Exploring change conversations through the rhetoric of French leaders

Purpose This paper aims to capitalize on a linguistic perspective to analyze the rhetoric of French leaders about organizational change. Design/methodology/approach To address the research questions, the authors opted for a lexical content analysis. They use Ford and Ford’s (1995) change conversational framework and the speech act theory to analyze French CEOs’ letters to stakeholders, over the period 2007-2012. Findings The authors find that leaders’ rhetoric consists of three types of change conversations, namely, initiative, for understanding and for performance, that were underpinned by a network of assertive, expressive and commissive speech acts. Practical implications The results reveal that the communication of change to external stakeholders can be characterized as supportive change conversations, offering assurance on the necessity, appropriateness and expected benefits of change. Originality/value This paper is the first work, in the French context, which integrates change conversations and speech act perspectives to examine the way leaders communicate with external stakeholders through CEOs letters. Previous research focused specially on communicating change with internal stakeholders.