an investigation of possible links between job ... · 10/31/2011 · 2 1 title an investigation of...

Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University

Characters: 175872 Written by: Nina Louise Walters

Supervisor: Antoinette Mary Fage-Butler

Master Dissertation

An investigation of possible links between job advertisements and curricula: a diachronic comparative analysis

2013

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1 Title An investigation of possible links between job advertisements and curricula: a diachronic

comparative analysis

2 Abstract Abstract: This dissertation investigates whether there is a link between the tasks and requirements described

in job advertisements and themes found in communication curricula. A diachronic comparative

approach is used to analyse the job advertisements from 1961, 1991 and 2011 and corresponding

curricula from 1986 and 2006. It utilises a combination of critical discourse analysis and thematic

analysis, which creates a research framework of multiple perspectives. A combination of criterion

and maximum variation sampling strategies were used to collect and reduce the pool of job

advertisements to a final data set of nine. These nine job advertisements, three representing each

examined year, were analysed alongside the curricula. The analysis revealed interesting insights in

relation to how job advertisement formats have evolved over this time period, and in relation to the

presence of a clear and definable link between the curricula and job advertisements, evident in each

of the nine job advertisements.

Resumé: Dette speciale undersøger, om der er en sammenhæng mellem de specifikke opgaver og krav, som

er anført i stillingsannoncer, og de temaer som findes i kommunikationsstudieordninger. En

diakronisk komparativ tilgang bliver brugt til at analysere en række stillingsannoncer fra 1961, 1991

og 2011 og tilsvarende studieordninger fra 1986 og 2006. Specialet anvender en kombination af

kritisk diskursanalyse og tematisk analyse, til at gennemføre en multi-perspektivistisk analyse.

Ligeledes blev kriterier og maximum-variation sampling strategier kombineret og anvendt til at

indsamle og reducere puljen af stillingsannoncer til et endeligt datasæt på ni. Disse ni

stillingsannoncer, tre for hvert år, blev analyseret sammen med studieordningerne. Analysen gav en

række interessante resultater i forhold til, hvordan stillingsannoncers format har udviklet sig i denne

periode, samt tilstedeværelsen af et bindeled imellem de ni stillingsannoncer og studieordningerne.

Keywords: diachronic comparative analysis; job advertisements; critical discourse analysis,

thematic analysis; communication curricula

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1 Title .............................................................................................................................................. 2

2 Abstract ....................................................................................................................................... 2

3 Introduction................................................................................................................................. 7

3.1 Background ........................................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Purpose of dissertation .......................................................................................................... 7

3.3 The dissertations aims ........................................................................................................... 7

3.4 Research approach ................................................................................................................. 8

4 Brief overview of curricular history ......................................................................................... 9

4.1 Historical development of the Department of Business Communication, AU ..................... 9

5 Theory ........................................................................................................................................ 11

5.1 Literature review of recruitment communications studies .................................................. 11

5.2 Format of job advertisements and job descriptions ............................................................. 14

5.3 Personnel specifications approaches ................................................................................... 16

5.4 Multiple target audiences and discourses in ads ................................................................. 19

5.5 5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V�ILYH levels of analysis ........................................................................... 21

6 Method (A) Thematic analysis ................................................................................................. 23

6.1 Introduction to thematic analysis ........................................................................................ 24

6.2 Basic thematic analysis terminology ................................................................................... 25

6.3 Braun & Clarks six step guide to thematic analysis ............................................................ 27

7 Method (B) Discourse analysis ................................................................................................ 28

7.1 Critical discourse analysis in general .................................................................................. 28

7.2 Definition of concepts ......................................................................................................... 30

7.2.1 Discourse ...................................................................................................................... 30

7.2.2 Order of discourse ........................................................................................................ 31

7.3 )DLUFORXJK¶V�FULWLFDO�GLVFRXUVH�DQDO\VLV ............................................................................... 32

7.4 The three-dimensional model .............................................................................................. 33

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7.4.1 The Textual Dimension ................................................................................................ 34

7.4.2 The Discursive Dimension ........................................................................................... 35

7.4.3 The Social Dimension .................................................................................................. 37

8 Data description ........................................................................................................................ 37

8.1 Sampling methods ............................................................................................................... 37

8.1.1 Criterion sampling........................................................................................................ 38

8.1.2 Maximum variation sampling ...................................................................................... 40

8.2 Translation of data ............................................................................................................... 42

9 Thematic Analysis ..................................................................................................................... 43

9.1 Thematic analysis of communication curricula................................................................... 43

9.1.1 Analysis of curricula from 1986 .................................................................................. 44

9.1.2 Analysis of the curricula from 2006 ............................................................................ 48

10 Discourse analysis ..................................................................................................................... 54

10.1 Analysis of job advertisements from three periods ............................................................. 54

10.2 Analysis of job advertisements from 1961 .......................................................................... 55

10.2.1 Small job advertisement ............................................................................................... 55

10.2.2 Medium job advertisement........................................................................................... 57

10.2.3 Large job advertisement ............................................................................................... 59









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11 Discussion/Evaluation............................................................................................................... 91

11.1 Similarities and differences within job advertisements across the periods ......................... 91

11.2 Curricula and job advertisements ........................................................................................ 95

12 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 98

13 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 100

13.1 Websites ............................................................................................................................ 102

14 Appendix .................................................................................................................................. 104

14.1 Job advertisements from 1961 ........................................................................................... 104

14.1.1 A1 (Danish) Small ..................................................................................................... 104

14.1.2 A2 (English) small ..................................................................................................... 104

14.1.3 B1 (Danish) medium .................................................................................................. 105

14.1.4 B2 (English) medium ................................................................................................. 105

14.1.5 C1 (Danish) large ....................................................................................................... 106

14.1.6 C2 (English) large ...................................................................................................... 106


14.2.1 D1 (Danish) small ...................................................................................................... 107

14.2.2 D2 (English) small ..................................................................................................... 108

14.2.3 E1 (Danish) medium .................................................................................................. 109

14.2.4 E2 (English) medium ................................................................................................. 110

14.2.5 F1 (Danish) large ....................................................................................................... 111

14.2.6 F2 (English) large....................................................................................................... 112


14.3.1 G1 (Danish) small ...................................................................................................... 114

14.3.2 G2 (English) small ..................................................................................................... 115

14.3.3 H1-2 (English) medium ............................................................................................. 116

14.3.4 I1 (Danish) large ........................................................................................................ 118

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14.3.5 I2 (English) large ....................................................................................................... 121

14.4 Curricula from 1986 .......................................................................................................... 123

14.4.1 Correspondent one language 1986 ............................................................................. 123

14.4.2 Correspondence two languages 1986 ......................................................................... 123

14.5 Curricula from 2006 .......................................................................................................... 123

14.5.1 Corporate communication (English) 2006 ................................................................. 123

14.5.2 Corporate communication (Danish) 2006 .................................................................. 123

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3 Introduction

3.1 Background In this day and age where there are many applicants readily available, it is increasingly important

for organisations to get the targeting of their job advertisements right. The fact that many resources

are used in recruitment only further emphasises the importance for organisations to make the

process as efficient as possible. To do this it is therefore essential that organisations target the

applicants with the right educational qualifications etc.. As a result, knowledge about education and

training trends becomes important:

³(GXFDWLRQ� DQG� WUDLQLQJ� WUHQGV� WHOO� XV� VRPHWKLQJ� DERXW� ZKDW� FRPSHWHQFLHV� SHRSOH� ZLll need to

SHUIRUP� MREV� LQ� WKH� IXWXUH� DQG� KRZ� RUJDQL]DWLRQV� FDQ� EHWWHU� IRFXV� WKHLU� UHFUXLWPHQW� HIIRUWV´

(Stewart & Brown; 2009, 26)

3.2 Purpose of dissertation This dissertation will look at whether there is a possible link between descriptions of tasks and

requirements found in communication job advertisements and communication education

programmes at the universities. Do the constantly developing communication programmes have an

impact on the job descriptions and requirements stated by potential employers in job

advertisements?

Thesis statement: By combining comparative discourse analysis and thematic analysis in a multiperspectival research

framework it is possible to investigate whether there is a link between curricula and job

advertisements, and illustrate what this link might be.

3.3 The dissertations aims The primary aim of this dissertation is to determine whether there is a link between communication

curricula and the contents of job advertisements, and if so ascertain how the link works. In addition

there are two subsidiary aims of this dissertation:

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x The first aim is to map the developments of job advertisementV¶ formats and structures, and

suggest an all-round ideal format for a contemporary job advertisement.

x The second aim is to map the themes occurring in the curricula from 1986 and 2006, and

comment on changes in focus.

3.4 Research approach Two levels of analysis will be performed on the job advertisements. The first level will do a

combined analysis of the sampled job advertisements¶ textual and discursive dimensions. The focus

will primarily be on identification of discourses, generic structure and genre elements rather than

distinguishing linguistic features. The general tendencies, similarities and differences found in this

level of analysis will be compared across the three examined decades.

The second level will focus on the social dimension of the job advertisements. This is where the

themes found in the curricula from 1986 and 2006 will be compared with the contents of the job

advertisements to identify whether any of the themes are present in the individual job

advertisements. From the results of this level of analysis it will be discussed whether there is a link

and how it functions.

Method (A): The primary method which will be used to analyse the curricula is thematic analysis, which will

draw on techniques by Braun & Clarke (2008) and Ryan & Bernard (2003).

Method (B): The primary method which will be used to analyse the job advertisements is )DLUFORXJK¶V� WKUHH-

dimensional model for critical discourse analysis.

Terminology: There are several different expressions used for materials that announce a job vacancy such as job

advertisements, employment advertisements, job postings, job listings et cetera but for the purpose

of this dissertation the term job advertisements will be used consistently throughout.

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4 Brief overview of curricular history This chapter focuses on the curricula from communication educations, which were collected for

examination (see Table 2). It will describe how the communication curricula were collected, and

give a short introduction to how the communication educations in Denmark have evolved over time,

from the beginning of the sixties to the present day. It will focus specifically on the growth and

changes within Aarhus University¶V Department of Business Communication. Then it will present

the different educations offered in this time period, and highlight the available curricula from 1986

and 2006 respectively, which will be analysed later using thematic analysis.

The curricula used in this dissertation were provided by $DUKXV�8QLYHUVLW\¶V�Department of

Business communications. Archived paper examples of the curricula, from as far back as 1976 were

scanned during the summer of 2012 by the student counselling office. All of the scanned curricula

were then made available through the student counselling office and additionally online for the

curricula from 2004 to 2012 (Web 5).

4.1 Historical development of the Department of Business Communication, AU The Department of Business Communication at Aarhus University has only existed in its present

form since 2005, prior to that it has had other names, and consisted of several former institutions,

which have been merged over time. In 1961 the Language Institute was created at Aarhus School of

Business, and later in 1966 it was renamed the Business Language Institutes. Since then many

changes have occurred including several name changes. In 2004 the Faculty of Language and

Business Communication was formed, which only a year later, in 2005, became the Department of

Languages and Business Communication (Web 3). As of 2011 the department is now called the

Department of Business Communication (Web 6).

All these changes within the Department of Business Communication, over the years, will of course

have lead to changes in the educations given by the department. Below, a table is shown that

presents all the different education programmes that were available from 1976-2008. This table was

created on the basis of the actual curricula acquired, to give an overview of the changing education

programmes. Therefore the education programme called Business Language Graduation only

appears in 1983, because that was the only year where there were copies of the relevant curricula

available for this specific education. This does not mean that the education programme did not exist

for more than one year it simply means that the selection of acquired curricula cannot support the

claim that the education programme ran for more than the one year in question.

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Table 1: Education programmes provided by the Department of Business Communication from

1976-2008

Years Education

1976-1982 BB: The Business Language Basic Study

HB: The Higher Business Language Studies

1983 BG: The Business Language Graduation

1983-2000 BD: The Business language Diploma exam

1984-1991 Correspondent (one language)

1984-1990 Correspondent (two languages)

2001-2012 BA: 2 Languages

BA: Language and European studies

BA: Language and Communication

2003-2012 BA: Marketing and Management Communication

1988-2012 MA in Business Communications (Corp.Com)

MA: English, German, Spanish or French

(Profiles: IMC, EU Studies, TT)

The differences between the education programmes, makes it interesting to see whether and if so

how the focus has changed in the curricula over the years. Comments will also be made, in the

analysis chapter, in regards to the differences between the curricula from 1986 and 2006.

Table 2 below displays the specific curricula documents that were available from 1986 and 2006,

which are to be analysed using thematic analysis. These two specific years were selected due to the

considerable amount of available material, and because each year represents very different

education programmes which makes for major changes in foci.

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Table 2: Acquired curricula from 1986 and 2006:

1986 2006

Bachelor Educations

x Correspondent 1 language:

o ´&RUUHVSRQGHQW�RQH�ODQJXDJH´

x Correspondent 2 languages:

o "Correspondent two languages´

Master Educations

x MA:

o "MA Corporate Communication" (Danish and English)

It will be interesting to explore, and see whether these clear changes in educations programmes,

given by the Department of Business Communications, translate into clear changes in the content of

job advertisements, especially within the section, which focuses on the requirements needed to fulfil

the vacant position.

5 Theory

5.1 Literature review of recruitment communications studies In human resource management literature, job advertisements and the elements which go into

constructing them, have not received a lot of attention in general. There are of course some

exceptions which will be described in more detail later in this chapter.

Even though job advertisements have not received a lot of attention within the field of human

resource management, recruitment communication as a part of corporate communication has. There

are several studies of recruitment communications, which focus on many different aspects of job

advertisements such as: the language used in them, the development of job advertisements

aesthetically, the impact and effectiveness of the job advertisement on the readers, their perceived

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truthfulness, informativeness and memorability by readers and how a job advertisement best reflects

the corporate image of a company.

While also commenting briefly on the aesthetics of job advertisements and how they

developed, in his article from 2012, Frandsen used neo-institutional organisational theory and

content analysis to analyse the job advertisements. The aim of his paper was to examine how job

advertisements, within the communication occupation in Denmark, developed from 1960 to 2010,

and how: ´this development mirrors key aspects of the institutionalization of strategic

communication in private and public organizations in Denmark´� �)UDQGVHQ�� LQ�SURJUHVV��

The article identifies some general and specific developmental changes and trends for job

advertisements. The first general trend is that the number of job advertisements in newspapers more

than tripled from 1960 to 2000, the second trend is that the layout of job advertisements changed

dramatically and the third is that job advertisements over time became more information rich. By

examining specific trends and developments Frandsen argues that there has been a shift in focus

from an operational practice to a strategic practice, and that this shift manifests itself in changes of

the expressions and contents of the job advertisements that were examined.

This dissertation is in part LQVSLUHG� E\� )UDQGVHQ¶V� UHVHDUFK� RI� KRZ� WKH� LQVWLWXWLRQDOLsation of

strategic communication can be seen in a shift of language choices in job advertisements over time.

Therefore this dissertation also uses a diachronic approach of examining job advertisements, from

three different decades, in an attempt to identify whether the content in the job advertisement have

been influenced by the teachings at universities at the time under consideration. This will have

particular focus on the requirements and tasks sections of job advertisements.

Another example of a study of job advertisements, which focuses on language choice, is

$VNHKDYH¶V� IURP� �� 6KH�PDGH� D� V\VWHPDWLF� DQDO\VLV� RI� WKH� GLVFRXUVH� LQ� D� WRS� H[HFXWLYH� MRE�

advertisement supported by data from two semi-structured focus group interviews. The article

examines the complicated relationship between recruitment communications and recruitment needs

in a Danish bank. The study looks at how language about leadership traits and characteristics, is

used to compose an image of the perfect candidate for the job, within which applicants should be

able to identify themselves. It also investigates a new gender and career programme, launched by

the bank in an effort to particularly encourage more women to pursue a leadership position in the

bank. The two semi-structured focus group interviews were used to gain insight into the effect the

bank manager job advertisement had on a group of men and a group of women respectively. The

study showed that the bank needed to look at the relationship between, whom they wanted to recruit

13

(recruitment needs), their textual choices in the job advertisement (use of hard-core leadership

coloured language) and the gender of their target audience.

This dissertation will, in a similar way WR�$VNHKDYH¶V� UHVHDUFK� ��, use critical discourse

analysis as its method to analyse the job advertisements. There will also be two levels of analysis

performed on the job advertisements in this dissertation. However where this dissertation will differ

IURP�$VNHKDYH¶V� UHVHDUFK is in the element of which the job advertisements will be analysed up

against, that is communication curricula, in the second level of the analysis. This study involves

analysis of two elements that may mutually influence each other��ZKHUHDV�$VNHKDYH¶V�VHFRQG�OHYHO�

of analysis focused on how the job advertisement she was examining was received and consumed in

the focus group.

$VNHKDYH¶V� UHVHDUFK� ��ZDV� QRW� WKH� RQO\� UHVHDUFK to suggest that organisations need to

FRQVLGHU�WKHLU�WH[WXDO�FKRLFHV�LQ�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV��,Q�´Varying the content of job advertisements:

7KH�HIIHFWV�RI�PHVVDJH�VSHFLILFLW\´ by Feldman et al. (2006), there is an examination of the impact

specific versus general job advertisement content haV� RQ� WKH� UHDGHUV¶� SHUFHSWLRQs of an

advertisHPHQW¶V informativeness, truthfulness and how it effects their attitudes toward the

organisation. Additionally the perceived appropriateness of the job, and the applicants¶ intentions to

complete the job application process are examined. The research uses a three-factor experimental

design in two different studies that examine the impact of providing specific versus general

information on three position facets (that is, the company, the job itself, and the work context). As

Feldman et al. (2006) point out the use of general job advertisement content might appeal to a wider

group of applicants and increase the size of the applicant pool, however general job advertisement

content might also increase the number of unqualified applicants, and cause the job to be seen as

unappealing to potential qualified candidates. So the choice of specific versus general job

advertisement content is very much a double-edged sword, meaning it might have favourable and

unfavourable consequences. The two studies suggest that the more specific the job advertisement

content is, the more of a positive impact it has on potential applicants.

The focus of this dissertation is on whether the curricula from universities have an impact on

the content of job advertisements within the communications occupation, or vice versa and whether

any subsequently identified impact, of the one entity on the other, can be seen to be escalating in

nature over the three years to be examined. This dissertation will also try to map the development of

job advertisement formats over time and finally, try to suggest a format for the structure of job

advertisements which could be usable within human resource management in the near future.

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5.2 Format of job advertisements and job descriptions In their article Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue based on their research and scanning of job

advertisements from different countries, that most advertisements FRQWDLQ�D�VLPLODU�³VNHOHWRQ´�WKDW�

has the following four elements; ³an organisational identity´, ³its human resources needs´,

³information about what is required to fulfil these needs´, and ³information about how to contact

the organisation´. With these four elements Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue that any job

advertisement can be analysed because the elements are the foundation of employment advertising.

Some job advertisements contain less information than the four elements and others contain much

more information, therefore according to Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) the skeleton is not the bare

minimum of what a job advertisement should contain. ³The skeleton accomplishes the formal

function of announcing an employment opportunity´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 345).

The element Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) refer to as ³the organisations human resources needs´ is

within human resource management called the ³job description´ and is the element which describes

the position that is vacant and the tasks potential employees will be required to perform. The job

description is usually based on the results of an extensive job analysis. A typical format for job

description according to Bratton & Gold (2007) contains the following seven elements: ³1) job title,

2) department, 3) responsible to, 4) relationships, 5) purpose of job/overall objectives, 6) specific

duties and responsibilities and 7) physical/economic conditions´ (Bratton & Gold; 2007, 253-254).

What is clear is that within the field of human resources there is not one universally agreed

upon format for job descriptions. This is apparent when looking at several formats for job

GHVFULSWLRQV��0DUFKLQJWRQ��:LONLQVRQ��SURSRVH�D�VLPLODU�IRUPDW�WR�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��

EXW� ZLWK� VRPH� GLIIHUHQWLDWLRQV�� 0DUFKLQJWRQ� � :LONLQVRQ¶V� �� IRUPDW� IRU� MRE� GHVFULSWLRQV�

contains nine elements which are: ³1) Job title, 2) location, 3) responsible to, 4) responsible for, 5)

main purpose of the job, 6) responsibilities/duties, 7) working conditions, 8) other matters and 9)

any other duties´ (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 167).

