Good and Evil in the Chairmen's 'Boiler Plate': An Analysis of Corporate Visions of the 1970s
运用戏剧主义方法，分析1970年代道琼斯工业指数公司年报中董事长致辞的样板文件，揭示企业如何通过语言构建戏剧性愿景，将公司塑造成英雄、政府视为反派，以统一股东、管理层和员工，并影响公众。
Boiler plates, the chairman's message that begins each corporation's annual report, provide a reflection of the self-image of American big business. This paper uses the method of dramatism for discovering and interpreting corporate dramas inherent in the language of the boiler plates of the Dow Jones Industrials. The U.S. economy of the 1970s provides the dramatic setting, with the company as hero, the government as villain and public interest groups as minor players. The overriding corporate drama can be traced to the archetypal drama of pure competition. Understanding corporate dramas allows us to see how companies create a shared rhetorical vision to unify their shareholders with management and employees, label actions as good or evil, and influence the public by putting forward a positive corporate self-image.