy document. Simultaneously, the tight interdiscursive relations between
texts forming the genre system of stock market regulation are revealed.
From the point of view of genre systems, the interdiscursive features in the example
raise the question to what degree one genre participates in several inter-related genre
systems. For example, the disclosure policy document studied seemed to be a part of the
comprehensive genre system of stock market regulation. This genre system is hierarchi-
cal, with laws, regulations and recommendations at the top. These are again followed by
many sub-genres used by authorities, as well as by sub-genres used by listed companies,
disclosure policy being one of them. Because the disclosure policy document in the
material had been published on the company website, its function was not only to guide
the communication officers and other personnel involved in correct disclosure practices,
but also to convince outsiders, notably investors and supervisory authorities, of the fact
that the company was committed to following the law and prevailing practices of
the field. Nevertheless, the document also forms a part of the genre system regulating the
communication function within the company itself, and simultaneously a part of the
genre system of strategic management. Even though it is here studied as a part of
the genre system of communication strategy texts, the document has both external and
internal relevance and fulfils various communicative purposes. These multiple purposes
make it possible for the document to function as a part of several genre systems at the
same time.
Based on the views of over 2000 European communication professionals reported
in The European Communication Monitor 2012 (Zerfass et al., 2012), it can be stated
that the overlapping combinations of genres reflect the complex and constantly chang-
ing environment of corporate communication. For example, it seems that the idea of
integrated communication represented by, for example, communication strategies is
increasingly challenged by the complexity of today’s organizational reality. Because
organizations need to interact with a wide variety of stakeholders through several
channels in many directions, a preference for a unified organizational voice has been
replaced by a wide acceptance of polyphony (Zerfass et al., 2012). What is more,
communication professionals have been assigned new duties, among others reflective
communication management, which stands for the alignment of an organization’s
mission and the expectations of stakeholders. Nevertheless, the professionals note
that explaining the communication function to top management and proving the value
of communication for organizations is still a key challenge in their work in 2012
(Zerfass et al., 2012).
Koskela 401

Among the techniques of intertextual representation presented by Bazerman (2004),

the most implicit technique is called ‘Echoing certain ways of communicating, discus-
sions or types of documents’. In the material studied, there is one obvious example of
this category: the communication strategy document that takes the form of a PowerPoint
presentation. As pointed out by Cornut et al. (2012: 47), it is becoming very common
within organizations to have PowerPoint as the mode of communication for strategic
plans. Eventually, this modification of strategy documents from linear texts to PowerPoint
presentations may lead to a shift in genre norms. In the communication strategy docu-
ment studied, the presentation form attests to interdiscursive influence from an oral busi-
ness presentation. According to Yates and Orlikowski (2007), PowerPoint presentation
as a socially recognized type of communicative action is a genre of its own. Originally
the genre was used for sharing complex information in face-to-face meetings, but new
uses (in the form of web-pages, printed versions and pdfs) have emerged, leading to what
Yates and Orlikowski (2007) call corollary genres. In Yates and Orlikowski’s (2007)
terms, the communication strategy document in the material is typically a ‘stand-
alone derivable’ of an oral presentation and, as such, an example of an interdiscursive
mixture of genre conventions. Taking into consideration that especially evolving strate-
gies are not always written down, this format, which is easier to create than a detailed and
more nuanced linear text, understandably fulfils a need. However, according to Yates and
Orlikowski (2007), the dual function of visual aid and written report can be problematic
because a visual aid supporting an oral presentation tends to lack contextual details that
audiences that have not been present at the presentation would need in order to under-
stand the content. Still, the form reflects the ways of using the document which differ
from one organization to another.
Analytically, treating both the communication strategy document and PowerPoint
presentation as genres is problematic. Even though the interdiscursive influence is obvi-
ous, and one genre system can well accommodate both, they seem to represent different
levels of categorization. PowerPoint presentation is no doubt a socially recognized type
of communicative action, but to what degree it is a standardized discursive response to a
recurring situation is another question. A similar, if not comparable, case is that of blogs,
which Miller and Shepherd (2009: 283) originally categorized as a genre but later saw as
‘a technology, a medium, a constellation of affordances – and not a genre’. This again
raises the question of the need for drawing genre boundaries.