Marchington & WLONLQVRQ¶V� �� ILUVW� HOHPHQW� FDOOHG ³job title´ is exactly the same as

%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��ILUVW�HOHPHQW�LQ�WKH�MRE�GHVFULSWLRQ��$OO�WKDW�LV�UHTXLUHG�E\�D�MRE�WLWOH�LV�WKDW�

it is a clear and concise statement. The second element called ³location´ is described as

³department, establishment, name of organisation´��0DUFKLQJWRQ��:LONLQVRQ�� so it is

DOVR� WKH� VDPH� DV�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V� �� VHFRQG� HOHPHQW��ZKLFK�ZDV� FDOOHG� ³department´. The

third element in both frameworks is ³responsible to´� which is a segment of the job description that

LQYROYHV�WKH�MRE�WLWOH�RI� WKH�IXWXUH�HPSOR\HH¶V�VXSHUYLVRU�WR�ZKRP�KH�VKH�UHSRUWV��0DUFKLQJWRQ��

15

:LONLQVRQ¶V��IRXUWK�HOHPHQW�LV�FDOOHG�³responsible for´, this element is described as the job

titles of the employees who will report directly to the future employee. Here Marchington &

:LONLQVRQ¶V��DQG�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��WZR�IUDPHZRUNV�DUH�VOLJKWO\�GLIIHUHQW��%UDWWRQ��

Gold (2007) call their fourth element ³relationships´, which implies contact between colleagues.

The fifth and sixth elements which are called ³purpose of job´ and ³duties/responsibilities´ in the

two frameworks are the same and very self-H[SODQDWRU\�� 0DUFKLQJWRQ� � :LONLQVRQ¶V� ��

seventh element is ³working conditions´ which is defined as follows: ³D�OLVW�RI�PDMRU�FRQWUDFWXDO�

agreements relating to the job, such as pay scales and fringe benefits, hours of work and holiday

HQWLWOHPHQW�� DQG� XQLRQ� PHPEHUVKLS� LI� DSSURSULDWH´� (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 167).

Working conditions could also be understood as purely physical conditions such as amenities,

physical environment, stress and noise levels, degree of safety and so on. But in Marchington &

:LONLQVRQ¶s (2007) definition working conditions also involves economic aspects such as pay

scales, benefits et cetera which means that it corresponds nicely to Bratton & GoOG¶V��VHYHQWK�

element called ³physical/economic conditions´. 0DUFKLQJWRQ��:LONLQVRQ¶V��HLJKWK�HOHPHQW�

³other matters´ is defined as extra information, for example performance standards, requirements

and geographical mobility, and finally the ninth element is ³any other duties´ that the organisation

may assign the new employee (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 167). Generally the contents of job

descriptions are constantly changing over time due to different formats and shifting emphasis on the

various elements within them.

³Over the years, various attempts have been made to develop and fine-tune techniques and

practices. One such development has been the shift of emphasis in job descriptions away from

specifying tasks and responsibilities towards the results to be achieved (Bratton & Gold; 2007,

254).

This argument that there has been a shift in emphasis towards describing results, that have to be

achieved, instead of describing tasks connected to the position will also be explored and evaluated

during the analysis of job advertisements in this dissertation, under section 11.1¶V�H[DPLQDWLRQ�RI

similarities and differences in format across the periods.

7KH� WKLUG�HOHPHQW� LQ�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� �� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� VNHOHWRQ�ZDV� ³information

about what is required to fulfil these needs´. It can easily be argued that the third element belongs

to what is called ³personnel specifications´ within the field of human resource management,

16

because personnel specifications among other things contain the qualifications required of the

applicant. The following section will look in depth at two different formats for personnel

specifications.

5.3 Personnel specifications approaches Job advertisements, as the section above states, have for the most part an area dedicated to

describing the ideal candidate for the job. The personnel specification is then normally used as a

framework to evaluate possible candidates. There are two long-standing approaches for personnel

VSHFLILFDWLRQV�ZKLFK�DUH�FRPPRQO\�XVHG��WKH�ILUVW�LV�5RGJHU¶V�VHYHQ-point plan from 1952 and the

VHFRQG� LV� )UDVHU¶V� ILYH-fold grading system from 1966 which adapted some aspeFWV� RI� 5RGJHU¶V�

approach (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 169 ). What these two approaches have in common is

that they suggest a number of human attributes that are seen as necessary to be able to do the job,

and typically both approaches will also indicate how important each requirement is (Cushway;

2005, 10). Both of these approaches will be described in more detail below.

5RGJHU¶V� VHYHQ-point plan suggests, as the name implies, seven headings, which should be

covered by a personnel description. The seven headings are as follows:

1. Physical make-up

2. Attainments

3. General intelligence

4. Special aptitudes

5. Interests

6. Disposition

7. Circumstances (Cushway; 2005, 10-11)

The first heading is called ³physical make-up´, it covers what the company requires in terms of

health (strength, energy, hearing, eyesight), personal appearance (looks, height, build, grooming),

bearing and speech. ³Attainments´ cover the requirements for education, training, qualifications

and experience. ³General intelligence´ describes what the job requires in terms of thinking capacity

and mental ability for example intellectual capacity, knowledge base, perception and wisdom.

³Special aptitudes´ describes what particular skills are needed for the job for example physical,

mechanical, manual dexterity, verbal, artistic, musical and social skills. ³Interests´ describes what

17

personal interests could be relevant to the performance of the job for example intellectual, cultural,

practical, physically active, social, and aesthetic interests. ³Disposition´ describes what kind of

personality the company are looking for, for example acceptability, influence over others,

steadiness, dependability, self-reliance, leadership, initiative, motivation and drive. Finally the

heading called ³circumstances´ describes whether there are any special circumstances/demands that

the organisation requires of the candidates for example age, domestic ties, unsocial work hours,

mobility et cetera (Crushway; 10-11).

)UDVHU¶V�ILYH-fold grading system is a condensHG�YHUVLRQ�RI�5RGJHU¶V�seven-point plan��)UDVHU¶V�

approach contains the following five elements:

1. Impact on others

2. Qualification and experience

3. Innate abilities

4. Motivation

5. Adjustment (Bratton & Gold; 2007, 255)

The heading called ³impact on others´ HPEUDFHV� VRPH� RI� 5RGJHU¶V� ³physical make-up´

characteristics such as speech, address, manner and reactions. The difference here between

5RGJHU¶V�³physical make-up´ DQG�)UDVHU¶V�³impact on others´ is that the latter focuses more on the

impact on other people for example employees, co-workers and customers (Marchington &

Wilkinson; 2007, 168). ³Qualification and experience´ describes what education, vocational

training and ZRUN� H[SHULHQFH� LV� UHTXLUHG� RI� WKH� FDQGLGDWH�� ,W� LV� YHU\� VLPLODU� WR� 5RGJHU¶V� VHFRQG�

heading called ³attainments´. The third heading is called ³innate abilities´ and describes the

FDQGLGDWH¶V�ability to exercise his/her intelligence in a range of situations for example ³quickness of

comprehension and aptitude for learning´ (Cushway; 2005, 11). This heading is very similar to

5RGJHU¶V�WKLUG�KHDGLQJ called ³general intelligence´ which is specifically fitting in situations where

there are only a few requirements for formal qualifications. The fourth heading called ³motivation´

describes the requirements for individual goals, determination in following them up and success

rate. This heading can be described as the µJRDO-GLUHFWHG¶� DVSHFW� RI� KXPDQ�SHUVRQDOLW\�� ,W� VKRXOG�

generally contain information about how the individual has achieved his/her personal needs and

ambitions, rather than try to identify these needs. Marchington & Wilkinson (2007) describe

)UDVHU¶V�IRXUWK�KHDGLQJ�DV�IROORZV��³D�SHUVRQ¶V�GHVLUH�WR�VXFFHHG�LQ�SDUWLFXODU�DVSHFWV�RI�ZRUN�DQG�

18

WKHLU�FRPPLWPHQW�WR�DFKLHYH�WKHVH�JRDOV´�(Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 168). The fifth and last

RI� )UDVHU¶V� KHDGLQJV¶� LV� ³adjustments´, LW� GHVFULEHV� WKH� FDQGLGDWH¶V� emotional status: stability,

maturity and characteristics specifically related to the job such as: ability to cope with stress and

ability to get along with people. Basically ³adjustments´ describes how the individual reacts under

pressure (Crushway; 11).

These two approaches are widely used in adapted form, together with other competency-based

approaches, but are seen as a bit datHG�� :KDW� PDNHV� 5RGJHU¶V� DQG� )UDVHU¶V� DSSURDFKHV� GDWHG�

according to Marchington & Wilkinson (2007) is that they were formulated at a time when

organisations could make demands and ask questions about the candidates¶ domestic circumstances

and private life for example gender, age, marital status et cetera whereas this is no longer allowed.

$QRWKHU�SRLQW�RI�FULWLTXH�RI�5RGJHU¶V�DQG�)UDVHU¶V�WZR�frameworks is that they rely heavily on

personal judgement to specify the ideal contents under each heading, which together describe a

successful and desirable candidate. Given these two points of critique, Marchington & Wilkinson

��DUJXH� WKDW�5RGJHU¶V� DQG�)UDVHU¶V� WUDGLWLRQDO� SHUVRQnel specification approaches are giving

way to new competency frameworks (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 169). With competency

frameworks:

³The focus is ± or should be ± on the behaviours of the job applicants. There is therefore no need to

PDNH� LQIHUHQFHV� DERXW� WKH� SHUVRQDO� TXDOLWLHV� WKDW� PLJKW� XQGHUSLQ� EHKDYLRXU´� (Marchington &

Wilkinson; 2007, 169)

Marchington & Wilkinson (2007) also point out that when using a competency framework, the

FRPSHWHQFLHV� FDQ� EH� GLUHFWO\� UHODWHG� WR� SHUIRUPDQFH� RXWFRPHV� ZKHUHDV� 5RGJHU¶V� DQG� )UDVHU¶V�

DSSURDFKHV�DUH�³concerned with potentially vague processes, such as disposition or interests outside

RI�ZRUN´ (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 169). Some of the most used competencies according

to Marchington & Wilkinson (2007) are team orientation, people management, customer focus,

communication, results orientation and problem-solving.

Roberts (1997) differentiates between four different types of competencies in his book from

1997 called ³Recruitment and Selection: A Competency Approach´. The four types of competencies

are ³natural´, ³acquired´, ³adapting´ and ³performing´. Below in model 1 a framework

illustrating how these four competency types are linked together is shown.

19

0RGHO��5REHUWV¶�PRGHO��³&RPSHWHQFLHV�)UDPHZRUN´�

Source: Roberts; 1997, 72

The first competency is called ³natural´ and FRQVLVWV� RI�ZKDW�5REHUWV� �� FDOOV� WKH� µbig five¶�

dimensions of personality, which are extraversion/intraversion, emotional stability, agreeableness,

conscientiousness and openness to experience (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 169). The second

type of competency was called ³acquired´ and as the name suggests these are skills and knowledge

that are acquired through working et cetera. People are not naturally gifted with these competencies

so something like professional knowledge would fall under this category (Roberts; 1997, 72). The

third competency is called ³adapting´ and is described as follows: ³7KH�DGDSWLQJ�FOXVWHU�IRUPV�WKH�

FULWLFDO�VHW�ZKLFK�HQDEOHV�WKH�LQGLYLGXDO�WR�VXFFHHG�LQ�KLV�RU�KHU�ZRUN�HQYLURQPHQW´�(Roberts; 1997,

72). ³Adapting´ competencies have the ability to combine the individual¶s natural and acquired

skills to use in new circumstances. Lastly the fourth competency is called ³performing´ and is

composed of all the observable behaviours and outputs which flow from the three previous

competencies that is natural, acquired and adapting (Marchington & Wilkinson; 2007, 170). This

competency framework appears to have a more psychological focus than the qualities focused on by

the previous two personnel specification frameworks. This may partly be because it primarily

focuses on the knowledge, skills and especially behaviours that are required of a possible applicant,

ZKLFK�DUH�TXDOLWLHV�WKDW�UHODWH�WR�WKH�DSSOLFDQWV�³PLQG´�RU�³PHQWDOLW\´�

5.4 Multiple target audiences and discourses in ads ,Q� WKLV� VHFWLRQ� 5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� �� SURSRVLWLRQ� WKDW� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQWV� DUH� DQ� H[DPSOH� RI�

organisational discourse with multiple constituents will be described in more detail. Rafaeli &

Oliver (1998) argue that advertisements have more than just one target audience, and that is why a

lot of job advertisements have extra information such as the organisation¶s size, history, culture,

20

values and financial status, in addition to the four standard elements described in the skeleton

above.

³7KLV� UDQJH� of information in ads suggests that ads do more than announce vacancies (which

ZRXOG�EH�DFFRPSOLVKHG�ZLWK�WKH�VNHOHWRQ�DORQH�´�(Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 345)

Therefore they suggest that advertisements both represent discourse between multiple constituents,

and that advertisements act in two analytically distinct directions, attracting people into the

organisation and giving people a good impression of the organisation. (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 345)

0RGHO��5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V�PRGHO��³7KH�PXOWLSOH�DXGLHQFHV�RI�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV´�

Source: Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 346

Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue that job advertisements are formally addressed to people looking for

a job, but that they informally reach at least three other audiences, which are the general public (this

includes customers, shareholders, clients, investors et cetera), the organisation¶s current employees

and other organisations in the industry for example competitors as well as potential suppliers, as

shown in figure 1. The bold arrows in the figure depict the primary communication between job

seekers/potential employees and the advertising organisation, and the slim arrows show the

21

proposed secondary target audiences which is composed of: members of the organisation, the

general public and other organisations. Communications with other organisations, falls under what

Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) call organisational impression management (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 346).

Organisational impression management in relation to job advertisements is a process whereby the

RUJDQLVDWLRQ� WULHV� WR� LQIOXHQFH� WKH� UHDGHUV¶�RSLQLRQV�RI� WKHP�� ,Q�JHQHUDO�RUJDQLVDWLRQDO� LPSUHVVLRQ�

management plays an important role in advertising and public relations. This then begs the

question: are job advertisements mostly recruitment materials, image management materials or

both?

³$GV�PD\�EH�SURSRVHG�WR�FRQWULEXWH�WR�DGGLWLRQDO�VHWV�RI�GLVFRXUVH´�(Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 346).

Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) support this argument of advertisements having multiple audiences by

pointing out the rich informative text in job advertisements, and through the results of their surveys

of job advertisement readership showing that it is not only people seeking employment who read

job advertisements (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 346).

5.5 Rafaeli & 2OLYHU¶V�five levels of analysis Based on the configurational analysis in their article, Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) propose a framework

consisting of five levels of analysis at which job advertisements operate, which will be described in

this section.

Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) pinpoint that the co-existence of multiple levels of analysis is what

makes ³ads a fascinating linking pin´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 343). The first level of analysis that

they present is called ³WKH� LQGLYLGXDO� OHYHO´. Advertisements are traditionally seen as vehicles for

recruiting new employees, this is due to the fact that advertisements directly address the individual

by using personal pronouns such as ³If you are seeking a highly challenging, fast-paced career

write to us´��5Dfaeli & Oliver; 1998, 343). But as Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) point out, advertisements

also explicitly represent current employees in the organisation;

³+RZHYHU�� EHFDXVH� WKH� GHVLJQ� DQG� FRQVWUXFWLRQ� RI� DGV� DUH� JRYHUQHG� E\� FXUUHQW�PHPEHUV� RI� WKH�

organisation and ads are typically intended to replace current employees, a more precise argument

is that ads are representations of all members of the organisation, including both present and/or

IXWXUH�HPSOR\HHV´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 355)

22

The second level of analysis is called ³WKH�RFFXSDWLRQDO� OHYHO� and this is due to the fact that job

advertisements ³RFFXU� LQ� WKH� FRQWH[W� RI� WKH� RFFXSDWLRQ� WKDW� WKH\� DGYHUWLVH� RU� WKH� RFFXSDWLRQDO�

FRPPXQLW\� RI� WKH� DGYHUWLVHG� HPSOR\PHQW� RSSRUWXQLW\´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 343). It is also

argued that job advertisements can be representations of occupations because they contain specialist

terminology used by the occupation, which makes them into occupational artefacts. Titles of

available employment positions can be examples of specialist terminology when they are devoid of

meaning for people who are not a part of the profession (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 344). An

example, of a specialist terminology title which is given in the article is ³3&%�'HVLJQHU�RU�,-Case

7HFKQRORJ\´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 344).

The third level of analysis, which Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) present, is ³WKH� RUJDQL]DWLRQDO�

OHYHO´. Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) state that advertisements can be viewed as organisational artefacts.

The arguments behind this statement are threefold: firstly advertisements are paid for by the

organisation, secondly they contain references to the organisations¶ advertising and thirdly

advertisements contain descriptions of the organisations such as: information that identifies the

organisation along with addresses, phone number et cetera.

The fourth level of analysis is ³WKH� LQGXVWU\� OHYHO´. Many advertisements use text, which

implicitly or explicitly identifies the industry in which the job advertisement belongs to. These

classifications into industry can also be reinforced by print-media such as newspapers that allocate

certain pages to specific industrial sectors for example health and business. For this level of analysis

similarities among job advertisements of different organisations, which belong to the same industry

sector are also ascertainable.

The fifth and final level is ³WKH� VRFLHWDO� OHYHO´. Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue that

advertisements can be considered societal artefacts because they can contain elements that are

decided by societal norms, the government et cetera. An example of this is when the phrase ³HTXDO�

RSSRUWXQLW\�HPSOR\HU´ (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 344) appears in American job advertisements. The

reason behind this phrase appearing is the societal norms of affirmative action. Job advertisements

may represent the society in which the newspaper is published or the society that the organisation

belongs to (Rafaeli & Oliver; 1998, 344-345).

To sum up Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue with this framework that advertisements can represent

five different levels of analysis (individual, occupational, organisational, industrial and societal).

23

This does not mean that all five levels of analysis necessarily are present in all job advertisements

as a standard, but that any combination of any number of levels of analysis might be present.

6 Method (A) Thematic analysis This chapter will introduce thematic analysis which is the method that will be used to analyse and

pinpoint interesting elements and themes within the communication curricula. Thematic analysis

was chosen to analyse the curricula because as a research technique it provides the tools for identify

key features of a large body of text, making it an ideal technique for this dissertation. Using

thematic analysis for analysing curricula will make it possible for data collected, from one

particular curriculum for a given education and given year, to be objectively compared with data

collected from the corresponding job advertisements and future or past curricula, so it can

subsequently be determined whether the FXUULFXOXP¶V� contents (names of subjects, acquired

qualifications et cetera) have manifested themselves in the job advertisements.

A reason why this dissertation uses two methods, one to analyse the communication curricula

and another to analyse the content of the job advertisements is because when examining the

communication curricula a more superficial but at the same time systematic data extraction was

needed. This is what thematic analysis provides whilst critical discourse analysis provides a more

in-depth analysis tool that would be too comprehensive in regards to what is actually needed from

the curricula (which is a simple data squeeze). The reasoning behind thematic analysis providing a

more superficial but systematic tool for data extraction will be discussed further in section 6.1 when

semantic versus latent thematic analysis will be discussed.

Through his three-dimensional model Fairclough states that text should not be analysed as an

isolated object because it is in a dialectical relationship with the discursive and social practise

(Jørgensen & Phillips; 2004, 70). Simply speaking text needs a social context. This is another

reason why this dissertation uses two methods, because critical discourse analysis as Fairclough

defines it, is limited in its way of accounting for the social practice in question.

³'RLQJ� FULWLFDO� GLVFRXUVH� DQDO\VLV� ZLOO�� WKHQ�� DOZD\V� LQYROYH� WKH� WUDQVGLVFLSOLQDU\� LQWHJUDWion of

different theories within a multiperspectival research framework ± linguistic theory and analysis

can never suffice to account for the non-GLVFXUVLYH� DVSHFWV� RI� WKH� SKHQRPHQRQ� LQ� TXHVWLRQ´�

(Jørgensen & Phillips; 2002, 86)

24

In other words thematic analysis helps to capture the social dimension of )DLUFORXJK¶V� WKUHH-

dimensional-model for critical discourse analysis.

This chapter is going to introduce thematic analysis in general which will include a short

history. Afterwards basic thematic analysis terminology will be defined and examples given in

relation to the dissertation. The last section will focus on describing %UDXQ��&ODUNH¶V��VL[�

step guide for how to conduct thematic analysis.

