Communication and the corporate body: A critical -interpretive case study of a corporate health promotion initiative
Abstract
This dissertation examines corporate health promotion from a critical-interpretive perspective. Based on a two-year case study of the development of the Associate Recreation Center (ARC) at an automobile manufacturing plant, I examine the ways in which corporate wellness programs colonize employees' perceptions of health and the body, and corresponding perceptions of identity and political interests. I analyze the multiple constructions of the meanings of the ARC, including a sign of a benevolent company, a resource for improving health, and a site for resistance to managerial demands. Through an analysis of health promotion at the ARC and its interpretation by employees, the dissertation provides a critique of dominant, lifestyle approaches to health promotion. I argue that lifestyle approaches to health promotion encourage the development of self-disciplining subjects and victim-blaming. Although sometimes personally empowering, these identity processes helped to reduce the ability of employees to act collectively to change the social roots of much illness. I describe how health promotion influenced the development of identity, social relationships and cultural practices on the plant floor. This study provides evidence that health and fitness centers and their discourse create and sustain cultural practices within the workplace that operate to reinforce existing work practices and exclude workers' voices from health and safety issues. This study also highlights the ways in which employees resisted health promotion and managerial discourse by drawing upon alternate health discourses and team ideology. The dissertation questions prevailing assumptions in the fields of management, health promotion, and organizational communication. By uncovering the potential inequities in the development and deployment of corporate health and fitness programs, this study provides insight into the potential for these programs to promote the corporate colonization of employee perceptions of their bodies and their identities.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Mumby, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Communication|Health education
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