One genre or many – drawing borders between potential genres

The four communication strategy texts analysed in this article participate in the regula-
tion of the communication function of their organizations, and such texts are typically
created in co-operation between several people within the organization in question. In
this respect, texts like these differ from many professional genres that form a part of an
individual expert’s ongoing communicative practice and work (Bhatia, 2004). In com-
parison, these texts are not tools for individual experts; rather, they are tools for manage-
ment. However, they still follow certain norms: they are used for a socially recognized
purpose; they have shared content; they have recognized participants who initiate the
402 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

Figure 1. The interdiscursive profiles of the communication strategy texts.

genre and certain participants that form the target audience; they show regularities of
content, structure and linguistic and rhetorical choices; and have both temporal and loca-
tional restrictions (see Yates and Orlikowski, 2007). They also share patterns of intertex-
tuality and interdiscursivity as shown earlier. But where can and should the genre
boundaries be drawn? Figure 1 summarizes the interdiscursive profiles of the four
communication strategy texts.
The interdiscursive profiles of the documents seem to reflect company boundaries
(see Figure 1). This result seems logical in the light of the fact that genre systems regulat-
ing the communicative function tend to consist of different documents in different organ-
izations depending on the context. The texts representing Company 1 (information policy
and communication strategy, to the left in the figure) are based on strategic management
discourse and corporate communication discourse. This profile could be explained by
the company-internal character of the documents. In contrast, the documents from
Company 2 (communication policy and disclosure policy, to the right in the figure) seem
to focus more on stock markets and the legal regulation of the communication of listed
companies. The wider scope of discourses in these two documents could reflect the mul-
tiple communicative functions that these documents, which are freely available on the
web, have. In addition to regulating the communication function inside the company,
these documents have a stock-market related audience outside the company, that is, of
Koskela 403

potential investors and official bodies. Generally, it seems possible that the membership
of several genre systems is reflected in the interdiscursive profile of the genre.
In spite of the fact that the information policy and communication policy studied rep-
resent different companies, and thus their role in their respective company-internal genre
system varies, they still share so many features that the need to draw a genre boundary
between them comes into question. Based on the definition of genre applied in this arti-
cle, they seem to be similar discursive responses in situations where organizations seek
to regulate their communication function. The communication strategy comes very close
to these two documents, but its extensive content and presentation form lead to the idea
that this could be another part of the genre system by which corporate communication is
managed. It would be possible to see the information policy as a summary of the com-
munication strategy. However, the clearest case from the point of view of genre bounda-
ries is the disclosure policy. Even though it seems to have a role in the same genre
system, it has a somewhat different orientation. In the first place, the policy is a response
to the market authorities, investors and analysts, while simultaneously guiding the com-
munication function of the organization, thus sharing certain features with the other texts
studied.

Conclusion
By drawing on a genre-based intertextual and interdiscursive analysis of four communi-
cation strategy texts, this article has sought to illustrate the types of textual and discur-
sive relations that can be found within a genre system and across the borders of the genre
system. Further, the final goal was to discuss the need for and possibility of drawing
genre boundaries between communication strategy texts.
Based on the results of this study, it seems that intertextual and interdiscursive analy-
ses may offer some help for drawing genre boundaries between single texts. The inter-
textual profile of the four communication strategy texts studied is relatively uniform
when it comes to the techniques of intertextual representation. In contrast, some differ-
ences between the texts can be detected in the types of sources quoted. In both respects
the profile is most reminiscent of administrative texts, probably because the texts have a
management function. The interdiscursive analysis differs more clearly between the
texts. There are two interdiscursive profiles, so the texts representing the same company
tend to have similar interdiscursive relationships. However, in addition to intra-corporate
intertextuality and close interdiscursive ties with each other, this similarity may be the
result of the intended audience: the documents of Company 1 are company-internal,
whereas the documents of Company 2 are company-external. In this sense, the pairs of
texts form parts of different types of professional practices.
In spite of the relatively clear definitions of intertextuality and interdiscursivity
applied in this study, it is not always easy to distinguish between these phenomena. For
example, indirect quotations without attribution can be discussed under both categories
according to the analysts’ interpretation. However, the decisive factor is: from the point
of view of the text, these cases belong to intertextuality, while from the point of view of
professional practices they belong to the realm of interdiscursivity. Similarly, what
counts as a genre depends on the goal of the analysis. Genres have many levels and they
404 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