6.1 Introduction to thematic analysis Thematic analysis is a qualitative analytic method that is widely used in certain academic fields but

it is rarely acknowledged. Bryman (2001) says that it is a research method that does not have an

identifiable heritage, and that it has not been outlined in terms of ³D� Gistinctive cluster of

WHFKQLTXHV´ (Bryman; 2001, 554) therefore it is not an easily identifiable approach. Braun & Clarke

(2006) define thematic analysis as:

³$� PHWKRG� IRU� LGHQWLI\LQJ�� DQDO\VLQJ� DQG� UHSRUWLQJ� SDWWHUQV� �WKHPHV�� ZLWKLQ� GDWD�� ,W� PLQLPDOO\�

orJDQL]HV�DQG�GHVFULEHV�\RXU�GDWD�VHW�LQ��ULFK��GHWDLO´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79)

The quote above illustrates why thematic analysis is very suitable for this dissertation. The goal of

this dissertation being to identify patterns and key themes in the communication curricula and

examining whether these themes are visible in the contents of job advertisements, thereby

confirming or disconfirming a possible link between what is being taught at universities and the

content of job advertisements. Three other reasons why thematic analysis is a suitable research tool

to analyse communication curricula are that it:

1. ³&DQ�XVHIXOO\�VXPPDUL]H�NH\�IHDWXUHV�RI�D�ODUJH�ERG\�RI�GDWD��DQG�RU�RIIHU�D�µWKLFN�

GHVFULSWLRQ¶�RI�WKH�GDWD�VHW�´

2. ³Can highlight similarities and differences across the data set�´

3. ³Can generate unanticipated insights�´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 97)

The second reason will be especially helpful when commenting on the similarities and differences

in the curricula for communication educations from 1986 to 2006.

25

Within thematic analysis there are two levels of analysis, the first level is called the ³semantic´ or

³explicit level´ and the second level is called the ³latent´ or ³interpretative level´. Typically

thematic analysis only chooses one of the levels to focuses on. In a semantic thematic analysis

approach the themes are identified in the surface meanings of the data. When using semantic

thematic analysis the researcher is not looking for anything beyond what has been said or written.

³,GHDOO\��WKe analytic process involves a progression from description, where the data have simply

been organized to show patterns in semantic content, and summarized, to interpretation, where

there is an attempt to theorize the significance of the patterns and their broader meanings and

LPSOLFDWLRQV´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 84).

The second level of analysis (latent thematic analysis) goes beyond looking at the semantic content

of the data, and tries to identify the underlying ideas, assumptions and conceptualisations that are

shaping the data (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 84). The level of analysis which will be used to analyse the

communication curricula in this dissertation is semantic thematic analysis. It is the most fitting of

the two levels because one of the main aims of this dissertation is to describe the surface meanings

of the curricula. For the purpose of this dissertation the underlying ideas, assumptions and

conceptualisations are not required, and therefore it is unnecessary to carry out latent thematic

analysis.

6.2 Basic thematic analysis terminology This section will define some of the basic terminology which is associated with thematic analysis

and give examples of what they are in relation to this dissertation.

The first term relating to data that needs to be defined is ³data corpus´ which refers to all data

that has been collected in connection with a certain research project (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79). In

this case the ³data corpus´ is all the curricula from the years 1976 to 2008 that were collected

before any form of sorting and selection processes were applied.

The next term is ³data set´ and it refers to all the data from the ³data corpus´ which is being

used in an actual analysis (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79). For this dissertation, the correspondent (one

and two languages) curricula from 1986 and MA curricula from 2006, seen in table 2 (section 4.1)

above, make up the ³data set´. There are two ways of selecting ones data set according to Braun

26

and Clarke (2006). These two approaches can sometimes be combined to produce the ³data set´.

Otherwise the choice of approach really depends on whether the researcher addresses the data with

a specific question in mind or not. The first approach is defined by there not being a specific

question guiding the choice of ³data set´, it might ³FRQVLVW�RI�PDQ\��RU�DOO��LQGLYLGXDO�GDWD�LWHPV�

ZLWKLQ� \RXU� GDWD� FRUSXV´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79). With the second approach the data set is

LGHQWLILHG�RQ�WKH�EDVLV�RI�³a particular analytic interest in some topic in the data, and the data set

WKHQ�EHFRPHV�DOO�LQVWDQFHV�LQ�WKH�FRUSXV�ZKHUH�WKDW�WRSLF�LV�UHIHUUHG´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79).

In the case of this dissertation the second approach has been used to determine the ³data set´

because the analysed curricula in the ³data set´ were chosen due to a particular analytic interest in

the years 1986 and 2006.

The term ³data item´ is also used in thematic analysis, and it is used to refer to each of the

individual pieces of data that were collected making up the ³data corpus´ as well as the ³data set´

(Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79). So to clarify each curricula document is a ³data item´ whether it is

used in the analysis or not.

The last term defined in this section is ³data extract´ which UHIHUV� WR� ³an individual coded

FKXQN�RI�GDWD��ZKLFK�KDV�EHHQ�LGHQWLILHG�ZLWKLQ��DQG�H[WUDFWHG�IURP��D�GDWD�LWHP´ (Braun & Clarke;

2006, 79). Throughout a research project there are many examples of ³data extracts´ which are

sourced from the ³data set´, some of these will be used in the final analysis, and others will be

discarded (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 79). It is these ³data extracts´, which represent certain key

features/themes of the examined curricula that will be used in the final and third leg of the discourse

analysis of job advertisements to examine whether there is a link between the two.

7KH� WHUP� µWKHPH¶� LV� LQ�JHQHUDO� WHUPV�GHILQHG�DV� D� WRSLF�RI�GLVFRXUVH�RU�GLVFXVVLRQ��%UDXQ��

Clarke (2006) describe a theme as something that ³&DSWXUHV�VRPHWhing important about the data in

relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning

ZLWKLQ� WKH� GDWD� VHW´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 82). Themes are characterised by Ryan & Bernard

(2003) as being abstract and even fuzzy constructs that link expressions found in texts. When

selecting themes there are no set rules for how large a proportion of the data set is needed to

illustrate the theme, for it to be rendered a theme (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 82). Therefore the flexible

nature of thematic analysis allows the researcher to determine what constitutes a theme in a number

of ways, the only restriction on this freedom is that the researcher has to be consistent in his/her

selection criteria.

27

6.3 Braun & Clarks six step guide to thematic analysis Thematic analysis is a research method with poorly defined application techniques, therefore in

their article Braun and Clarke (2006) aim to give a straightforward step-by-step guide to how

thematic analysis should be conducted. This six-phase guide to conducting thematic analysis will be

described in more detail in the following paragraphs.

Braun and Clarke (2006) pinpoint that the process of the analysis is not linear because it

involves the researcher constantly moving back and forth between the data set, the data extracts

which are being analysed and the analysis of the results that the researcher is producing. In other

words the analysis as a recursive process (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 86).

The first phase is called ´Familiarizing yourself with your data´ and involves, as the name of

the phase suggests, the researcher immersing him- or herself in the collected data to the point that

KH�VKH�LV�³familiar with the depth and breadth of the content´��%UDXQ��&ODUNH��3Kase

one therefore involves actively reading and re-reading the data as well as noting down initial ideas

for coding. What is meant by active reading is that the researcher is looking for meanings, patterns

et cetera during the reading process (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 87).

The second phase is called ³Generating initial codes´ and uses the list of initial ideas from the

first phase as a starting point for producing the initial codes from the data (Braun & Clarke; 2006,

88). Coding is the part of analysis where interesting features of the data are systematically organised

into meaningful groups. Coding of themes may depend on whether they are ´data-driven´, which

means that the themes will depend on the available data, or ³theory-driven´ where the data is

approached with certain questions in mind that the researcher is going to code around (Braun &

Clarke; 2006, 88-89). In the case of this dissertation WKH�WKHPHV�DUH�µWKHRU\-GULYHQ¶�EHFDXVH�WKH\�DUH�

coded to identify particular key features of the data set.

%UDXQ��&ODUNH¶V� �� WKLUG� SKDVH� LV� QDPHG� ³Searching for themes´. This phase involves

sorting the list of different codes into potential themes, and arranging the coded data extracts within

the identified themes. Some codes might form main ± or sub-themes whereas others might be

discarded. At the end of this phase the researcher should have an assortment of candidate themes

and sub-themes, which all the data extracts have been coded in relation to (Braun & Clarke; 2006,

�� %UDXQ� � &ODUNH¶V� �� WKLUG� SKDVH� FDQ� SRWHQWLDOO\� EH� FRPELQHG� ZLWK� 5\DQ� � %HUQDUG¶V�

(2003) eight suggestions about what to look for when searching for themes. The eight elements are

as follows ³repetitions´, ³indigenous typologies or categories´, ³metaphors and analogies´,

³transitions´, ³similarities and differences´, ³linguistic connectors´, ³missing data´ and lastly

28

³theory-related material´ (Ryan & Bernard; 2003, 89-94). The elements which will be relevant to

look at in relation to this dissertation are ³repetitions´ (topics that keep reoccurring) and

³similarities and differences´ (exploring how a topic is discussed in different ways) (Ryan &

Bernard; 2003; 89 -91), because they are versatile techniques, that can be used for any type of data

when searching for patterns and themes.

The fourth phase Braun & Clarke propose is called ³Reviewing themes´ and involves refining

WKH� FDQGLGDWH� WKHPHV� IRXQG� LQ�SKDVH� WKUHH��:KDW� LV�PHDQW�E\� UHILQLQJ� LV� ³checking if the themes

work in relation to the coded extracts and the entire data set´��%UDXQ��&ODUNH��In this

entire phase some of the candidate themes may be discarded because of a lack of supporting data, or

because they contain too diverse data, while other themes may merge due to similarities (Braun &

Clarke; 2006, 91).

The fifth phase of conducting thematic analysis is called ³Defining and naming themes´ and

LQYROYHV�³ongoing analysis to refine the specifics of each theme, and the overall story the analysis

tells, generating clear definitions and QDPHV� IRU� HDFK� WKHPH´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 87). By

define Braun & Clarke (2006) mean identifying the ³essence´ of each of the identified themes, and

explain why they are interesting in relation to the research question.

The sixth and last of BrauQ� � &ODUNH¶V� �� SKDVHV� LV�� ³Producing the report´ which

involves the final analysis and writing of the report with illustrative extracts. The extracts need to

illustrate the story that is being told about the data, and the analytic narrative needs to make an

argument in relation to the research question (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 93).

7 Method (B) Discourse analysis

7.1 Critical discourse analysis in general )DLUFORXJK¶V� DSSURDFK� WR� FULWLFDO� GLVFRXUVH� DQDO\VLV� ZDV� FKRVHQ� IRU� WKLV� dissertation because his

approach is generally considered to be the cornerstone of the field of critical discourse analysis, and

because Fairclough provides the most developed theoretical framework and methods for

researching the relations between society, culture and communication (Winther Jørgensen &

Phillips; 1999, 72). His framework is well suited for this dissertation where the objective is to

investigate possible links between job advertisements and the curricula of communication

HGXFDWLRQV��,Q�HVVHQFH�)DLUFORXJK¶V�DSSURDFK�SURYLGHV�the ideal framework to research whether the

discourse in job advertisements is socially shaped by the curricula from communication educations,

29

whether the discourse in job advertisements is socially shaping communication curricula or whether

both instances are occurring. In short it is the focus on reciprocal relations between social practice,

discursive practice and the text, ZKLFK� LV� WKH� SDUW� RI� )DLUFORXJK¶V� DSSURDFK� WKDW� LV� SDUWLFXODUO\�

valuable to this dissertation.

In the following paragraphs FDLUFORXJK¶V� DSSURDFK� WR� FULWLFDO� GLVFRXUVH� DQDO\VLV� ZLOO� EH�

described. His three dimensional model will also be explained along with keywords associated with

KLV� DSSURDFK��%XW�EHIRUH�)DLUFORXJK¶V�PHWKRGV� DUH�GHVFULEHG�� WKHUH�ZLOO� EH� D� VKRUW� UHYLHZ�RI� WKH�

common characteristics for the field of critical discourse analysis in general.

When looking at the field of discourse analysis there are several different approaches, critical

discourse analysis being one of them. The term critical discourse analysis is used by Fairclough to

describe his own approach to discourse analysis, but he also uses it to describe a broader approach

of the theories within the field of discourse analysis. This broader approach is very loosely defined,

and therefore there is no broad consensus about which other discourse analysts belong to it. The

goal of critical discourse analysis is to develop theories and methods to empirically investigate the

relationships between discursive practices and social/cultural developments in different social

contexts (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 72).

Winther Jørgensen & Phillips (1999) define five commonalities which all critical discourse

analytical approaches are said to share. The first commonality is that all critical discourse analysts

believe that social and cultural processes and structures have partly linguistic-discursive character.

Discursive practices which involve production, distribution and consumption of texts are seen as an

important form of social practice because they contribute to the constituting of the social world

including the construction of social identities and social relationships (Winther Jørgensen &

Phillips; 1999, 73). These two aspects (social identities and relationships) along with a third will be

described later (section 7.3).

The second commonality is that within critical discourse analysis, discourse is seen as both a

constituent and as constituted. Discourse is an important type of social practice; it constitutes the

social world and it is also constituted by social practices. Expressed in another way discourse

contributes to transforming social processes and structures but it also reflects them (Winther

Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 74).

The third commonality is that critical discourse analysts believe that parlance/language should

be empirically analysed within its social context. Here critical discourse analysis differs from more

30

poststructuralist approaches which do not carry out systematic empirical studies of language usage

(Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 75).

The fourth commonality is that discourse is seen as functioning ideologically. In critical

discourse analysis, discursive practices are seen as contributing to the creation of unequal power

relations between classes in society, the sexes et cetera. These effects which discourse is said to

have on power relations are in critical discourse analysis seen as ideological effects. In summary the

focus of critical discourse analysis is on two things, they are the discursive practices that construct:

worldviews, social identities and social relations which includes power relations, and on the role

discursive practices have in promoting the interests of certain social groups (Winther Jørgensen &

Phillips; 1999, 75).

The fifth and final commonality for critical discourse analysis approaches is that they are

critical approaches which mean that they are not particularly politically neutral. The purpose of the

criticism is to reveal the role which discursive practices play in the preservation of unequal power

relations (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 76).

Even though these five commonalities can be identified for approaches within the field of

critical discourse analysis there are still a lot of differences between the various critical discourse

analytical approaches; for example, there are often differences in the methods used to empirically

study language in social interaction and in the historical perspectives which are the foundation of

the approaches (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 76).

7.2 Definition of concepts

,Q�WKLV�SDUDJUDSK�VRPH�RI�)DLUFORXJK¶V�FRQFHSWV�VXFK�DV�³discourse´ and ³order of discourse´ will

be defined.

7.2.1 Discourse In this section a definition of the concept of ³discourse´ will be given in an attempt to provide a

better explanation of the variety of ways in which the term is used across the social sciences and

how Fairclough uses it himself. Discourse is in general used to describe language, as an element of

social life, which contributes to the production, transformation and reproduction of social practices.

)DLUFORXJK�GHILQHV�GLVFRXUVH�DV� IROORZV��GLVFRXUVH� LV��³language as social practice determined by

social structures´��)DLUFORXJK��14). What Fairclough means with this simple definition is that

language is part of society not an external element, it is a social process conditioned by other parts

31

of society. Fairclough describes the relationship between language and society as being an internal

and dialectical one (Fairclough 2001; 19). The idea here is that discourse (language), is structured

according to different patterns which people act in accordance with when engaging in social life

(Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 79).

³'LVFourse contributes to the constitution of all those dimensions of social structure which directly

or indirectly shape and constrain it: its own norms and conventions, as well as the relations,

identities and institutions which lie behind them. Discourse is a practice not just of representing the

ZRUOG��EXW�RI�VLJQLI\LQJ�WKH�ZRUOG��FRQVWLWXWLQJ�DQG�FRQVWUXFWLQJ�WKH�ZRUOG�LQ�PHDQLQJ´ (Fairclough

1992; 64)

7KLV�XQGHUVWDQGLQJ�RI�WKH�FRQFHSW�RI�µGLVFRXUVH¶�ZDV�XVHG�VHYHUDO�WLPHV�DERYH�- for example, when

writing WKDW� µGLVFRXUVH� LV� VHHQ�DV�ERWK� D� FRQVWLWXHQW� DQG�DV� FRQVWLWXWHG¶��%XW� WKH� WHUP� µGLVFRXUVH¶�

when used with a definite article in front of it has a different meaning all together. Then a discourse

is one of many discourses which represent different aspects of the world for example WKH� µ7KLUG�

ZD\¶�SROLWLFDO�GLVFRXUVH�RI�WKH�QHZ�ODERXU�JRYHUQPHQW��)DLUFORXJK��.

7.2.2 Order of discourse An order of discourse is defined as a composition of genres, discourses and styles which make up a

network of social practices in its language aspect. Orders of discourse are described as being fairly

stable and durable, but they can be subjected to changes (Fairclough 2003; 220).

³The elements of orders of discourse are not things like nouns and sentences (elements of linguistic

structures), but discourses, genres and styles. [...] These elements select certain possibilities

defined by language and exclude others - they control linguistic variability for particular areas of

social life. So orders of discourse can be seen as the social organisation and control of linguistic

variation´��)DLUFORXJK��

From this it can be gathered that an order of discourse is a set of conventions for example genre

conventions et cetera, which are associated with particular sociDO�LQVWLWXWLRQV��³Actual discourse is

determined by socially constituted orders of discourse, sets of conventions associated with social

institutions´��)DLUFORXJK��,Q�WKH�FDVH�RI�WKLV�dissertation the conventions for how to write

32

a job advertisement are set in the field/social institution of human resources management. So the

order of discourse controls the recourses, such as discourses and genres, which are available for the

producer of the text. Therefore it can be said that the order of discourse can restrict the recourses

that are available, and thereby create constraints on the communicative event.

7.3 )DLUFORXJK¶V�FULWLFDO�GLVFRXUVH�DQDO\VLV )DLUFORXJK¶V� DSSURDFK� LV� YHU\� PXFK� D� WH[W-oriented discourse analysis which combines three

traditions. The approach uses detailed textual analysis belonging to the field of linguistics, and is

LQVSLUHG�E\�+DOOLGD\¶V� WKHRULHV�RQ� IXQFWLRQDO�JUDPPDU�� ,W� DOVR�XVHV�PDFURVRFLRORJLFDO�DQDO\VLV�RI�

social practices LQVSLUHG� E\� )RXFDXOW¶V� WKHRULHV, and lastly it uses the interpretivist or

microsociological tradition in sociology, which includes conversation analysis (Fairclough 1992;

��7KH�LQWHUSUHWLYLVW�WUDGLWLRQ�LV�XVHG�LQ�)DLUFORXJK¶V�DSSURDFK�IRU�GHYHORSLQJ�DQ�XQGHUVWDQGLQJ�RI�

how people actively create, and make sense of a rule base world of everyday common sense

practices or procedures (Winther Jørgensen & Phillips; 1999, 78). Fairclough uses detailed textual

analysis in his approach to gain insight into how discursive processes in texts can be read and

understood linguistically. However the textual analysis is not sufficient on its own as discourse

analysis. The reason for this is that textual analysis does not illustrate the links between the texts

and cultural and social processes, therefore textual analysis has to be coupled with the second and

third traditions (the macrosociological and interpretivist traditions), described above, for it to be

GLVFRXUVH�DQDO\VLV�LQ�)DLUFORXJK¶V�RSLQLRQ�WKHUHE\�FUHDWLQJ�DQ�LQWHUGLVFLSOLQDU\�SHUVSHFWLYH��

Fairclough describes discourse as having three constructive effects. Firstly discourse contributes to

WKH� FRQVWUXFWLRQ� RI� µVRFLDO� LGHQWLWLHV¶. Secondly discourse is an important element in the

construction of social relationships between people. Thirdly discourse also contributes to building a

system of beliefs and knowledge for the individual. Each of these effects corresponds to a language

function according to Fairclough (Fairclough 1992; 64):

³These three effects correspond respectively to three functions of language and dimensions of

meaning which coexist and interact in all discourse ± ZKDW� ,�VKDOO� FDOO� WKH�µLGHQWLW\¶�� µUHODWLRQDO¶�

DQG�µLGHDWLRQDO¶�IXQFWLRQV�RI�ODQJXDJH´��)DLUFORXJK��

33

7KH�µidentity¶�IXQFWLRQ�H[SUHVVHV�WKH�ZD\V�LQ�ZKLFK�VRFLDO�LGHQWLWLHV�DUH�FRPposed in discourse and

WKH� µrelational¶� ODQJXDJH� IXQFWLRQ� H[SUHVVHV� KRZ� VRFLDO� UHODWLRQVKLSV� DUH� HQDFWHG� DQG� QHJRWLDWHG�

EHWZHHQ�SHRSOH�SDUWLFLSDWLQJ� LQ�GLVFRXUVH��/DVWO\� WKH�µideational¶� ODQJXDJH�IXQFWLRQ�H[SUHVVHV� WKH�

way in which texts represent the world and its processes, structures and relations (Fairclough 1992;

64).

