Abstract

The corporate world is infused by the spirit of New Capitalism which proposes flatter hierarchies in which workers have greater responsibilities. However, this egalitarianism is often regarded as a form of window dressing which hides subtle forms of managerial hegemony. We discuss how the relation between language and these New Work Order corporations can be studied from the perspective of a naïve realist approach, Critical Discourse Analysis and social constructionist approaches. Finally, we focus on the issue of gatekeeping in relation to the potential “regulation” of the workers’ identities which are required to fit the corporate culture.