are intertwined with each other, like the communication strategy and PowerPoint
presentation.
The results of the analysis reflect the somewhat labile character of strategy texts in
general: strategy can be understood in many ways, and it can be either written down or
not. In addition, strategy texts have different status in different organizations and it
depends on the organization as to what kind of sequential actions are built around
strategy texts (see also Steyn, 2003). Consequently, the genre systems are different for
different companies as the results of this study indicate.
However, what the communication strategy texts studied have in common is that they
are sub-genres participating in the strategic management of the companies. The need for
drawing genre boundaries between communication strategy texts arises from two
sources: the professionals participating in designing these documents and the people
within organizations who need to follow the guidelines offered by the documents. It
seems that in professional practice the theoretical levels of management – the strategic,
tactical and operational – are not necessarily differentiated from each other, a situation
which can lead to misleading genre labels, at least for people who come from outside the
organization.

Funding
This research has received funding from Alfred Kordelin foundation.

References
Bakhtin M (1981) The Dialogic Imagination. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bazerman C (1994) Systems of genres and the enhancement of social intentions. In: Freedman A
and Medway P (eds) Genre and New Rhetoric. London: Taylor and Francis, pp. 79–101.
Bazerman C (2004) Intertextuality: How texts rely on other texts. In: Bazerman C and Prior P
(eds) What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual
Practices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 83–96.
Bhatia VK (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse. London: Continuum.
Bhatia VK (2010) Interdiscursivity in professional communication. Discourse & Communication
4(1): 32–50.
Caballero R (2008) Theorizing about genre and cybergenre. CORELL: Computer Resources for
Language Learning 2: 14–27.
Cornelissen J (2011) Corporate Communication: A Guide to Theory and Practice, 3rd edn. Los
Angeles, CA: SAGE.
Cornut F, Giroux H and Langley A (2012) The strategic plan as a genre. Discourse &
Communication 6(1): 21–54.
Devitt A (1991) Intertextuality in tax accounting. Generic, referential and functional. In: Bazerman
C and Paradis J (eds) Textual Dynamics of the Professions. Madison: University of Wisconsin
Press, pp. 336–355.
Fairclough N (1992) Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Fairclough N (1995) Media Discourse. London and New York: Arnold.
Fairclough N (2003) Analysing Discourse: Textual Analysis for Social Research. London and New
York: Routledge/Taylor & Francis Group.
Koskela 405