7.4 The three-dimensional model )DLUFORXJK¶V� WKUHH-dimensional model depicted below in model 2 is described as trying to bring

together the three analytical traditions (the linguistic analysis, the macrosociological and the

interpretivist traditions) mentioned above, which are essential for discourse analysis. Together these

three dimensions constitute a ³communicative event´. The communicative event in this dissertation

is the job advertisement. The three dimensions are called, from the middle and working our way

out, the textual dimension, the discursive dimension and the social dimension respectively. In this

section each of these dimensions and their main concepts, will in turn be described. Fairclough

describes the relationship between the three dimensions as follows:

³The method of discourse analysis includes linguistic description of the language text,

interpretation of the relationship between the (productive and interpretive) discursive processes

and the text, and explanation of the relationship between the discursive processes and the social

SURFHVVHV�´�(Fairclough 1995; 97)

34

0RGHO��1��)DLUFORXJK¶V�WKUHH�GLPHQVLRQDO�PRGHO

Source: Fairclough 1992; 73

7.4.1 The Textual Dimension The inQHU�SDUW�RI�)DLUFORXJK¶V�WKUHH-GLPHQVLRQDO�PRGHO�LV�FDOOHG�WKH�µWH[W¶��)DLUFORXJK�GHILQHV�µWH[W¶�

DV�IROORZV��³A text is a product rather than a process ± D�SURGXFW�RI�WKH�SURFHVV�RI�WH[W�SURGXFWLRQ´

(Fairclough 2001; 20)

Fairclough organises textual analysis under four main headings, which are: µvocabulary¶��

µgrammar¶�� µcohesion¶ DQG� µtext-structure¶��This dissertation will do a combined analysis of the

textual and discursive dimensions in the sampled job advertisements. It will primarily focus on text-

structure, identification of discourses and genre elements rather than distinguishing formal features

VXFK�DV�µvocabulary¶��µgrammar¶�DQG�µcohesion¶��7KHUHIRUH�WKLV�VXE-section will not go into further

details about those three headings.

The heading called µtext structure¶ however is relevant in regards to the aims of this

dissertation. It deals with the architecture of large scale texts. Where architecture means the higher-

level design features of different kinds of texts, and how the episodes and elements of the text are:

combined, structured, ordered et cetera. Specific structuring conventions can give insight into the

35

systems of knowledge and beliefs as well as the social identities and relationships that are built into

the conventions (Fairclough 1992; 77-78).

7.4.2 The Discursive Dimension The middle dimension of the three-dimensional model is called ³discursive practice´. Discursive

practice, as model 2 illustrates above, involves production, distribution and consumptions of texts.

It has to be remembered that the nature of these three processes changes between different types of

discourse depending on the social context (texts are produced in different ways depending on the

social context).

The way a text is consumed is likewise different according to the social context it occurs in.

Different kinds of interpretive work can be applied when consuming a text for example intense

scrutiny, semi-focused attention et cetera. Consumption like production of texts can be on an

individual level or a collective level: this really depends on the text itself.

The ways of distributing a text can also be very different; a conversation for example is only

shared between the participants of the conversation whereas a political bill is distributed across a

range of governmental departments to be approved et cetera. Some producers anticipate the multiple

audiences of a text, and produce the text in a way that addresses the different audiences and their

consumption processes.

Fairclough distinguishes three headings that belong under discursive practice which are called

µforce¶�� µcoherence¶� DQG� µintertextuality¶� This dissertation will primarily be dealing with the

KHDGLQJ�FDOOHG�µintertextuality¶�LQ�WKH�DQDO\VLV�VHFWLRQ�WKHUHIRUH no attention will be paid to µforce¶

and µcoherence¶ in this section.

Intertextuality alludes to the fact that all communicative events are inspired by past events. This

can be seen by texts using words and phrases, which others have used earlier. Intertextuality is

defined by Fairclough as follows;

³Intertextuality is basically the property texts have of being full of snatches of other texts, which

may be explicitly demarcated or merged in, and which the text may assimilate, contradict,

LURQLFDOO\�HFKR��DQG�VR�IRUWK´�(Fairclough 1992; 84).

36

)DLUFORXJK�GUDZV�D�GLVWLQFWLRQ�EHWZHHQ� µmanifest intertextuality¶� DQG� µinterdiscursivity¶��0DQLIHVW�

intertextuality is when a text overtly draws upon other specific texts for example by quoting them

(Fairclough 1992; 85), and interdiscursivity is when a text constitutes a mixture of different genres,

discourses and styles which are expressed together (Fairclough 2003; 218).

The level of interdiscursivity cannot be determined in a text without examining the presence of

different discourses and genres in a given text. Therefore the discursive practice also involves

analysis of the discourses and genres which are articulated in the production and consumption of the

text (Jørgensen & Phillips; 2006, 69).

Genre is in Fairclough view a difficult concept because it can be defined on several different

OHYHOV� RI� DEVWUDFWLRQ��7KHUHIRUH�KH�GLVWLQJXLVKHV�EHWZHHQ� WKUHH� OHYHOV� RI� DEVWUDFWLRQ�QDPHO\� µpre-

genres¶�� µdisembedded genres¶�DQG� ODVWO\� µsituated genres¶��The term pre-genre is used for highly

abstract things such as narratives. Disembedded genres are a less abstract category, an example of

this would be interviews and lastly the term situated genres is used for genres which are specific to

particular networks of practices (Fairclough; 2003, 68-�� 8VLQJ� )DLUFORXJK¶V� GLVWLQFWLRQ� MRE�

advertisements would be considered a situated genre, because they are specific to recruitment

practices. According to Fairclough many genres, but not all, are said to be purpose-driven, because

they are ³clearly tied to broadly recognized social purposes´� �)DLUFORXJK�� ). Job

advertisements can clearly be argued to be a purpose-driven genre. Their primary purpose and

development of possible secondary purpose will be discusses later (see section 10).

Purpose-driven genres typically have well-GHILQHG� µgeneric structures¶ differentiating them from

other genres according to Fairclough (Fairclough; 2003, 72). Generic structure is defined as

follows: ³7KH�RYHUDOO�VWUXFWXUH�RU organization of a text, which depends upon the main genre upon

ZKLFK�WKH�WH[W�GUDZV´ (Fairclough; 2003, 216). Generic structure can be highly ritualized, meaning

that the sequence in which some elements occur is fairly rigid and predictable whereas for other

elements occurrence can vary (Fairclough; 2003, 72-75). This generic structure can develop over

time when genres change or adopt new purposes.

37

7.4.3 The Social Dimension 7KH�RXWHU�PRVW�GLPHQVLRQ�RI�)DLUFORXJK¶V�WKUHH-dimensional model is called social practice. Social

practice can be seen according to Fairclough as expressions of different types of social elements

which are associated with certain areas of social life. The social dimension consists of both

discursive and non-discursive elements. Fairclough does not give any suggestions as to how one

should analyse these non-discursive elements. Social practices articulate discourse together with

non-discursive elements (Fairclough 2003; 25).

)DLUFORXJK� LQWURGXFHV� WKH� FRQFHSWV� RI� µideology¶� DQG� µhegemony¶� LQ� UHODWLRQ� WR� WKH� VRFLDO�

dimension. This section will not go into further details about the two concepts because even though

WKH�FRQFHSW�RI�SRZHU�UHODWLRQV�SOD\V�D�ODUJH�UROH�ZLWKLQ�)DLUFORXJK¶V�VRFLDO�GLPHQVLRQ��LW�ZLOO�QRW�EH�

used in this dissertation due to the fact that it is not relevant in relation to the analysis of the job

advertisements.

8 Data description

8.1 Sampling methods

This paragraph will focus on describing the data, how it was collected, which sampling strategies

were used and why those particular strategies were chosen instead of others.

In this dissertation sampling is seen as a series of strategic choices which have to be made by

WKH�UHVHDUFKHU��WKLV�LV�ZK\�3DWWRQ¶V��SXUSRVHIXO�VDPSOLQJ�VWUDWHJLHV�ZKHUH�FKRVHQ��3XUSRVeful

sampling is a qualitative approach that focuses on a small group of samples that are intentionally

selected. The strength of purposeful sampling is that it: ³>��@�IRFXVHV�RQ�VHOHFWLQJ�LQIRUPDWLRQ-rich

cases whose study will illuminate the questions uQGHU� VWXG\´ (Patton; 2002, 230). According to

3DWWRQ� �� H[DPLQLQJ� µinformation- ULFK� FDVHV¶� will give the researcher a more in-depth

understanding of the individual cases rather than empirical generalisable data (Patton; 2002, 230).

Atypically this dissertation will use a combination of two purposeful sampling strategies because it

is most suitable for WKH�SURFHVV�RI� WKLV� UHVHDUFK��7KH� WZR�FKRVHQ�VDPSOLQJ�VWUDWHJLHV�DUH�3DWWRQ¶V�

(2002) criterion sampling and maximum variation sampling or heterogeneity sampling as it also is

called. The criterion sampling strategy will be used to cast a wide net, and collect a large number of

relevant job advertisements, thereafter maximum variation sampling will be used to reduce this pool

38

of job advertisements to a more manageable total sample size of 9 advertisements to be analysed.

Each of these two strategies will be described more thoroughly in the following two sections.

8.1.1 Criterion sampling Criterion sampling involves looking for cases that meet ³some predetermined criterion of

importance (Patton; 2002, 238).´ Criterion sampling will be used as the first strategy when

collecting the entire group of job advertisements. Five different criteria will be used for sampling

the job advertisements:

1. Job advertisements from the years 1961, 1991 and 2011

2. Job advertisements from the two Danish newspapers; Berlingske Tidende and Politiken as well as

from the online source Jobindex.dk

3. Job advertisements sourced from the months of August, September and October.

4. Job advertisements sourced from the weekdays; Wednesday and Sunday

5. Only full-time positions will be sampled

The reason why job advertisements from 1961, 1991 and 2011 were chosen was because of the

curricula that were available. The curricula as mentioned above will be from the years 1956, 1986

and 2006, so there are precisely 5 years between them and the closest sample of job advertisements.

No curricula were available for the year of 1956 so job advertisements sourced five years later in

1961 will serve as a baseline. The three years were purposely chosen with 30 and 20-year intervals

respectively, so in the case of the former the differences in genre conventions, structure, discourse

et cetera would potentially be more prominent because there has been more time for changes to take

hold. This is important for the study because it tries to catalogue the changes of the content in job

advertisements over time to see how they have changed. The two newspapers from which job

advertisements were sourced were chosen because of their readership which primarily can be

characterised as academics. Politiken is one of the three national dailies in Denmark which

dominate the market. Politiken is the largest of the three newspapers with 376,000 daily readers and

a superior coverage of the region around Copenhagen. Politiken describe their readers as follows;

´7KH�W\SLFDO�3ROLWLNHQ�UHDGHU�FDQ�EH�FKDUDFWHULVHG�DV�¶D�PRGHUQ�SHUVRQ¶��7KH\�DUH�KLJKO\�HGXFDWHG�

DQG�KDYH�DQ�RYHUDOO�KLJK� LQFRPH´ (Web 2). Berlingske Tidende is also one of the three national

dailies with a circulation of 295.000 and a superior coverage of the regions east of The Great Belt.

39

Their readers are characterised as having; ´D�PXFK�KLJKHU�LQFRPH�WKDQ�WKH�DYHUDJH�'DQLVK family

and they are characterised by their purchasing power and focus on good quality of lifestyle

SURGXFWV��HQWHUWDLQPHQW�DQG�GHVLJQ´�(Web 1). The higher than average income indicates that these

readers must be highly educated individuals. The reason why an online source was included was

due to the significant decline of job advertisements in newspapers in 2011 compared to the two

other years, and because the new medium used to publish the job advertisements might give rise to

a wide range of changes.

The third criterion was chosen because August, September and October are the three months

immediately after the summer holidays in Denmark and the months where most new graduates are

seeking their first job.

The reason behind the fourth criterion is that Wednesdays and Sundays were traditionally the

two days of the week where the majority of job advertisements were published (Frandsen 2013 in

progress; 8).

The fifth and last criterion was simply chosen because there were plenty of information-rich job

advertisements for full-time positions to sample. This also minimised the number of job

advertisements in general. These criteria are all shown below in Table 1 along with the number of

job advertisements found which fulfil the above mention criteria.

Table 2: Danish Job Advertisements 1961, 1991 and 2011

Year Month Berlingske Tidende

Politiken jobindex Total

1961

August,

September,

October

50

49

41

16

6

7

169

1991

August,

September,

October

22

12

8

7

3

1

53

2011

August,

September,

October

2

2

1

1

2

2

5

16

8

39

40

What has to be kept in mind about the numbers in the table above is that the figures only represent

job advertisements that comply with the five criteria listed above and were legible after being

copied from the microfilm and printed. Job advertisements appearing more than once are also only

counted once. The two newspapers can be argued to have the same target audience, namely

academics with a communications education and many other educations. This was why these two

newspapers were chosen to begin with, and the argument can be supported by the fact that some of

the same job advertisements appear in both newspapers. When this on a rare occasion occurred the

advertisement was still only counted once. This disruption in the counting process means that no

generalisation can be made about the difference in the number of job advertisements being

published in each of the two newspapers for a specific year from the figures in table 1, because the

numbers might be a tiny bit misleading. But this does not matter because the objective of the

dissertation is not to compare the number of job advertisements across the mediums in which they

were published. The objective is to compare job advertisements and their content across the time

variable.

8.1.2 Maximum variation sampling Now that a large pool of job advertisements have been collected the second sampling strategy will

be used to reduce the sample size. The second sampling strategy which was selected for choosing

among all the collected job advertisements is maximum variation sampling. This sampling strategy

fits well with the overall objective of this dissertation, because it ³aims at capturing and describing

the central themes that cut across a great deal of variation´ (Patton; 2002, 234-235), both within a

single year and across a combination of all three years which are to be examined. Maximum

variation sampling includes both extreme and typical cases plus any other positions that can be

identified (Patton; 2002, 243). This means that there will be representation of extreme cases, such as

large and small job advertisements, and typical/normal job advertisements for each of the chosen

years, which should provide the potential for some insight into shared characteristics as well as

extreme differences between the three chosen years.

Maximum variation sampling lets the researcher select a small number of ads that are diverse,

and as Patton (2002) says this can yield two kinds of findings:

1. High-quality, detailed descriptions of each case, which are useful for documenting

uniqueness

41

2. Important shared patterns that cut across cases and derive their significance from having

emerged out of heterogeneity

(Patton; 2002, 235)

The job advertisements which are going to be analysed will be selected on the basis of several

specific parameters to ensure that the final sample captures maximum variation. As Patton (2002)

states; to ensure maximum variation in a small sample�� ³One begins by identifying diverse

characteristics or criteria for constructing the sample´��3DWWRQ��2002, 235). There was a need for

different parameters for each of the three years (1961, 1991 and 2011). The reason for this was

because the content of the job advertisements changed dramatically over time, which meant that the

parameters needed to be modified to each year. The common thread for all the parameters chosen

for each of the three years is that they focus on the size of the advertisements. But what constitutes a

large job advertisement for example changes drastically over the period of time, which is being

examined. The three dimensions, which are going to be used, are small, medium and large job

advertisements. The small and large job advertisements will represent the extreme cases and the

medium job advertisements will represent the typical cases. The reason why size has been chosen as

the theme for the parameters is because it makes sense that a large job advertisement holds more

text and therefore more information about the job vacancy than a small job advertisement does. It

will also be interesting to see which elements are purposely included or excluded in job

advertisements representing each of the three parameters. A sample size of three job advertisements

per year has been chosen for examination. This should give enough insight into the extreme and

typical job advertisements for each year. It is characteristic for maximum variation sampling that

the researcher selects a small number of cases that maximise the diversity relevant to the research

question. The dimensions for the three examined years are described more thoroughly below in

table 4.

42

Table 4: The three dimensions defined by word count

A small job advertisement has a main body of text

which is:

A medium job advertisement has a main

body of text which is:

A large job advertisement has a main

body of text which is:

1961

less than 20 words

more than 20 words,

less than 50 words

more than 50 words

1991

less than 60 words

more than 60 words,

less than 140 words

more than 140 words

2011

less than 200 words

more than 200 words,

less than 500 words

more than 500 words

The characteristics which define each of the three dimensions that is small, medium and large job

advertisements respectively, have been chosen on the basis of assessing the general size of the job

advertisements for each year by doing extensive word counts. The differentiated characteristics for

each size for 1961, 1991 and 2011 respectively are due to each section of the job advertisements

becoming more information rich. Everything is described in more detail and therefore the

advertisements general size grows from 1961 to 1991 and then again in 2011. Finally it has to be

pointed out that it is the Danish job advertisements chosen for analysis, which fulfil the above stated

characteristics for constituting a small, medium or large job advertisement, but that their word

counts can be found to vary a little after they have been translated into English and are ready to be

analysed.

The three dimensions: small, medium and large are going to be used to identify the three job

advertisements for each year, which means that one small job advertisement, one medium job

advertisement and one large job advertisement will be found for each year. In summary the use of

maximum variation sampling on the large pool of job advertisements gathered using criterion

sampling lead to a final total of 9 job advertisements, which will be analysed in the next chapter.

8.2 Translation of data The majority of curricula and job advertisements which are about to be analysed in this dissertation

are originally written in Danish. There are a couple of exceptions: one of the corporate

FRPPXQLFDWLRQ� FXUULFXOD¶V� IURP� �� DQG a job advertisement from the online job bank are

43

originally written in English. The Danish advertisements and the Danish data extracts, from the

curricula, will all be translated into English so the analysis and its results can reach a wider

audience. A semantic translation will be made of each of the job advertisements and they will be

displayed along with the original Danish job advertisement in the Appendix. The English data

extracts will be displayed together with the themes they illustrate in section 9.1.1 below. The reason

ZK\�D�VHPDQWLF�WUDQVODWLRQ�ZDV�FKRVHQ�LV�EHFDXVH�³Semantic translation renders, as far as possible,

WKH� H[DFW� OLQJXLVWLF� PHDQLQJ� RI� WKH� VRXUFH� WH[W´ (Schjoldager et al.; 2008, 69). In other words

semantic translation tries to retain the exact contextual meaning of the source text which is

important in relation to the aims of this dissertation. For the translation a source-text oriented

macrostrategy will be used because of three reasons: firstly there is a focus on the source-texts form

and content; VHFRQGO\�LW�LV�D�WUDQVODWLRQ�RI�VRPHERG\�HOVH¶V�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�DQG�ODVWO\�LW�Ls an overt

translation due to the fact that the readers are aware that they are reading a translation (Schjoldager

et al. 2008; 72).

9 Thematic Analysis

9.1 Thematic analysis of communication curricula This section deals with analysing the data set (see table 2) which is made up of the correspondent

curricula from 1986 and the corporate communication curricula from 2006. The coding of all the

curricula in the data set will, as mentioned above in section 6.3, be theory-driven. In other words the

data set is going to be analysed with specific questions in mind. This dissertation is interested in

finding answers to the two following questions from the curricula:

1. Which subjects were taught as a part of the educations in question?

2. What skills and knowledge were acquired as a result of a completed education?

These questions are interesting because when patterns and key themes which relate to these

questions have been found, they will be used to examine, if what was being taught is reflected in the

skills required of the applicants and tasks described in the job advertisements. This will be

elaborated on below. Any data extracts found relating to the two questions above will be

categorised into themes. The framework approach described by Bryman (2008) will be used to

manage and present the themes and their corresponding data extracts in the following two sub-

sections.

