The Use of Strategic Metaphors in Intercultural Business Communication

This paper contends that the use of strategic metaphors can help deliver the effective intercultural business communication necessary for global success. Using the Renault-Nissan Alliance as an example, the authors argue that an appropriate metaphor can help provide the global glue which captures the essence of the organisation’s activities, encapsulates its strategic intent, incorporates the national and global cultures, and portrays its ethical and business stance. Indeed, as is the case in the Renault-Nissan Alliance, the appropriate use of metaphor allowed the firm to bind a diverse group of stakeholders to a common goal by using the inherent ambiguity and multiplicity of meaning of the metaphor to overcome Asian and Western intercultural differences and at the same time maximise goal congruence.intercultural business communication, strategic metaphors, alliance relationships

Framing chronic illness : fatigue syndromes, metaphor and meaning

Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) are primarily women’s syndromes. Both syndromes are highly contested within the biomedical and scientific communities and within the general population. Because there is no apparent cause for the syndromes and no available treatment, women living with FMS and/or CFIDS must live with difficult and disabling symptoms. This research also analyzes the metaphors used in the scientific and biomedical literature to describe the same symptoms as listed above. A comparison is drawn between this analysis and that focused on the women’s use of metaphors. It is found that although many of the metaphors are the same, they differ in discursive employment. Environmental metaphors, along with metaphors of fracture, harm and productivity are used by the research participants with a very different intent than how the same metaphors are used in the biomedical literature. The women used the metaphors to reveal the ways in which their symptoms are influenced by the social and cultural forces in their everyday lives. The biomedical and scientific use of metaphors reinforced the highly contested view that the symptoms are influenced more by individual psychological and emotional deficiencies than by broader structural forces

Metaphor: A Counselor\u27s Tool for Change

Counseling and metaphors encompass the process of change and action through language and dialogue. According to Gareth Morgan (2002), “Images and metaphors are not only interpretive constructs or ways of seeing, they also provide frameworks for action. Their use creates insights that often allow us to act in ways that we may not have thought possible before” (p. 1). Metaphors, from the counseling perspective, can serve as a vehicle for implementing change. Whether directly or indirectly, clients seek the help of therapeutic professionals with the intent of initiating some form of growth or change. Although the process of transformation is easy to acknowledge and identify, it often times is difficult for one to accept, initiate, or implement. It is imperative for therapeutic professionals to bridge the gap between the actual individual and the internalized self that lies dormant

An inferential articulation of metaphorical assertions

This paper argues for the view that metaphors are assertions by locating metaphor within our social discursive practices of asserting and inferring. The literal and the metaphorical differ not in the stating of facts nor in the representation of states of affairs but in the kind of inferential involvements they have and the normative score-keeping practices within which the inferential connections are articulated. This inferentialist based account of metaphor is supplemented by insights from accommodation theory. The account is significant for our understanding of both metaphor‟s figurativeness and cognitive content

The Theology of Paul\u27s Cultic Metaphors: A History of Research (Chapter One of Worship that Makes Sense to Paul)

In this precis of the most significant contributions on the topic of Paul\u27s cultic metaphors, our scope will be limited (wherever possible) by giving attention to the most influential treatments, but special interest will be directed towards those studies focused on non-atonement metaphors and those that concentrate solely on Paul\u27s letters. Finally, we will try to narrow the field of discussion further by attending specifically to what theological conclusions are made

Demons, ants, giants and dwarves: the construction of Germany’s handling of the Euro-crisis in French political discourse

Since the beginning of the Euro crisis in 2009 a succession of one “last chance” meeting after another has exposed deep rifts over the policies to implement in order to ensure the permanence of the Euro. From austerity measures to curb swelling public deficits put forward by Germany to European growth plans and solidarity mechanisms suggested by France disagreements have been deep and infighting widespread. The agreement of a new European treaty creating a tight fiscal pact, at the European Summit on 7 December 2011, brought these tensions to the fore, leading to a barrage of criticisms in France against Germany imposing its austerity agenda on the whole Eurozone. This article seeks to analyse how Germany has been portrayed in the French political discourse by focusing on the vast array of reactions to this new treaty. It will show a discursive struggle between three discourse types representing Germany as an evil force intent on dominating Europe, a virtuous ant unwittingly dominating Europe and an economic giant but a political dwarf. These discourses will show how Germany is trapped into past representations and how they reveal far more about France’s self-image in relation to its neighbour than about Germany itself

Nietzsche's Critique of Truth

Nietzsche has made many paradoxical remarks about truth, including the claim that truth does not exist. Philosophers have attempted to tease out various theories of truth from his scattered remarks. This piece argues that Nietzsche had no interest in a theory of truth, rather he is interested in the rhetoric of truth; how claims of truth are used to coerce agreement and conformity, to hide expressions of subjective wills behind alleged objective facts. This kind of analysis is predicated on understanding Nietzsche’s various prima facie conflicting pronouncements by finding their intended audience. Nietzsche is not interested in finding eternal truths, rather his pragmatic concern is to move various audiences from their complacent beliefs. What is needed to move one target audience might be the opposite of what is needed at another time to move another targeted audience. Nietzsche is aiming at local interventions rather than global philosophical truths. This suggests a general model for Nietzsche interpretation: To understand a given Nietzsche text, first try to find who his intended audience/ audiences is/are and from what beliefs is he trying to pry them, and in what direction he seeks to move them. The general thought behind this piece is that Nietzsche should be regarded more as a psychologist or Kulturkritker than as a philosopher in the modern sense (one who is interested in questions of ultimate ontology, epistemology, etc.). I also suggest in this piece that careful attention be paid to Nietzsche language, in particular his use of the metaphoric of degeneration. To this end I analyze his use of martial and forensic metaphors. Footnote 14 touches on the highly important and vexing question of his responsibility for his subsequent use arguing that Nietzsche's culpability lays not so much in his particular claims but in his very language.Article (Reprinted in "Oxford Readings in Philosophy: Nietzsche", edited by B. Leiter and J. Richardson, Oxford University Press, 200