Financial Supervisory Authority (FSA) (2013) Disclosure Obligation. Available at: http://www.
finanssivalvonta.fi/en/Listed_companies/Disclosure_obligation/Pages/Default.aspx (accessed
18 March 2013).
Garzone G (2012) Why do genres change? In: Garzone G, Catenaccio P and Degano C (eds) Genre
Change in the Contemporary World: Short-term Diachronic Perspectives. Bern: Peter Lang,
pp. 21–40.
Gilsdorf JW (1987) Written corporate communication policy: Extent, coverage, costs, benefits.
Journal of Business Communication 24(4): 35–52.
Greckhamer T (2010) The stretch of strategic management discourse: A critical analysis.
Organization Studies 31(7): 841–871.
Griffig T (2006) Intertextualität in linguistischen Fachaufsätzen des Englischen und Deutschen.
Theorie und Vermittlung der Sprache. Bd. 44. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Grove Ditlevsen M and Kastberg P (2007) When corporate communication goes public:
Communication policies in public communication. Hermes – Journal of Language and
Communication Studies 38: 11–40.
Johnson G and Scholes K (1993) Exploring Corporate Strategy, 3rd edn. New York: Prentice Hall.
Koskela M (2008) Valtionhallinnon tekstilajiketjujen intertekstuaalisuuden piirteitä. In: Enell-
Nilsson M and Männikkö T (eds) Erikoiskielet, käännösteoria ja monikielisyys. VAKKI-
symposiumi XXVIII. Vaasa: Vaasan yliopisto, pp. 113–126.
Kristeva J (1967) Bakhtine, le mot, le dialogue et le roman. Critique 23(239): 438–465. Also
published in German: Bachtin, das Wort, der Dialog und der Roman. In: Ihwe J (ed.)
Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik, Bd. 3. Frankfurt am Main: Lang, pp. 345–375.
Martin JR (2002) A universe of meaning. How many practices? In: Johns AM (ed.) Genre in the
Classroom: Multiple Perspectives. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 269–278.
Miller CR (1994/1984) Genre as social action. In: Freedman A and Medway P (eds) Genre and
the New Rhetoric. London: Francis & Taylor, pp. 23–42. (Originally published in Quarterly
Journal of Speech 70: 151–167.)
Miller CR and Shepherd D (2009) Questions for genre theory from the blogosphere. In: Gitrow
J and Stein D (eds) Genres in the Internet: Issues in the Theory of Genre. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, pp. 263–290.
Mintzberg H, Ahlstrand B and Lampel J (2009) Strategy Safari: Your Complete Guide through the
Wilds of Strategic Management, 2nd edn. Harlow: Prentice Hall.
Orlikowski WJ and Yates J (1994) Genre repertoire: The structuring of communicative practices
in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly 39: 541–574.
Scollon R (2004) Intertextuality across communities of practice: Academics, journalism and adver-
tising. In: Moder CL and Martinovic-Zic A (eds) Discourse Across Languages and Cultures.
Amsterdam and Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins, pp. 149–176.
Skålén P, Fellesson M and Fougère M (2006) The governmentality of marketing discourse.
Scandinavian Journal of Management 22(4): 275–291.
Steyn B (2000) Model for developing corporate communication strategy. Communicare 19(2):
1–33.
Steyn B (2003) From strategy to corporate communication strategy: A conceptualization. Journal
of Communication Management 8(2): 168–183.
Titscher S, Meyer M, Wodak R and Vetter E (2000) Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis.
London, Thousand Oaks, CA and New Delhi: SAGE.
Vaara E, Sorsa V and Pälli P (2010) On the force potential of strategy texts: A critical discourse
analysis of a strategic plan and its power effects in a city organization. Organization 17(6):
685–702.
406 Discourse & Communication 7(4)

Yates J and Orlikowski W (2002) Genre systems: Structuring interaction through communicative
norms. Journal of Business Communication 39(1): 13–35.
Yates J and Orlikowski W (2007) The PowerPoint presentation and its corollaries: How genres
shape communicative action in organizations. In: Zachry M and Thralls C (eds) The Cultural
Turn: Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions. Amityville, NY: Baywood
Publishing, pp. 67–92.
Zerfass A, Verčič D, Verhoeven P, et al. (2012) European Communication Monitor 2012.
Challenges and Competencies for Strategic Communication. Results of an Empirical Survey
in 42 Countries. Brussels: EACD/EUPRERA.

Author biography
Merja Koskela is Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Communication Studies at
the University of Vaasa, Finland. Her research interests concern professional communication as
well as multilingual communication. She specializes in genre analysis, discourse analysis and text
linguistics. She has published articles in international journals and conference volumes in English,
Swedish and Finnish.
Koskela 407

Appendix Table 1. Examples of typical genres categorized under given discourses.

Information policy Communication Disclosure policy (C2) Communication

(C1) policy (C2) Strategy (C1)
Management Management Management Management
discourse discourse discourse discourse
Strategy Desired profile Strategy Reputation
Values Strategic decisions Business goals Vision
Vision Company goals Strategy
Reputation Company image Company image
Profile Company srategy
Company goals Accounting Marketing
discourse discourse
Marketing IFRS financial report Customer promises
discourse
Customer promises FAS financial report Customer strategies
Customer forums
Corporate Corporate Corporate Corporate
communication communication communication communication
discourse discourse discourse discourse
Strategy for the Queries from Principles for crisis Reputation analysis
communication analytics communication
function
Communication plans Questions from Principles for company Reader reseach
media internal disclosure
Long-term plans Disclosure Unified disclosure Web panel
policy
Yearly communication Annual report Annual report Communication
plans strategy
Expected results Interim report Financial statement Model of strategic
communication
Publicity analysis Expert statement Interim report Internal news
releases
Press release Corporate Annual report
Governance
Statement
Website Principal Web pages Blogs
statements
Intranet Web pages Capital Market Day
Legal discourse Legal discourse
Securities Markets Finnish legislation
Act Regulations by the
Financial Supervisory
Authority
NASDAQ OMX rules