44

9.1.1 Analysis of curricula from 1986 This section will XVH�%UDXQ��&ODUN¶V��VL[�VWHS�JXLGH�WR�FRQGXFWLQJ�WKHmatic analysis of the

curriculum IRU� µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW�RQH� ODQJXDJH¶�DQG� µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW� WZR� ODQJXDJHV¶� IURP�� (see

14.4.1 and 14.4.2). The combined analysis of the two will identify and present patterns and key

themes which are relevant in relation to the secondary aims of this dissertation (see section 3.3)

The µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW�RQH�ODQJXDJH¶�HGXFDWLRQ is available in five different languages: English,

German, French, Spanish and Italian which are all covered in the curriculum. A great consistency

was found across the different language versions of the correspondent education, because they are

structured similarly with the same basic subjects. Therefore one of the elements which was used in

the third phase µVHDUFKLQJ�IRU�WKHPHV¶ (Braun & Clark; 2006) of the thematic analysis was looking

for µrepetitions¶ that is topics that keep reoccurring (Ryan & Bernard; 2003). The primary

difference between these versions of the correspondent education is the number of hours dedicated

to learning the specific language. The Spanish and Italian correspondent education dedicates much

more time to learning the language than the English, German and French correspondent educations

do.

7KH� FXUULFXOXP� IRU� WKH� µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW� WZR� ODQJXDJHV¶� HGXFDWLRQ� FRYHUV� IRXU� ODQJXDJH�

combinations namely English-German, English-French, English-Spanish and lastly German-French.

What is apparent from this curriculum is that it is structured precisely the same way as the

µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW� RQH� ODQJXDJH¶� HGXFDWLRQ�� 7KH\� VKDUH the same subject areas such as language

production, language description, social, political and cultural conditions et cetera. The only

difference is that the subject DUHDV� DUH� FRYHUHG� WZLFH� LQ� WKH� µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW� WZR� ODQJXDJHV¶�

education so the two languages in question are equivalent to each other. This is the reason why this

sub-section is going to do a combined thematic analysis of the two documents and present the

combined results that is themes they share.

Both µ&orrespondent educations¶ in general correspond to a bachelor degree at the time. There

was also D�PDVWHU¶V�GHJUHH��0$��DQG a µ%XVLQHVV� ODQJXDJH�'LSORPD�'HJUHH¶� �%''��which were

available in 1986 as superstructures to both WKH�µCorrespondent educationV¶��%XW�WKH�µFRUUHVSRQGHQW�

RQH� ODQJXDJH¶� HGXFDWLRQ� ZDV� LQ� LWVHOI� VHHQ� DV� D� FRPSOHWHG business degree. It functioned as an

autonomous education which was primarily directed at people who already had a job and needed

further education (curricula; 14.4.1, 3). This is one of the reasons why the MA or the BDD are not

45

going to be analysed in this dissertation. Another important reason is because the curricula for those

specific educations were not archived and therefore are not available for study.

After analysing the data, initial codes where generated, themes were found, reviewed and

named which lead to the five themes listed in Tables 5-9 below. The five themes are inspired by

some of the subject areas which were presented in the curricula (curricula; 14.4.1, 18).

7KH� ILUVW� WKHPH� IRXQG� LQ� WKH� WZR� FXUULFXOD¶V� IRFXV� RQ� HOHPHQWV� ZKLFK� DUH� UHODWHG� WR� language

description. In Table 5 below the theme is shown along with the subjects and data extracts which

display something about the skills or knowledge acquired as a result of taking the subjects

mentioned. The data extracts were chosen among the description of the subjects, to illustrate the

overall knowledge or skills acquired in relation to this theme. The knowledge or skills which the

data extracts describe, are all echoed in the different languages.

Table 5: Theme 1, Language description

Theme Language description

Subjects ¶,QWUR�Wo grammar DQDO\VLV¶

¶Grammar ,��,,¶

¶7H[W�DQDO\VLV�DQG�JUDPPDU¶

Acquired skills/

knowledge

Knowledge of:

x ´basic systematic knowledge of the main principles of the [name of specific

language] language phonological and grammatical structure´�(p. 40)

x ´correct pronunciation´�(p. 19)

x ´3KRQHWLFV��PRUSKRORJ\��V\QWD[��VHPDQWLFV�DQG�SUDJPDWLFV´(p. 21)

x ´>«@the students are able to apply grammatical principles in both

ODQJXDJH�GHVFULSWLRQ�DV�ZHOO�DV�ODQJXDJH�SURGXFWLRQ´ (p. 21)

x ´[..] theoretical understanding of texts¶, structure and function in a larger

communicative context´�(p. 22)

46

The second theme, shown in table 6 below, covers data extracts which have something to do with

the theme language production and production of business specific language.

Table 6: Theme 2, Language production

Theme Language production

Subjects ¶/DQJXDJH�SURGXFWLRQ¶

¶7UDQVODWLRQ�WR�IURP¶

¶%XVLQHVV�(FRQRPLF�7H[WV¶

Acquired skills/

knowledge

Knowledge of:

x ´>+RZ�WR@ express themselves grammatically correct in Danish and [the

specific language] in all text production, also in terms of translations to

express themselves equivalently´�(p. 23)

x ´>«@�WKH�JHQHUDO�SULQFLSOHV�RI�WUDQVODWLRQ´ (p. 28)

x ´PRGHUQ�EXVLQHVV�FRUUHVSRQGHQFH�DQG�D�EDVLF�NQRZOHGJH�RI�EXVLQHVV�

economics terminology´�(p. 43)

The third theme found in the curricula for the two correspondent educations is called social,

political and cultural conditions and is illustrated with data extracts in table 7 below.

Table 7: Theme 3, Social, political and cultural conditions

Theme Social, political and cultural conditions

Subjects ¶6RFLDO�DQG�FXOWXUDO�FRQGLWLRQV¶

¶7KH�SROLWLFDO�V\VWHP¶

Acquired skills/

knowledge

x ³knowledge and understanding of social, political and cultural conditions

and contexts within the [English, German, French, Spanish, French ] language

DUHD´�(p. 24)

x ³$ fundamental knowledge of the most important aspects of modern [name

of country]´�(p. 49)

47

The fourth theme, shown in table 8 below, covers all data extracts which relate to Business and

Society in the curricula.

Table 8: Theme 4, Business and Society

Theme Business and Society

Subjects

¶%XVLQHVV�SURFHVVHV¶

¶7KH�FRPSDQ\¶

µ%XVLQHVV�DQG�6RFLHW\¶

Acquired skills/

knowledge

Knowledge of:

x ³LQTXLULHV��TXRWDWLRQV��VDles letters, orders, billing, transport / delivery,

SD\PHQW´ (p. 25)

x ´distribution, sales/ marketing, export/ import, business forms, financial

statements / UHSRUWV��ILQDQFLDO��SD\PHQW�FRQGLWLRQV��VWDIILQJ´ (p. 25)

The fifth and last theme identified, by using %UDXQ� � &ODUN¶V� �� VL[� VWHS� Juide, is called

business language. This theme is shown below in table 9.

48

Table 9: Theme 5, Business language

Theme Business language

Subjects ¶%XVLQHVV�FRUUHVSRQGHQFH¶

¶BXVLQHVV�HFRQRPLFV¶

¶(FRQRPLFV¶

¶%XVLQHVV��FRPPHUFLDO�ODZ¶

¶Practical Business¶

Acquired skills/

knowledge

Knowledge of:

x ³FRPPHUFLDO�FRUUHVSRQGHQFH��EDVLF�WHFKQLFDO�DQG�OHJDO�FRUUHVSRQGHQFH´ (p.

29)

x ³Writing and setup of varied and complex Danish business letters from

dictation, voice recorder or concept, as well as drawing up foreign language

OHWWHUV�PHVVDJHV´��p. 60)

x ³use of LQIRUPDWLRQ�DQG�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�WHFKQRORJ\´�(p. 60)

x The ³%UDLOOH�V\VWHP�DQG�>��@�JRRG�ZULWLQJ�VNLOOV´�(p. 60)

x ³Light word processing on electronic word processors´ (p. 60)

x ³(PSKDVLV�LV�SODFHG�RQ�SURYLGLQJ�VWXGHQWs with knowledge of technological

GHYHORSPHQWV�LQ�WKH�RIILFH�ILHOG´�(p. 60)

The themes above illustrate what was taught at the time and what skills and knowledge

correspondents had. That is in itself not intriguing. When these themes are used to examine whether

there is a link between them and job advertisements which are targeted at correspondents that is

where it becomes interesting. These particular themes will be used in section 10.3.

9.1.2 Analysis of the curricula from 2006 This section is like the previous section going to XVH� %UDXQ��&ODUN¶V� �� six step guide to

FRQGXFW�WKHPDWLF�DQDO\VLV�RI�WKH�FXUULFXOD�IRU�µ0$�&RUSRUDWH�ComPXQLFDWLRQ¶�both the Danish and

the English version (see table 2). These two versions share the same obligatory subjects the first two

semesters. The difference between the two educations, are three profiles which are not available in

49

both languages. Due to their overall similarity these curricula are going to be treated as one entity in

the following analysis.

This section has purposely chosen to examine the curricula IURP� WKH� µCorporate

CRPPXQLFDWLRQ¶�master degrees for two reasons. Firstly a master degree relies on the foundation of

the bachelor degree which means it builds on pre-existing knowledge. Secondly a master degree is

the pinnacle of what a person can learn while at university. The reason why the Corporate

Communication education was chosen for analysis, instead of the MA in International Business

Communication, is because the job advertisements from 2011 require candidates with a relevant

degree within communications or journalism. Not to say that the MA in International Business

Communication is not a relevant communications degree, but it has a linguistic focus as well as a

communicative focus, whereas the MA in Corporate Communications strictly focuses on different

forms of communication and can in that respect be comparable to a journalism degree.

This section will present the themes found in the curricula. The themes listed in Table 10-14

below were found after creating initial codes and reviewing the themes. The themes are inspired by

some of the SURILOHV�ZLWKLQ�WKH�µ&RUSRUDWH�&ommunication¶ education.

The first theme is called Marketing Communications and was inspired by a profile which is

available in both versions of the education. This theme covers three subjects and a lot of data

extracts which describe skills or knowledge acquired. All these elements are shown in table 10

below.

Table 10: Theme 1, Marketing Communications

Theme Marketing Communications

Subjects µIntegrated Marketing Communication and Public Relations¶

µConsumption, Society and Market¶

µMarketing, Organisation and Management¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ³key concepts, models and theories within the types of integrated marketing

communication and public relations´ (p. 31)

x ´<RX�ZLOO�DOVR�EH�LQWURGXFHG�WR�WKH�SODQQLQJ��LPSOHPHQWDWLRQ�DQG�

50

measurement of a marketing communication or public relations campaign and

RWKHU�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�WDVNV´�(p. 31)

x ´QHZ�LQIRUPDWLRQ�WHFKQRORJ\�LQ�WKH�PDUNHWLQJ�DQG�SXEOLF�UHODWLRQV�SURFHVV��H-

marketing and e-PR) as well as with alternative media and strategies, such as

outdoor marketing, events, sponsoring, co-EUDQGLQJ�DQG�VXEYHUWLVLQJ´�(p. 31).

x ³Project management´ (p. 33)

The second theme which was found during the thematic analysis of the corporate communication

curricula is called Global Communications and is shown below in table 11.

Table 11: Theme 2, Global Communication

Theme Global Communication

Subjects ¶Global Communication in a Corporate Perspective¶

¶Society, Networks and Globalisation¶

¶International Management and Globalisation¶

Acquired skills

Knowlegde of:

x ´RUJDQLVDWLRQV¶�VWUDWHJLF�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�ZLWK�H[WHUQDO�DQG�LQWHUQDO�

stakeholders in a global, multi-cultural environment´ (p. 34)

x ´Organisational communication in the multinational corporation´ (p. 34)

x ´Basic principles of international management´ (p. 36)

x ´Intercultural management´� p. 36)

x ³DGYDQFHG�NQRZOHGJH�ZLWKLQ�FHQWUDO�FRQGLWLRQV�FKDUacteristic of international

management and organisations in a global context which may influence the

VWUDWHJLF�SODQQLQJ�RI�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ´ (p.36).

The third theme is called Corporate Communication and is illustrated in table 12 below. It covers

two of the obligatory subjects which can be found as a part of both versions of the education.

51

Table 12: Theme 3, Corporate Communication

Theme Corporate Communication

Subjects µ&RUSRUDWH�&RPPXQLFDWLRQ�,¶

µCorporate Communication II¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ³practical skills and tools required to analyse, prepare and implement a

FRUSRUDWH�EUDQGLQJ�SURFHVV´ (p. 21)

x ³central concepts such as culture, identity, image and reputation, to corporate

branding and integrated communications planning models´ (p. 21)

x ³gap analyses, identity-tests, the drawing-up of a communications policy and

communication measurements like balanced scorecard´ (p. 21)

The fourth theme, shown in table 13 below, is called Tourism Communication.

Table 13: Theme 4, Tourist Communication

Theme Tourist Communication

Subjects µTourist communication¶

µTourism as market and business¶

µTourism, organization and management¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ³place branding and destination marketing´ (p. 37)

x ³communications related to the most common forms of tourism (e.g. mass

tourism, cultural tourism, conference tourism and ecotourism)´ (p. 37)

x ³National and local tourism policy´ (p. 38)

x ³Relevant legislation that affects tourism communication´ (p. 38)

The fifth theme found in the curricula is called Communication with the public authorities and is

inspired by a profile available on the Danish version of the corporate communications education.

52

Table 14: Theme 5, Communication with the public authorities

Theme Communication with the public authorities

Subjects µCommunication with the public authorities¶

µThe public sector as a management area¶

µThe public sector, organization and management¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ³branding of cities, service, communication, involvement of citizens and

communication in connection with municipal mergers´ (p. 40)

x ³Ethics in the public sector´ (p. 41)

x ³The basic principles of public management in municipalities, counties /

regions and state´ (p. 42)

The sixth theme is called Stakeholder Communication. It covers all subjects which focus on

communication with investors, customers, employees et cetera. In other words it covers many

different types of internal and external communications. The theme and the data extracts which

illustrate the skills and knowledge acquired as a result of the subjects are shown below in table 15.

Table 15: Theme 6, Stakeholder Communication

Theme Stakeholder Communication

Subjects µStakeholder Relations¶

µ,QYHVWRU�5HODWLRQV¶

µCorporate Social Responsibility¶

µHuman Resource Management¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ³media training as well as practical skills in handling the media in relation to

53

interviews, statements etc´ (p. 23)

x ³types of social responsibility (the inclusive labour market, new social

partnerships, diversity management, Cause-Related Marketing, the

environment, animal welfare, etc.)´�(p. 27)

x ³personnel policy, strategic recruitment and selection, employee loyalty

strategies, competence development and training programmes, integration of

new personnel groups etc.´ (p. 28)

The last theme found in the corporate communication curricula has been named miscellaneous (see

table 16). This theme contains the subjects which did not belong in any of the other six themes. This

may seem strange, but as Braun & Clarke (2006) say; ³\RX�PDQ\�DOVR�KDYH�D�VHW�RI�FRGHV�WKDW�GR�

QRW� VHHP� WR� EHORQJ� DQ\ZKHUH�� DQG� LW� LV� SHUIHFWO\� DFFHSWDEOH� WR� FUHDWH� D� µWKHPH¶� FDOOHG�

µPLVFHOODQHRXV¶�WR�KRXVH�WKH�FRGHV´ (Braun & Clarke; 2006, 90). The reason why this theme and its

subjects have not been discarded is because they illustrate what is being taught just as much as any

of the other themes and the subjects covered. The only difference is that the subjects covered by this

theme do not have a common denominator.

Table 16: Theme 7, Miscellaneous

Theme Miscellaneous

Subjects µThe manager as communicator¶

µStrategic Management of Organisations¶

µMedia training¶

µScientific Methods¶

Acquired skills

Knowledge of:

x ´7KH�SXUSRVH�RI�WKLV�VXEMHFW�LV�WR�SURYLGH�\RX�ZLWK�IXQGDPHQWDO�WKHRretical

and practical insight into strategic management and into how to develop,

implement and evaluate a corporate strategy with particular reference to

PDQDJLQJ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�SURFHVVHV´��S��

x ³the main concepts and models in media training and practical skills in

handling the media for interviews, statements, etc´ (p. 23)

54

The seven themes found in the corporate communication curricula all say something about the focus

of the educations in 2006. It will be interesting to see whether any of these themes are present in the

job advertisements from 2011.

10 Discourse analysis

10.1 Analysis of job advertisements from three periods This chapter will analyse the nine MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV�XVLQJ�)DLUFORXJK¶V�WH[WXDOO\�RULHQWHG�WKHRU\�RI�

critical discourse analysis. Three job advertisements will be analysed for each year and they each

represent a small, a medium and a large job advertisement respectively. Two levels of analysis will

be performed in relation to all these job advertisements with exception of the job advertisements

from 1961 (see section 8.1.1). The first level is concerned with a combination of the textual

dimension and the discursive dimension which will analyse the generic structure and genre

components of the job advertisements as wells as comment on the different discourses that can be

found, interdiscursivity and intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992).

Critical discourse analysis uses many different methods for analysing texts. This dissertation will

use 5DIDHOL�DQG�2OLYHU¶V��98) skeleton as a reference point when analysing the generic structure

for the job advertisements and for defining the specific genre elements that are present. The way of

combining the analysis of the textual dimension with the analysis of discursive dimension is a

common practice which Fairclough uses himself:

³,Q�PRVW�RI�KLV�RZQ�DQDO\VHV��)DLUFORXJK�GRHV�QRW�VRFLRORJLFDOO\�H[DPLQH�WKH�ZD\V�LQ�ZKLFK�WH[WV�

are produced or decoded. More often he works from a linguistic starting point in concrete texts,

identifying what discourses they draw on (interdiscursivity) and how they intertextually draw on

RWKHU�WH[WV´ (Jørgensen & Phillips; 2002, 82)

In any case this dissertation is not interested in how the job advertisements are produced (examining

newspapers production conditions) or how they are perceived by readers. This dissertation is

concerned with the generic structure and content of job advertisements, how they change over time

and why. This level of analysis should ultimately result in an all-round ideal format for a job

advertisement being suggested.

55

The second level of analysis involves examining whether social practise has influenced the

content of the job advertisements. After the textual and discursive analysis, the themes found using

thematic analysis on the curricula from 1986 and 2006 will be compared with the contents of the

job advertisements from 1991 and 2011 respectively. This level of analysis will focus on the

sections of the job advertisements which are most likely to be influenced by the curricula for

example requirements and job description. The last level of analysis will provide insight into

whether there is a link between the two entities (job advertisements and curricula) and if there is

such a link, how does it work?

10.2 Analysis of job advertisements from 1961 This section will analyse the textual and discursive dimension of each of the three job

advertisements. It will not address the societal level of analysis due to lack of curricula from 1956.

As mentioned earlier in section 8.1.1, the analysis of job advertisements from 1961 will act as a

baseline from which changes in the content of job advertisements from the two other years will be

compared.

10.2.1 Small job advertisement The first job advertisement which will be analysed is number A2 (section 14.1.2). It is an example

of a small job advertisement from 1961 and was sourced from the Danish newspaper Berlingske

Tidende on the 22nd of October 1961.

The first of RafaeOL�DQG�2OLYHU¶V��IRXU�HOHPHQWV�IURP�WKH�skeleton which is present in this

job advertisement is the organisations identity. The organisation identity or sender of this

advertisement is prominently written at the bottom ³%URWKHUV� $�� 2�� -RKDQVHQ� $�6´ (section

14.1.2) but no extra information is given about the sender such as what field of business they are in,

what the company does, the company size et cetera. As Rafaeli and Oliver (1998) point out this lack

of extra information about the company suggests that this job advertisement does not have more

than the one target audience which is possible applicants. The job advertisement is not trying to

impress anyone therefore it can be argued that this particular advertisement only acts in one

analytically distinct direction namely announcing a job vacancy. This advertisement would fall

under what Rafaeli & Oliver deem a skeletal job advertisement which means it only has the one

motive mentioned above.

56

The organisation¶s human resources needs are captured very simply in the title ³'DQLVK�

&RUUHVSRQGHQW´� No other information is given about the vacant position. Information about what is

required to fulfil the human resources¶ needs is also present in this job advertisement though very

OLPLWHG��7KH�UHTXLUHG�TXDOLILFDWLRQV�LQ�DQ�HGXFDWLRQDO�VHQVH�DUH�DV�IROORZV��³experience in Danish

shorthand and commerce correspondence´��'HVSLWH�WKH�IDFW�WKDW�WKH job advertisements¶ only goal

is to attract possible applicants it does not do this very convincingly due to the lack of detailed

information. It can also be argued that the job advertisement has other non-educational related

requirements for example it requires applicants to be female and young. Even though there is a lack

of informaWLRQ��WKH�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW¶V�WDUJHW�DXGLHQFH is made FOHDU�E\�WKH�IROORZLQJ�VHQWHQFH�³a

skilled young lady´�� 7KH� DWWULEXWHV� GHVFULEHG� LQ� WKH� H[WUDFW� DUH� W\SLFDO� HOHPHQWV� IURP� 5RGJHU¶V�

personnel specifications; his seventh heading, called circumstances, in particular. The fact that this

job advertisement, specifically requires an applicant of a certain age and gender immediately dates

it. This is due to the fact that the Equal Treatment Act was implemented in Denmark in 1978 which

led to a prohibition against gender-based job advertisements (Web 4). The use of gender and age

specific demands in job advertisements before 1978, qualify job advertisements as artefacts of the

local culture at the time. Another point which can be made is that dHVSLWH�5RJHU¶V�VHYen-point plan

being from 1952, it does not particularly seem to have influenced the personnel specification is this

job advertisement from 1961, a little less than a decade later, seeing that only two (attainments and

circumstances��RI�5RGJHU¶V�VHYHQ�KHDGLngs can be found. There can be several reasons for this: one

might be the extra costs associated with longer job advertisements or that this particular

RUJDQLVDWLRQ�GLG�MXVW�QRW�XVH�5RGJHU¶V�IUDPHZRUN.

The fourth and last element of the skeleton is information about how to contact the

organisation. This element LV�DOVR�SUHVHQW�LQ�WKLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�LQ�WKH�VHQWHQFH�³Please call us

at C. 82 96 ext. 61´�DQG�WKH�DGGUHVV�ZKLFK�IROORZs the company name. This is the first place in this

job advertisement where the directive language function is used which calls for the reader to act on

the job advertisement.

The job advertisement contains a low degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) due to its

single motive, discourses which focus on corporate advertising are not present, and the job

advertisement only personifies the sender by use of personal pronouns as in ³We DUH�ORRNLQJ�IRU´

(section 14.1.2). it neglects to personify the receiver so examples of conversational discourse cannot

be found either. However it does of course draw on traditional job advertisement genre elements

(skeletal elements).

57

³$FFRUGLQJ�WR�)DLUFORXJK¶V�WKHRU\��D�KLJK�OHYHO�RI�LQWHUGLVFXUVLYLW\�LV�DVVRFLDWHG�ZLWK�FKDQJH��ZKLOH�

a low level oI� LQWHUGLVFXUVLYLW\� VLJQDOV� WKH� UHSURGXFWLRQ� RI� WKH� HVWDEOLVKHG� RUGHU´ (Jørgensen &

Phillips; 2002, 82-83)

A high level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) in a job advertisement is a manifestation of

wider social change, whereas job advertisements containing a low level of interdiscursivity

(Fairclough; 1992), such as this job advertisement, work to maintain traditional discourse orders. In

respect to intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992) LW� LV� FOHDU� WKDW� WKH� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW¶V� VWUXFWXUH is

inspired by similar communicative events. Its text draws on traditional recruitment discourse in a

conventional way as illustrated in the analysis above.

All in all this job advertisement contains the basic genre elements which make up the

foundation of employment advertisement according to Rafaeli & Oliver (1998). It is a perfect

example of a skeleton job advertisement which formal function is to announce employment

opportunities and nothing more. This ties in with the estimation of the single target audience of this

job advertisement.

10.2.2 Medium job advertisement This section will focus on analysing job advertisement number B2 (section 14.1.4) which is the first

example of a medium sized job advertisement sourced from the Danish newspaper Berlingske

Tidende on the 27th of August 1961. The same structure will be used to analyse this job

advertisement as the previous one.

7KH�ILUVW�HOHPHQW�ZKLFK�LV�JRLQJ�WR�EH�H[DPLQHG�LV�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V��skeletal element

called organisational identity. Unlike its predecessor this job advertisement does not give any

indication of the organisations identity, there is no company name or description of what service

they provide or product they produce. In other words the readers of this job advertisement do not

know who the sender is. On the basis of this it can be argued that this job advertisement is only

intended for one target audience namely possible applicants. It is not trying to impress the general

public, current employees or other organisations in the industry so what Rafaeli & Oliver (1998)

refer to as organisational impression management is far from present in this job advertisement.

In line with the excluded information about the organisational identity, this job advertisement

provides information about how to contact the organisation but not the usual form of a company

58

DGGUHVV� RU� WHOHSKRQH� QXPEHU�� ,Q� WKH� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� LW� VLPSO\� VD\V�� ´Ticket number 20497 to

%HUO��7LGHQ�´. It does not even invite interested parties to send their application to the ticket number

at the newspaper. In other words there is no use of directive language which signals an interaction

between sender and receiver.

Despite the job advertisement¶s exclusion of information about the organisational identity it

provides detailed information about its human resources needs. The needs are first presented in the

title of the job advertisement ´(QJOLVK�&RUUHVSRQGHQW´ WKLV�H[WUDFW�ZRXOG�VDWLVI\�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V�

(1998) requirements for what constitutes human resources needs, but as mentioned before in section

5.2, the job description contains a lot more elements besides a job title and some of these elements

are also present in this job advertisement. One element which can be identified from Marchington &

:LONLQVRQ¶V��IUDPHZRUN in the job advertisement is the second element called location: ´RXU�

RIILFH� LQ��UKROP´. It is curious why this information is provided when the organisations address

and name is not - it could very simply have been omitted. But is does place the organisation in the

town Ørholm. It might have been provided to insure that the organisation did not receive a lot of

applications from applicants which have no intention of relocating or commuting, thereby saving

the organisation time not having to go through redundant applications. Other elements which are

SUHVHQW� LQ� WKLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� IURP�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V� ��DQG�0DUFKLQJWRQ��:LONLQVRQ¶V�

(2007) job description formats, is the seventh element which in both frameworks deals with

physical and economic work conditions. This element is illustrated in the following extract ³6DODU\�

DSSUR[�� GNN� SHU�� PWK�� RU� LQ� DFFRUGDQFH� ZLWK� VNLOOV´ (section 14.1.4). Here the job

advertisement provides more detailed information about the salary, with actual figures provided,

than the previous job advertisement did. This could be to attract perspective applicants. The last

element which can be identified as belonging to the job description part of the advertisement is the

information about when the position is supposed to be filled ³$FFHVVLRQ� WKH��RU�SRVVLEO\� WKH�

��WKLV�\HDU´ (section 14.1.4).

The last genre element belonging to the job advertisement skeleton is information about

requirements can also be identified in this job advertisement. It mentions two requirements which

ZRXOG� EH� FKDUDFWHULVHG� DV� EHORQJLQJ� WR� WKH� VHFRQG� HOHPHQW� LQ� ERWK�5RGJHU¶V� DV�ZHOO� DV� )UDVHU¶V�

framework for personnel specifications which deals with educational requirements. These two

elements are ³SHUIHFW�(QJOLVK�DQG�DOO-URXQG�RIILFH�WUDLQLQJ´. This requirement section is very much

like the requirement sections in the previous job advertisement. There are not a lot of educational

related requirements and those that exist, are not particularly descriptive. Other requirements

59

SUHVHQW�LQ�WKLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�DUH�UHODWHG�WR�DJH�DQG�JHQGHU�UHTXLUHPHQWV��³Sharp lady, age is of

no importance´� �VHFWLRQ�14.1.4). These specific requirements can be categorised as belonging to

5RGJHU¶V� VHYHQWK� KHDGLQJ� FDOOHG� FLUFXPVWDQFHV� �WKLV�ZDV� DOVR� WKH� FDVH� LQ� WKH� SUHYLRXV� DQDO\VHV��

One question which could be asked in relation to this extract is why mention age at all if it is not

important in regards to the position? It can be argued that it just represents societal practices at the

time. So even though this organisation had no age restriction it is so common place to mention

restrictions that it is necessary to pinpoint that there are none. This statement will be easier to fully

confirm or disprove after having analysed the last job advertisement from this year. The use of the

word sharp in the extract above alludes to requirements for intellectual capabilities this sort of

requirements belong to what Rodger calls general intelligence and Fraser calls innate abilities.

In regards to interdiscursivity and intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992) this job advertisement is

very similar to its predecessor. It has a very low level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992)

because the text does not constitute a mixture of many different genres, discourses and styles which

are expressed together. The job advertisement is primarily inspired by traditional job advertisement

genre elements and recruitment discourses therefore this job advertisement signals the reproduction

of an established order.

All in all this job advertisement LOOXVWUDWHV� WKUHH� RXW� RI� IRXU� RI� 5DIDHOL� � 2OLYHU¶V� ��

skeletal genre elements. In general it provides more detailed information in regards to human

resources needs than the small job advertisement did and the requirements are across the board of

analysed job advertisements relatively cohesive. Where it really stands out in comparison to the

preceding job advertisements is in the lack of the organisational identity.

10.2.3 Large job advertisement This section will focus on the third and last job advertisement from 1961 that represents large job

advertisements. Like its predecessors it was sourced from the Danish newspaper Berlingske

Tidende on the 13th of August 1961. This analysis will also use the same structure to identify the

different elements that the job advertisement contains.

The organisational identity is in this job advertisement clearly stated in the bottom of the job

advertisement: ³3KLOOLSV´ (section 14.1.6) closely followed by the words ³3XEOLF�OLPLWHG�FRPSDQ\´

(PLC) (section 14.1.6). The main body of text also indirectly gives additional information in case

the reader does not know what kind of company Phillips is by saying they have ³VDOHV�RIILFHV�IRU�

HOHFWURQLF�HTXLSPHQW´ (section 14.1.6). So unlike the other examined job advertisements this one

60

provides the readers with the company name, an understanding of its general size due to the fact

that it is a PLC and the general public can buy shares in the company, and lastly which field of

business it belongs to.

Where human resources needs are concerned this job advertisement sums it up in its title:

³&RUUHVSRQGHQW´ (section 14.1.6). It also gives ekstra information about the location/department by

VD\LQJ��³for one of our sales offices for electronic equLSPHQW´ (section 14.1.6). This is of course not

terribly specific due to the lack of geographic information, this sales office could be anywhere. A

new element which can be identified in this job advertisement is Marchington anG�:LONLQVRQ¶V�

(2007) third element in their format which is responsible to. Previously in section 5.2 this element

was defined as a segment of the job description that mentions the job title of the future employees

supervisor to whom the future employee reports. The job advertisement does not directly say that

WKLV�LV�WKH�IXWXUH�HPSOR\HH¶V�VXSHUYLVRU�EXW�WKH�FKDLQ�RI�FRPPDQG�LV�LPSOLHG�LQ�WKLV�H[WUDFW�³$V�D�

result of the department head's frequent business trips, a lady who is accustomed to working

LQGHSHQGHQWO\�ZLOO�EH�SUHIHUUHG´ (section 14.1.6).

The requirements in this job advertisement can similarly to the previously analysed job

advertisements be divided into educational requirements (attainments/qualifications and

experience) and gender and age requirements (circumstantial requirements as Rodger would call it).

7KLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�LV�YHU\�VSHFLILF�DERXW�WKH�DJH�RI�WKH�SHUIHFW�DSSOLFDQW�³female´�DQG�³DURXQG�

�� \HDUV� ROG´� (section 14.1.6). This requirement is also coupled ZLWK� WKH� ZRUG� ³H[SHULHQFHG´,

which pinpoints that the company are not interested in graduates. When it comes to educational

requirements they are ³SHUIHFW� DW� VKRUWKDQG�� IDPLOLDU�ZLWK�(QJOLVK DQG�'DQLVK� FRUUHVSRQGHQFH´

and additionally ³Knowledge RI�*HUPDQ�ZRXOG�EH�DQ�DGYDQWDJH´�� In general these requirements

are very similar to requirements stated in the previous analysed job advertisements, but there is a

tendency towards having more requirements. This job advertisement also has a new element from

the personnel specifications which is illustrated in this extract ³D� ODG\� ZKR� LV� DFFXVWRPHG� WR�

ZRUNLQJ�LQGHSHQGHQWO\´ (section 14.1.6). The capability of being able to work independently would

fall under what Rodger calls special aptitudes, in other words special skills.

7KH�ODVW�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V��HOHPHQWV�ZKLFK�FDQ�EH�LGHQWLILHG�LQ�WKLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�

is the information about how to contact the organisation. Phillips directly encourage possible

applicant to contact them in person: ³3HUVRQDO� LQTXLULHV�DUH�NLQGO\�UHTXHVWHG�WR´��This request is

then directly followed by the company address.

61

This job advertisement contains a medium degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992). It can be

argued that it FRQWDLQV�VPDOO�HOHPHQWV�IURP�D�µFRUSRUDWH�DGYHUWLVLQJ¶ RU�µLPSUHVVLRQ�PDQDJHPHQW¶

discourse as well as traditional job advertisements genre elements. With respect to intertextuality

(Fairclough; 1992) the job advertisement draws on traditional recruitment discourse much as the

previously analysed job advertisements do.

This job advertisement can be argued to be the only one of the job advertisements that has been

examined so far which could have more than one target audience. In general it provides more

information about the company (size, financial status) than the other job advertisements but not in

an overwhelming way because the information is given indirectly by stating that it is a public

limited company. This job advertisement does therefore not qualify as a proper example of

organisational impression management but it could be the very early beginnings of it. A reason why

this job advertisement differs from the other job advertisements could be because Phillips is a

multinational company and therefore the job advertisement could reflect practices from the society

in which the organisation belongs and not practices from the society in which the newspaper is

published.

10.3 Analysis of job advertisements from 1991 In this section the three job advertisements from 1991 will be analysed using the two level analysis

approach described above in section 10.

10.3.1 Small job advertisement This sub-section is going to analyse the first job advertisement from 1991 which is called job

advertisement number D2 (section 14.2.2) and represents what has been categorised as a small job

advertisement for the year. This job advertisement has been sourced from the Danish newspaper

Berlingske Tidende on the 11th of August 1991.

10.3.1.1 Analysis level one The organisational identity represents a fifth of the main body of text, excluding the title and the

company name in the bottom, in this job advertisement. It informs the reader about the company

name ´Furniture 7UDQVSRUW��'HQPDUN´ (section 14.2.2), about it being a Public Limited Company

´/WG�´ (section 14.2.2), about the occupational community to which the company belongs ´an

62

LQWHUQDWLRQDO� PRYLQJ� FRPSDQ\´ (section 14.2.2) and lastly information about the number of

employees ´ZLWK�DSSUR[��HPSOR\HHV´ (section 14.2.2), which also says something about the

FRPSDQ\¶V general size. All this information is given in one simple sentence that covers a lot of

ground and gives a very clear picture of the advertising organisation that is the sender. It can be

argued that this job advertisement might have more than one target audience, because it provides a

lot of information about the organisation. This might suggest that the job advertisement is trying to

attract applicants as well as impress other organisations, current employees and the general public

about the organisation. But this is not pronounced enough for it to be categorised as a clear example

of impression management, mostly because there are no examples of the organisation directly

having a conversation with these secondary target audiences.

Where the element of human resources needs (job description, section 5.2) is concerned, the

main need is presented in the title of the job advertisements ´CRUUHVSRQGHQW´ (section 14.2.2). This

job advertisement contains information about a new element which belongs to Marchington &

:LONLQVRQ¶V��IRUPDW�IRU�MRE�GHVFULSWLRQV��7Kis element is called responsibilities/duties and is

illustrated in the following extract from the job advertisement:

´7KH� ZRUN� ZLOO� PDLQO\� FRQVLVW� RI� FRUUHVSRQGHQFH� UHODWLQJ� WR� LQWHUQDWLRQDO� UHORFDWLRQ� DQG�

FRQWDFW�ZLWK�RXU�ZRUOGZLGH�QHWZRUN�RI�DJHQWV´ (section 14.2.2).

This is the first of the examined job advertisements which has sought to provide a specific example

of what responsibilities and duties go along with the job. Providing extra information could also be

a way of making the vacant position, seem more attractive in the eyes of potential applicants. The

last element present in the job advertisement that belongs to the job description section deals with

the economic conditions relating to the job. The information provided in regards to this is relatively

vague in nature, this can be seen in the extract: ³6DODU\� DFFRUGLQJ� WR� TXDOLILFDWLRQV´ (section

14.2.2). It does not say anything about minimum wage or provide the reader with a clue about what

they might as a minimum expect to earn. Why then even include this information? It could be a

societal determined element that was common to include at the time. This will hopefully become

more clear after having analysed the two other job advertisements from this year.

The job advertisement only presents three requirements that the potential applicants need to

IXOILO�� $OO� WKUHH� RI� WKH� UHTXLUHPHQWV� FDQ� EH� JURXSHG� XQGHU� WKH� VHFRQG� KHDGLQJ� LQ� 5RGJHU¶V� DQG�

)UDVHU¶V� LQGLYLGXDO� IUDPHZRUNV� UHVSHFtively because they all relate to attainments/qualifications

63

and experience. The first requirement specifies what kind of correspondent the organisation is

interested in hiring namely ³DQ� (QJOLVK� FRUUHVSRQGHQW´� (section 14.2.2), the second and third

requirements specify actual skills the applicant must have ³$SSOLFDQWV�PXVW�EH�DEOH�WR�ZULWH�'DQLVK�

shorthand or flash-VFULSWXUH´� (section 14.2.2). Together these three requirements give a little

insight into what the perfect candidate is according to the advertising company and who the

organisation is trying to reach audience wise. These requirements are very similar in nature to the

requirements provided in the job advertisements from 1961. There is only one exception and that is

this job advertisement does not mention requirements concerning age or gender anymore, because

the practice has changed due to the implementation of the Equal Treatment Act in 1978 as

mentioned earlier in section 10.2.1.

7KH�ODVW�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V��HOHPHQWV that can be identified in this job advertisement is

information about how to contact the organisation. This element is covered in the job advertisement

by using two words ³:ULWWHQ�DSSOLFDWLRQ´ (section 14.2.2) followed by the company name. Despite

the fact that the job advertisement clearly wants possible applicants to send a written application it

does not provide the company address, nor does the sender directly encourage or invite possible

applicants to send a written application by use of personal pronouns which call for the reader to act

on what they have read. In other words there are no examples of conversational discourse between

the sender and receiver, because neither party have been personified in the extract above.

It can be argued that this job advertisement similarly to job advertisement number C2 contains a

medium degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992). There are small elements present in the job

advertisement which can be categorised a belonging to impression management but as mentioned

earlier, in the first paragraph of this sub-section, there are no examples of discourse between the

organisation and the secondary target audiences alone. The job advertisement also draws on

traditional recruitment discourse for example ³$SSOLFDQWV�PXVW�EH�DEOH� WR��´(section 14.2.2), and

genre elements for job advertisements, this is FOHDU�DIWHU�KDYLQJ�LGHQWLILHG�DOO�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V�

(1998) four skeletal genre elements in the job advertisement. Where intertextuality (Fairclough;

1992) is concerned this job advertisement draws on traditional recruitment discourse much like the

other analysed job advertisements.

All in all this job advertisement FRQWDLQV�DOO�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� �� VNHOHWDO�HOHPHQWV� MXVW�

like the job advertisements from 1961. But unlike the job advertisements from 1961 this job

64

advertisement provides much more information about the job itself and the advertising organisation

suggesting that it is trying to attract potential employees as well as impress other audiences.

10.3.1.2 Analysis level two This sub-section will look at and compare the results from the thematic analysis of communication

curricula from 1986 (see section 9.1.1) with the contents of this job advertisement from 1991. The

aim here is to see whether any of the themes found in the correspondent curricula are presents in the

elements of this job advertisement. Five themes were found in the correspondent curricula from

1986 and they were: µlanguage description¶, µlanguage production¶, µsocial, political and cultural

conditions¶, µbusiness and society¶ and lastly µbusiness language¶. Each of these themes has

corresponding data extracts that describe the skills and knowledge which was acquired by taking

the subjects covered by the theme.

There is not much information given in this job advertisement about what is required of the

applicant or about what tasks the new employee is going to perform. Therefore only one of the

themes, mentioned above, is present in this job advertisement in a very subtle way. This theme is

the fifth theme called Business language (see table 9) and there are elements of this theme present

in the following extract from the job advertisement:

³7KH�work will mainly consist of correspondence relating to international relocation and contact

with our worldwide netwoUN�RI�DJHQWV´ (14.2.2).

The theme Business Language FRYHUV� D� VXEMHFW� FDOOHG� µ%XVLQHVV� &RUUHVSRQGHQFH¶� ZKHUH� SHRSOH�

taking the subject acquire knowledge about the key focus areas for business correspondence:

³FRmmercial correspondence, basic, WHFKQLFDO�DQG�OHJDO�FRUUHVSRQGHQFH´ (Curricula; 14.4.1, 29).

$V�D�SDUW�RI�WKH�µBusiness CRUUHVSRQGHQFH¶�VXEMHFW�VWXGHQWV�DOVR�OHDUQHG�KRZ�WR:

³Write and setup up varied and complex Danish business letters from dictation, voice recorder or

FRQFHSW��DV�ZHOO�DV�GUDZLQJ�XS�IRUHLJQ�ODQJXDJH�OHWWHUV�PHVVDJHV´ (curricula; 14.4.1, 60)

65

So an applicant with an English correspondent education would be more than able to handle

correspondence relating to international relocation. Another extract from the job advertisements

which contains elements that belong to the theme µbusiness language¶ is the following:

³Applicants must be able to write Danish shorthand or flash-scripture.´ (14.2.2)

Here the job advertisement requires that the applicant is able to write shorthand or another type of

writing skill. This requirement actually relates to something that is taught as a part of the subject

µ3UDFWLFDO� %XVLQHVV¶� ZKLFK� EHORQJV� XQGHU� WKH� WKHPH� µbusiness language¶ (see table 9). In the

µ3UDFWLFDO� %XVLQHVV¶ subject students are taught about ³use of information and communication

WHFKQRORJ\´�(curricula; 14.4.1, 60) which covers learning the keyword and the gaining knowledge

of the ³%UDLOOH�V\VWHP�and [...] good writing skills´�(curricula; 14.4.1, 60)

This job advertisement illustrates that the requirement and task descriptions stated (sparse as they

are) do relate to what is being taught as a part of the correspondent education five years earlier in

1986. But the influence of the curricula on the contents of the job advertisement is far from

overwhelming. It is one thing to say that an English correspondent could manage this job on the

basis of his/her education, but it is another thing to say that the curricula has influenced the

language used in this job advertisement, which it has not. The only word that appears in both sets of

data is correspondence.

10.3.2 Medium job advertisement The sub-section is going to analyse job advertisement number E2 which represents medium job

advertisements from 1991. This particular job advertisement was sourced from the Danish

newspaper called Politiken on the 4th of August 1991.

10.3.2.1 Analysis level one Unlike its predecessor this job advertisement does not spend much space on describing the

organisational identity. In the beginning of the job advertisement the organisations name is

presented ³Louisiana´ (section 14.2.4) but this is not followed up by any description of what

service they provide or which occupational field they operate within. It is only at the very bottom of

66

the job advertisement that the company name is followed by a tagline ³0XVHXP�RI�0RGHUQ�$UW´�

(section 14.2.4), which informs the reader of what kind of organisation Louisiana is. There is no

elements which suggest corporate advertising or even impression management are at play in this job

advertisement, because it is hard to impress a possible secondary target audience about the

organisation when there is on real information provided.

:KHUH�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� ��VHFRQG�HOHPHQW�FDOled human resources needs is concerned

this job advertisement sums the primary need up in the sub-title of the job advertisement:

³6HFUHWDU\�&RUUHVSRQGHQW´ (section 14.2.4). This need is then further developed in two large

separate sections the first LV�FRQFHUQHG�ZLWK�WKH�³Responsibilities´��VHFWLRQ�14.2.4) connected to the

job, this section is a combination of several of %UDWWRQ� � *ROG¶V� �� HOHPHQWV� in their job

description format. For example the following extract illustrates the element called responsible to:

³Secretary for our µinformation and activities manager¶ DQG�RQH�RI�RXU�FXUDWRUV´ (section 14.2.4).

This extract identifies two employees which the future employee is going to report to/work for,

simultaneously this extract also identifies the purpose of the job ZKLFK�LV�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��

fifth element. Additionally this section of the job advertisement list five different tasks:

x ³/etter writing by dictation/concept

x Caseworker for all incoming mail

x Coordination of tasks

x Translation, mainly English but also German and French

x Participation in other Secretariat tasks´�(section 14.2.4)

All these tasks fall under the element which Bratton & Gold (2007) call specific duties and

responsibilities and 0DUFKLQJWRQ� � :LONLQVRQ¶V� �� IRUPDW� IRU� MRE� GHVFULSWLRQV call

responsibilities/duties. In general this job advertisement provides much more specific information

about what tasks the future employee can expect to perform if they are hired in comparison to the

previous job advertisement (see section 10.3.1.1), which described to tasks in a superficial way. The

added information about responsibilities and tasks is likely to add to the attractiveness of the vacant

position in the eyes of the readers. The second section which would fall under the category job

description in this job advertisement is called ³:H�RIIHU´�(section 14.2.4). This section is provided

at the end of the job advertisement and gives information about what Marchington & Wilkinson

(2007) call working conditions. This encompasses information about working hours ³�� KRXU�

67

ZRUNLQJ� ZHHN´ (section 14.2.4) and working environment ³DQ� LQVSLULQJ� ZRUNLQJ� HQYLURQPHQW´

(section 14.2.4).

$QRWKHU�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V��VNHOHWDO�HOHPHQWV�ZKLFK�LV�YHU\�PXFK�SUHVHQW�LQ�WKLV�MRE�

advertisement is information about what is required to fulfil the human resources needs. This job

advertisement dedicates a whole section which is called ³:H�UHTXLUH�DQ�HPSOR\HH�ZKR´ (section

14.2.4) to specifying educational, practical and personal skills. There are two examples in this

section of requirements which fall under what Rodger calls attainments and Fraser calls

qualification and experience. The first requires an applicant who: ³&DQ�WUDQVODWH�IURP�LQWR�(QJOLVK��

PreferabO\�RQ�%'�RU�DQ�HTXLYDOHQW�OHYHO�ZLWK�*HUPDQ�DQG�)UHQFK�DV�D�VHFRQG�ODQJXDJH´ (section

14.2.4). This is the first example of a job advertisement which uses terminology or abbreviations

that require the readers to have specific knowledge about what BD stands for (see section 4.1). It

can be argued that this job advertisement does not seek to communicate with any other audiences

than potential applicants. This also fits well with the lack of information about the company, it is

not trying to impress other audiences. The second example illustrates both requirements to the

DSSOLFDQWV¶ qualifications as well as to the applicants experience because it stipulates that the

applicant has to have; ³some years of practical office experience, preferably knowledge of word

SURFHVVLQJ´� (section 14.2.4). A new element is present in this job advertisement which was not

present in the personnel specifications of the previously examined job advertisements, this is the

element called disposition. Disposition describes what kind of personality traits the organisation is

interested in and this is exactly what the following extract describes:

³Shows pliancy when getting through multiple tasks and possess a strong sense of order´�(section

14.2.4)

7KHUH� LV� DOVR� DQ� H[DPSOH�RI�5RGJHU¶V� IRXUWK�KHDGLQJ� WKDW� LV� FDOOHG� special aptitudes, it describes

which skills are needed for the job, in this job advertisement. The sender requires an applicant

which has good social skills: ³+DV� JRRG� LQWHUSHUVRQDO� VNLOOV´ (section 14.2.4). The last new

HOHPHQW� ZKLFK� LV� SUHVHQW� LQ� WKLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� LV� )UDVHU¶V� HOHPHQW� FDOOHG� adjustments. It

describes the candiGDWHV¶�HPRWLRQDO�VWDWXV�DQG�DELOLWLHV�VSHFLILFDOO\�UHODWHG�WR�WKH�MRE�VXFK�DV�DELOLW\�

to cope with stress: ³/LNHV�WR�ZRUN�XQGHU�SUHVVXUH�DQG�WR�JLYH�DQ�H[WUD�KDQG�LQ�FULWLFDO�VLWXDWLRQV´

(section 14.2.4). In general this job advertisement is the first to provide the reader with requirements

which cover several aspects within the personnel specification namely attainments/experience,

special aptitudes, disposition and lastly adjustment related requirements, and therefore paints a very

68

specific picture of the perfect candidate for the job, that cannot be rivalled by the previously

examined job advertisements.

This job advertisement also provides the reader with information about how to contact the

organisation in the followiQJ�H[WUDFW��³A written application should be sent to the personnel office´�

(section 14.2.4). This extract similarly to the previously examined job advertisement does not use

personal pronouns to personify the sender and receiver while encouraging the receiver to apply for

the job. In short this job advertisement does not have examples of conversational discourse between

the two parties.

This job advertisement displays a low level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) and this is partly

to do with the fact that it only has one target audience that is people looking for employment.

Therefore examples of organisational advertising or impression management discourse are not

present, however recruitment related discourse and traditional genre characteristics for job

advertisements are. The low level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) signals that the job

advertisement is an example of a reproduction of an already established order. With respect to

intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992), the job advertisement draws on conventional recruitment

discourse in all of its different sections.

The argument that this job advertisement only has one target audience becomes clear during the

analysis of this job advertisement. There is a lack of company advertising discourse (which would

speak to a secondary target audience), there is minimal information about the hiring organisation

and it uses specialist terminology directed at applicants with an educational background in

communications et cetera. It is also clear that information about the job (responsibilities, duties,

working conditions) and information about what is required of the applicants is weighted much

higher than information about organizational identity, because these two sections represents

approximately 85% of the job advertisement.

10.3.2.2 Analysis level two This sub-section is going to examine whether any of the five themes (language description,

language production, social, political and cultural conditions, business and society and business

language) and their data extracts found in the correspondent curricula from 1986 can be found in

this job advertisement.

69

This job advertisement provides a six different bullet points with descriptions of responsibilities

related to the advertised position but only two of them relate to actual skills or knowledge which is

acquired through study. The first is as follows: ³/HWWHU�ZULWLQJ�E\�GLFWDWLRQ�FRQFHSW´�(14.2.4). This

extract from the job advertisement contains elements which can be argued to represent the fifth

theme found in the correspondent curricula called µbusiness language¶. This is because this is a task

which is the main emphasis of WKH� VXEMHFW� µ3UDFWLFDO� %XVLQHVV¶ that belongs to the fifth theme;

³Writing and setup of varied and complex Danish business letters from dictation, voice recorder or

FRQFHSW��DV�ZHOO�DV�GUDZLQJ�XS�IRUHLJQ�ODQJXDJH�OHWWHUV�PHVVDJHV´�(Curricula; 14.4.1, 60). This is

also an example where the exact same terminology is used in both sets of data. Another extract from

the job advertisement which contains elements of the fifth theme (see section 9.1.1) that is related to

WKH� VXEMHFW� µ3UDFWLFDO�%XVLQHVV¶� LV� WKH� IROORZLQJ�� ³Has some years of practical office experience,

preferably knowledge of word processing´� �section 14.2.4). $V� D� SDUW� RI� WKH� VXEMHFW� µ3UDFWLFDO�

%XVLQHVV¶�WKH�VWXGHQWV�will become acquainted tasks in ³light word processing on electronic word

SURFHVVRUV´��&XUULFXOD��14.4.1, 60). Here is another example of a complete overlap between what

is being taught and the contents of the job advertisement even in term of terminology used.

The theme µLanguage Production¶ is also present in the two sections of the job advertisement

describing responsibilities and requirements, but this time they describe the task and requirements

which need to be fulfilled so the applicant can be able to perform the task; ³Translation, mainly

English but also German and French´ (section 14.2.4)

³Can translate from/into English. Preferably on BDD or an equivalent level with German and

French as a second language´ (section 14.2.4)

The theme Language Production covers a subject called ¶7UDQVODWLRQ�WR�IURP¶�ZKLFK�LV�DYDLODEOH�LQ�

all language versions of the µ&orrespondent one languaJH¶� FXUULFXOXP� DV� ZHOO� DV� LQ� WKH�

µ&RUUHVSRQGHQW� WZR� ODQJXDJHV¶�FXUULFXOXP��As established earlier in section 9.1.1, the BDD is an

superstructure WR�WKH�¶&RUUHVSRQGHQW�RQH�ODQJXDJH¶�HGXFDWLRQ�VR�LW�PLJKW�EH�KDUd to argue that it is

an equivalent level. But students will know how to: ´>��] express themselves grammatically correct

in Danish and [the secondary language] in all text production, also in terms of translations to

H[SUHVV�WKHPVHOYHV�HTXLYDOHQWO\´(Curricula; 14.4.1 p. 23).

70

This job advertisement illustrates that there is an undefined link between the requirement and task

descriptions stated in this job advertisement and what is being taught as a part of the two

correspondent educations in 1986. The influence of the curricula on the contents of the job

advertisement is in this case more prominent than in the previously examined job advertisement

(see section 10.3.3.2). Here it can be said that a correspondent in two languages could manage the

position and that the curricula might have influenced the language used in this job advertisement

because there are several instances of the same terminology appearing in both sets of data.

10.3.3 Large job advertisement This sub-section is going to analyse job advertisement number F2 which is representative of large

job advertisements from 1991. This job advertisement was sourced from the Danish newspaper

Berlingske Tidende on the 1st of September 1991.

10.3.3.1 Analysis level one Where organisational identity is concerned this job advertisements is the polar opposite of the

previous job advertisement (section 14.2.4��7R�EHJLQ�ZLWK�WKLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV¶�PDLQ�WLWOH�LV�QRW�

just related to human resources needs as all the previously examined job advertisements have been.

It announces the name of the sender at the very beginning of the title ³3��9� LV� ORRNLQJ for a

cRUUHVSRQGHQW�ODQJXDJH� H[SHUW� VHFUHWDU\´� (section 14.2.6), this way the reader is sure who the

sender is. This job advertisement also contains a section at the very bottom after the contact

information which describes the organisation, its size and occupational field as well as a description

its culture and goals.

³Plougmann & Vingtoft is a modern patent and trademark agency with approx. 45 employees, 8 of

which are owners. We deal with internationally oriented consultancy work in all branches of

intellectual property law. Our clients include a large number of Danish and foreign companies and

institutions with advanced research and development. We emphasize a good working climate with

responsible, flexible and highly educated employees whose goal is to provide our clients with

effective and professional service´�(section 14.2.6)

71

This range of information about the organisation in the job advertisement suggests that it has more

than one target audience. It is trying to attract possible applicants as well as impressing a whole

other audience (the general public, other organisations and current members of the organisation).

The last sentence in the extract above suggests an appeal to the general public which comprises

current and potential customers, shareholders and investors by highlighting the highly qualified

employees and the professional service the company provides. This is clearly an example of

organisational impression management.

Where human resources needs/ job descriptive elements are concerned they are firstly

presented in the title of the job advertisement; ³3��9� LV� ORRNLQJ� IRU� D� FRUUHVSRQGHQW�ODQJXDJH�

H[SHUW�VHFUHWDU\��(QJOLVK��*HUPDQ�DQG�RU�)UHQFK�´ (section 14.2.6). This title also specifies which

kind of correspondent is required by listing different languages that the applicant will have to be

able to speak. These requirements have more to do with personnel specifications. In addition to the

initial information in the title this job advertisement has two different sections that provides

information about the job the first section is called ³UHVSRQVLELOLWLHV´ (section 14.2.6), it primarily

provides general information about duties the future employee will have to undertake; ³You will

mainly perform various linguistic and administrative tasks related to patent applications at home

and abroad´ (section 14.2.6). It also provides information about what Bratton & Gold (2007) call

relationships, this is where names and titles of future co-workers are listed:

³,W� LV� DQ� LQGHSHQGHQW� SRVLWLRQ in close cooperation with our caseworkers, who have educational

backgrounds in: MS in Engineering, MS in Medicine, MS in Pharmacy, Licentiates, DMV,

Horticultural graduates, MSc, PH.D, LL.M etc´�(section 14.2.6)

The titles of the future colleagues are not directly given, in the extract above, other than calling

them ³FDVHZRUNHUV´ (section 14.2.6), but there is a reason why all these educational backgrounds

are listed. It ties in very well with the later statement about the employees being highly educated,

WKHUHIRUH� LW� FDQ� EH� DUJXHG� WKDW� OLVWLQJ� WKH� HPSOR\HHV¶� Hducational backgrounds is an impression

management technique. It is trying to impress the primary target audience namely possible

applicants DV�ZHOO�DV�WKH�JHQHUDO�SXEOLF�DQG�RWKHU�RUJDQLVDWLRQV��%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��HOHPHQW�

called responsible to is not directly present in this job advertisement but in the extract above the

position is referred to as ³an independent position´ (section 14.2.6) which suggests that the new

employee might not have an immediate supervisor. The section called responsibilities also contains

72

information about the department the new employees is going to be a part of: ³ZRUN�WDNHV�SODFH�LQ�

our patent department that deals with world-wide establishment of in particular patents and advice

on strategically correct use of intellectual property systems´ (section 14.2.6)

The second section which provides the reader with information about the job is called ³ZH�

RIIHU´ (section 14.2.6). It focuses mostly on what Bratton & Gold (2007) would deem

physical/economic conditions, even through the information about salary and working environment

are not terribly specific: ³([FHOOHQW� VDODU\� EDVHG� RQ� TXDOLILFDtions, an attractive and inspiring

working environment and good development opportunities´ (section 14.2.6). One element that is

QRW� DEOH� WR� EH� SODFHG� LQ� QHLWKHU� %UDWWRQ� � *ROG¶V� �� QRU� 0DUFKLQJ� �:LONLQVRQ¶s (2007)

frameworks is the three words underlined in the extract above. This is the first of all the examined

job advertisements wKHUH�VL[�RXW�RI�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V�VHYHQ�HOHPHQWV��VHH�VHFWLRQ�5.2) from their

framework can be identified, the only element missing is the fifth purpose of job/overall objectives.

Similar to the previously examined job advertisement this job advertisement also has a section

called ³TXDOLILFDWLRQV´ which is the section that takes care of everything related to personnel

specifications. Educational requirements or attainments have already been covered in the title of the

job advertisement, but this section specifies what the correspondent has to be able to do: ³,Q�

addition, you can express yourself linguistically correct and is adept at word processing

�NQRZOHGJH�RI�:RUG3HUIHFW� DQ�DGYDQWDJH�´ (section 14.2.6). The job advertisement also requires

that the applicant has ³VRPH�\HDUV�RI�ZRUN�H[SHULHQFH´�(section 14.2.6), this extract would not fall

XQGHU�5RGJHU¶V�attainment element but it does IDOO�XQGHU�)UDVHU¶V�HOHPHQW�FDOOHG�qualification and

experience. This section also focuses on requirements ZKLFK� IDOO� XQGHU�5RGJHU¶V� KHDGLQJ� FDOOHG�

special aptitudes which describes the different skills needed for the job, this can be seen in the

following two extracts:

³You are theoretically sound, have good interpersonal skills and can participate actively in a

dynamic and dedicated team´ (section 14.2.6)

³You are good at prioritizing your tasks and staying organized´ (section 14.2.6)

The skills that are mentioned in the first extract mostly concern social and team orientation skills

and the second extracts requires an applicant who has organisational skills. These skills can also

arguable be categorized as acquired competencies (see section 5.3), which have been attained

trough working. /DVWO\� WKLV� VHFWLRQ� DOVR� FRQWDLQ� HOHPHQWV� ZKLFK� IDOO� XQGHU� 5RGJHU¶V� VHYHQWK�

73

heading called circumstances that deals with any special demands the organisation requires of the

possible applicants: ³You must have the desire and ability to familiarize yourself with the operation

of new technology, as we strive to continually keep us up to date with the latest developments´

(section 14.2.6).

7KH� ODVW� RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� �� HOHPHQWV�ZKLFK� LV� SUHVHQW� LQ� WKLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� LV�

information about how to contact the information. The job advertisement writes: ³$� ZULWWHQ�

application, which will of course be treated confidentially, should be sent to the Administrative

0DQDJHU� $QQH� 3RUV´ (section 14.2.6), which is followed by the company¶V address and phone

number. This extract similarly to the two previously examined job advertisements does not use

personal pronouns to personify the sender and receiver while encouraging the receiver to apply for

the job, therefore there are no examples of conversational discourse between the two parties.

This job advertisement displays a higher degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) than any of

the other examined job advertisements from 1991. This is mainly because it has multiple target

audiences which opens up for the use of organisational advertising and impression management

discourse and of course it also uses recruitment related discourse and traditional genre

characteristics for job advertisements. The high level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) is

associated with change so it can tentatively be concluded that this job advertisement displays a

societal change. Much like the rest of the examined job advertisements this job advertisements in

relation to intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992) draws on conventional recruitment discourse.

All in all this job advertisement is build similarly to the medium sized job advertisement

(section 14.2.3) from this year. It provides a lot of information about the job and about what is

required of potential applicants. Where this job advertisement differs exponentially from its

predecessor is that it provides just as much information about the company and its motive for doing

so is communication with a secondary target audience.

10.3.3.2 Analysis level two This sub-section will examine whether there is a link between social practices, in this case in the

form of curricula, and the content of job advertisements. Five themes (language description,

language production, social, political and cultural conditions, business and society and business

language) have been identified in the correspondent curricula from 1986 by using thematic analysis

(see section 9.1.1). This sub-sections aim is to identify whether any of the five themes mentioned

74

above are present in the sections which deal with task descriptions or requirements for

qualifications.

Despite this job advertisement being the largest of the job advertisements from the year 1991

and very information rich, there are not many tasks described or requirements for qualifications for

that matter that have anything to do with educational training. This is why only two of the themes

found in the correspondent curricula can be identified in this job advertisement. The first theme

which can be identified in this job advertisement is Language description. It covers knowledge of

different levels of linguistics such as:´pKRQHWLFV��PRUSKRORJ\��V\QWD[��VHPDQWLFV�DQG�SUDJPDWLFV´

(Curricula; 14.4.2, 21). This theme is present in a general way in the following two extracts from

the job advertisement:

³<RX�ZLOO�mainly perform various linguistic and administrative tasks related to patent applications

DW�KRPH�DQG�DEURDG´ (section 14.2.6).

³,Q� DGGLWLRQ�� \RX� FDQ� H[SUHVV� \RXUVHOI� OLQJXLVWLFDOO\ correct and are adept at word processing

�NQRZOHGJH�RI�:RUG3HUIHFW�DQ�DGYDQWDJH�´ (section 14.2.6).

Here is an example of the theme being present in an indirect way where none of the same

terminology is used but the two data extracts still refer to the same overall theme. But it is certain

that being able to express oneself linguistically correct is a skill correspondents have; ´>«@the

students are able to apply grammatical principles in both language description as well as language

SURGXFWLRQ´ (curricula; 14.4.1, 21).

The latter extract above also illustrates an element which has to do with the second theme present in

this job advertisement called µBusiness Language¶ (see section 9.1.1). As mentioned in the analysis

of the previous job advertisement above word processing is a task that is practiced as a part of the

µ3UDFWLFDO� %XVLQHVV¶� VXEMHFW� which fall under the theme of µBusiness Language¶, so this is an

example where the same terminology is used in both the curricula and the job advertisement. Lastly

there is also another element present in this job advertisement that falls under the µBusiness

Language¶ theme.

³You must have the desire and ability to familiarize yourself with the operation of new technology,

as we strive to continually keep us up to date with the latest developments´ (section 14.2.6).

75

This ability is something which the correspondent education find indispensable. ³(PSKDVLV� LV�

SODFHG� RQ� SURYLGLQJ� VWXGHQWV� ZLWK� NQRZOHGJH� RI� WHFKQRORJLFDO� GHYHORSPHQWV� LQ� WKH� RIILFH� ILHOG´

(Curricula; 14.4.1, 60).

This job advertisement illustrates that there possibly is a link between the tasks and requirements

described in job advertisements and what is being taught as a part of the correspondent education in

1986. It seem as though there are two levels of influence the curricula can have on the contents of

the job advertisements. The first level is indirect influence where the tasks and requirements are

being described, that a correspondent easily could manage on the basis of his/her education for

example being able to express oneself linguistically correct. The second level of influence is more

direct, this is where the curricula has influenced the language/terminology used in the job

advertisements. In this particular job advertisement the first level of influence is very much present

and the second level is present to a slighter degree.

10.4 Analysis of job advertisements from 2011 This section is going to analyse the three job advertisements from 2011 that represent small,

medium and large job advertisements respectively. They will be analysed using the same two levels

of analysis described in section 10.1.

10.4.1 Small job advertisement This sub-section is going to analyse job advertisement number G2 which represents small job

advertisements from 2011. This job advertisement was sourced from the Danish newspaper called

Berlingske Tidende on the 28th of August 2011.

10.4.1.1 Analysis level one This job advertisement presents the organisational identity upfront before the actual headline of the

job advertisement which is ³$DUKXV�8QLYHUVLW\´ (section 14.3.2) the identity of the sender is then

specified even more in the title ³Communications employee for the Danish-Chinese University

Centre´��VHFWLRQ�14.3.2) at Aarhus University. So the title fulfils two functions namely announcing

the human resource need and the organisational identity. Similarly to job advertisement F2 from

76

1991 (section 10.3.3.1) this job advertisement also has a section at the bottom dedicated to

GHVFULELQJ�WKH�RUJDQLVDWLRQ¶V�VL]H, financial status and anticipated future:

³Aarhus University offers an inspiring education and research environment for 40,000 students and

11,000 employees, ensuring results of a high international standard. The budgeted turnover for

2011 amounts to 5.9 million dkk. The 8QLYHUVLW\¶V strategy and development contract is available at

www.au.dk´ (section 14.3.2)

This extract goes far beyond what Rafaeli & Oliver¶V� �� the organisational identity element

entails. But as they argue this amount of information about the organisation heavily suggests that

the job advertisement defiantly has more than one target audience. The job advertisement is also

communicating with the general public (general spectators) and other organisations in the

environment. The following extract appeals to these two audiences: ³Aarhus University offers an

inspiring education and research environment for 40,000 students and 11,000 employees, ensuring

results of a high international standard´ (section 14.3.2). Additionally the job advertisement also

provides information about where extra information about the Sino-Danish Centre for Education

and Research; ³5HDG�PRUH� DERXW� WKH� 6LQR-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC) at

http://www.sinodanishcenter.dk´ (section 14.3.2)

The primary human resource need is presented in the title: ³FRPPXQLFDWLRQV� HPSOR\HH´

(section 14.3.2) of the job advertisement. This is then further developed in the job advertisement

which lists the responsibilities/duties WKDW� WKH� QHZ�HPSOR\HH�ZLOO� KDYH� WR� XQGHUWDNH�� ³Your tasks

will include making SDC's activities more visible to the general public: recruiting students for SDC

educations in China: developing and implementing SDC Secretariat's communication strategy and

PR plan: producing articles, press releases, memos, etc. and develop and updaWH� RXU� ZHEVLWH´

(section 14.3.2). These tasks are very specific which gives the possible applicant some insight into

the vacant position and might make the position seem more attractive in the eyes of the reader. The

MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�DOVR�SURYLGHV�LQIRUPDWLRQ�DERXW�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��VHFRQG�HOHPHQW�FDOOHG�

department��³The secretariat is located at Aarhus University´��VHFWLRQ�14.3.2). In general this job

advertisement only provides three elements (job title, department, duties/responsibilities) out of

%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��VHYHQ�IRUPDW�HOHPHQWV�IRU�MRE�GHVFULSWLRQV��ZKLFK�LV�QRW�D�ORW�FRPSDUHG�WR�

the information provided about the organisation itself. The reason for this might be the following:

³7KH�IXOO�SRVWLQJ�FDQ�EH�seen on http://www.au.dk/om/stillinger /´��VHFWLRQ�14.3.2). On the basis of

http://www.au.dk/

http://www.au.dk/om/stillinger%20/

77

this extract it can be argued that the reason why there is more information provided about the

organisation than about the job itself is because readers that are interested in the position (primary

target audience) will actively go online and read the full job advertisement, whereas there is less

change of the secondary target audience going online just to become more familiar with the

organisation.

7KH�ODVW�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V��VNHOHWDO�HOHPHQWV�WKDW�LV�SUHVHQW�LQ�WKLV�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�

is information about requirements. It does not list that many requirements and the ones it lists fall

under the category of attainments which covers requirements for education, qualification et cetera:

³We expect that you have a relevant degree within communications, journalism or similar´��VHFWLRQ�

14.3.2). )XUWKHUPRUH�WKH�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�KDV�UHTXLUHPHQWV�WR�WKH�QHZ�HPSOR\HH¶V�GLVSRVLWLRQ��³a

skilled, inventive and energetic employee´��VHFWLRQ�14.3.2).

No information about how to contact the organisation or how to apply is given which is very

atypical, seeing that it specifically states an application deadline: ³$SSOLFDWLRQ� GHDGOLQH� LV� �WK�

6HSWHPEHU� �� DW� ��´ (section 14.3.2). There is not even an e-mail address or the

organisational address provided in the job advertisement. It might be purposefully done so readers

that are interested in applying will actively have to go online and read the full job advertisement to

find the contact information.

This job advertisement also contains elements which do not belong under organisational

identity, job description, personnel description or contact information. This kind of information

could be categorised as practical information�� ³The position should be filled the 1st November

2011. The aSSOLFDWLRQ� GHDGOLQH� LV� �WK� 6HSWHPEHU� �� DW� ��´� (section 14.3.2). If the

organisation provided information about when interviews will be conducted, this would also fall

under the practical information category as well.

This job advertisement contains a very high level of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992)

because it has more than one target audience and therefore organisational advertising and

impression management discourse are in play. The job advertisement naturally also uses

recruitment related discourse and genre characteristics for job advertisements. With respect to

intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992) the job advertisement draws on traditional academic discourse as

well as conventional recruitment discourse.

7KLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� IROORZV� VRPH�RI�5DIDHOL��2OLYHU¶V� VNHOHWDO� HOHPHQWV� EXW� LQ�

general it contains many more elements not covered by the skeleton. At first sight it looks like

organisational impression management has been given a higher priority in this job advertisement

78

than information about the vacant position and requirements have, but a reasoning for this could be

the as discussed above that the organisation are counting on that interested applicants will use the

provided link to the full posting online.

10.4.1.2 Analysis level two This sub-section will compare the results from the thematic analysis of the corporate

communication curricula from 2006 (see section 9.1.2) with the contents of this job advertisement

from 2011, to see whether any of the themes are present in the elements of this job advertisement.

As established in section 10.3.3.2 there are two levels of influence the curricula can have on the

contents of the job advertisement. The first level was indirect influence where tasks and

requirements stated correspond to what is being taught and the second level of influence was direct

influence where the same language/terminology is being used in both sets of data.

This level of analysis is interested in the sections of the job advertisement that are likely to be

influenced by the curricula which are the task descriptions and the requirements. Seven themes

were found in the corporate communication curricula from 2006 and they are: Marketing

Communications, Global Communication, Corporate Communication, Tourist Communication,

Communication with the public authorities, Stakeholder Relations and lastly Miscellaneous. These

themes are much more specific than the ones from the 1986 curricula which means that their

corresponding data extracts are also much more detailed in the way the skills and knowledge is

described, this could mean that more direct influence is present.

This job advertisement does not contain any specific requirements that are about attainments and/or

qualifications the following is the only requirement there is�� ³you have a relevant degree within

communications, journalism or similar³ (section 14.3.2). Of course none of the themes can be

identified in this extract. On the other hand this job advertisement lists a lot of different tasks related

to the vacant position.

There are two themes present in the section that describes these tasks. The first theme is stakeholder

relations. This theme covers subjects that take care of relations with investors, communities,

employees, governments et cetera. The following extract describes a task which relates to the

subject µHuman Resource Management¶ which falls under the stakeholder relations theme;

³UHFUXLWLQJ�VWXGHQWV�IRU�6'&�HGXFDWLRQV�LQ�&KLQD´ (section 14.3.2)��$V�D�SDUW�RI�µ+XPDQ�5HVRXUFH�

Management¶ the students acquire knowledge about: ³personnel policy, strategic recruitment and

79

selection, employee loyalty strategies, competence development and training programmes,

integration of new personnel groups etc.´�(Curricula; 14.5.1, 28). This is an example where what is

being taught as a part of the corporate communications education corresponds to the tasks that are a

part of the advertised position; it is an example of indirect influence/link.

Three other tasks are described in this job advertisement and they all have elements which fall

under the theme marketing communications;

³<RXU�WDVNV�ZLOO�LQFOXGH�PDNLQJ�SDC's activities more visible to the general public: developing and

implementing SDC Secretariat's communication strategy and PR plan: producing articles, press

UHOHDVHV��PHPRV��HWF��DQG�GHYHORS�DQG�XSGDWH�RXU�ZHEVLWH´ (section 14.3.2).

All of the tasks above have something to do with public relations, which is a subject that is covered

by the theme marketing communications. Within the theme marketing communications, knowledge

is acquired about ³key concepts, models and theories within the types of integrated marketing

comPXQLFDWLRQ�DQG�SXEOLF�UHODWLRQV´ (Curricula; 14.5.1, 31). The curricula does not describe which

communication tasks (articles, press releases et cetera) the students will learn to produce as a part of

the subject but is does say that;

´<RX�ZLOl also be introduced to the planning, implementation and measurement of a marketing

communication or public relations campaign and RWKHU�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ� WDVNV´ (Curricula; 14.5.1,

31)

This is again an example of there being a link between what is being taught as a part of the

corporate communication curricula and the tasks described in a job advertisement. But the link is

not one where the curricula directly has influenced the language and/or specialised terminology

used to describe these tasks. This applies in general to the extracts examined in sub-section.

10.4.2 Medium job advertisement This sub-section is going to analyse job advertisement number H2 which represents medium sized

job advertisements from 2011. This particular job advertisement was sourced from the online job

bank called Job Index on the 9th of October 2011. This was the only of the examined job

advertisements which was originally written in English.

80

10.4.2.1 Analysis level one Despite the size of the job advertisement it does not use a lot of space on providing information

about the organisational identity of the sender. The organisations name is not mentioned in the title

of the job advertisement. It first appears in a sub-heading: ³Set new standards for strategic

communication in the /(*2�*URXS´ (section 14.3.3). In total the brand LEGO appears five times

throughout the job advertisement. Additional information about the organisation is imbedded in

sentences which serve other SXUSRVHV�IRU�H[DPSOH��³Would you like to: design the communication

strategies in a world-renowned company?´ (section 14.3.3). The primary purpose of this sentence

is to attract applicants by describing tasks that are related to the job but it also tries to impress other

potential target audiences by providing information which helps form the organisational identity.

Here are two more examples of this in the job advertisement: ³ZRXOG�\RX�OLNH�WR��ZRUN�JOREDOO\"´

(section 14.3.3) and ³:RXOG� \RX� OLNH� WR�� %HFRPH� SDUW� RI� D� KLJKO\� SURIHVVLRQDO� FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�

HQYLURQPHQW� LQ� WKH� /(*2� *URXS"´� (section 14.3.3). These extracts might attract possible

applicants but moreover they indirectly allude to the fact that LEGO is a company which operates

on a global scale and that their corporate communication is highly professional.

The primary human resource need is presented directly in the title of the job advertisement

³'LUHFWRU� &RPPXQLFDWLRQ� &RQVXOWDQF\´ (section 14.3.3). This information would suffice in

UHJDUGV� WR� 5DIDHOL� � 2OLYHU¶V� �� VNHOHWRQ� EXW� WKLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� FRQWDLQV� PDQ\� PRUH�

elements, besides the job title, which all belong to a typical format for the job specifications. This

MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQW�FRQWDLQV�VL[�RXW�RI�%UDWWRQ��*ROG¶V��VHYHn elements for job descriptions,

physical/economic conditions is the only element that is missing. Starting from the beginning of

Bratton & GoOG¶V� �� VHYHQ� HOHPHQWV� WKLV� MRE� DGYHUWLVHPHQW� SURYLGHV� WKH� UHDGHU� ZLWK�

information about the department which the new employee will belong to: ³<RX�ZLOO�MRLQ�&RUSRUDWH�

&RPPXQLFDWLRQV´ (section 14.3.3). It specifies and giveV�WKH�WLWOH�RI�WKH�IXWXUH�HPSOR\HH¶V�VXSHULRU��

this kind of information belongs under the heading responsible to: ³<RX�ZLOO� UHSRUW� WKH�+HDG�RI�

&RUSRUDWH�&RPPXQLFDWLRQV´�(section 14.3.3). The job advertisement also provides the reader with

information that describes other relationships in regards to the job: ³<RX� ZLOO� MRLQ� &RUSRUDWH�

Communications which consists of 9 sharp communication professionals´ (section 14.3.3). These

nine sharp communication professionals will all have to report directly to the new employee. These

were just three elements from the job specification format which the job advertisement briefly

touches upon, where it gets interesting is the way the next two elements from the job specification

are presented. In relation to the purpose of the job the job advertisement provides the following

81

extract: ³[..] your job is to create best practices by leading and driving communication consultancy

to key areas in the LEGO Group´ (section 14.3.3). This extract in a typical fashion specifies

objectives that the new employee will have to achieve as the Director for communications

consultancy. This emphasis on specifying the results which have to be achieved continues in the

elements which would typically belong under the heading specific duties and responsibilities. As

Bratton & Gold stated earlier (see section 5.2) there has been a shift in emphasis in job descriptions

away from describing tasks and responsibilities towards describing the results which have to be

achieved instead. There are many examples in this job advertisement of this shift in emphasis

therefore only a couple will be highlighted to illustrate it.

³As our new Director for Communication Consultancy, you will add to the strategic capabilities in

the Corporate Communications team as well as meet the increasing need from the rest of the

organisation for communication support on a strategic and tactical level´ (section 14.3.3)

This extract is a perfect example of the emphasis being on describing the results which the new

employee will have to achieve while working for LEGO. It will be interesting to see whether the

large job advertisement from 2011 will show the same tendencies. But this shift is not totally

dominating the job specification because there are of course also a few examples where specific

duties and responsibilities just are described in the normal fashion: ³Further, you will be

responsible for continuously developing and carrying out communication training activities for

managers across the organisation´ (section 14.3.3).

In comparison this job advertisement provides relatively less information about what the

RUJDQLVDWLRQ�UHTXLUHV�RI�D�SRVVLEOH�DSSOLFDQW��0RVWO\�WKH�UHTXLUHPHQWV�IDOO�XQGHU�5RGJHU¶V�KHDGLQJ�

attainments which cover requirements for education, qualifications and experience: The following

extract focuses mostly on the experience required of the applicant:

³<RX�KDYH��\HDUV¶�H[SHULHQFH�ZLWKLQ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�DQG�VROLG�H[SHULHQFH�ZLWKLQ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�

consultancy ± from an agency and/or a major corporation. You have successfully advised

businesses on management level on communication within corporate areas. Your English is of

course at a high level, and Danish is not a prerequisite in this position´ (section 14.3.3)

82

Lego also has requiremenWV�WKDW�ZRXOG�IDOO�XQGHU�5RGJHU¶V�IRXUWK�HOHPHQW�FDOOHG�special aptitudes.

In the following extract they require an applicant with good social skills: ³Your ability to

collaborate and establish new relations is imperative to position yourself as a strategic

communication expert and to establish a successful global network´ (section 14.3.3). The last

requirement which is stated in the job advertisement is as follows: ³Finally, you have the patience

to understand and get acquainted with a large and complex organisation´ (section 14.3.3). The

organisation requires an applicant with a specific disposition which is a patient personality.

The last of Rafaeli & Oliver¶V��998) four skeletal elements µinformation about how to contact

the organisation¶ is of course also present in this job advertisement. This job advertisement is the

only one so far that uses personal pronouns to personify the sender and receiver while encouraging

the receiver, with very cordial language, to apply for the job. Therefore the job advertisement

FRQWDLQV� DQ� H[DPSOH� RI� FRQYHUVDWLRQDO� GLVFRXUVH� EHWZHHQ� WKH� WZR� SDUWLHV�� ³Please send us your

motivated application and your CV as soon as possible. To apply, use the 'APPLY'-button above or

below. Please remember to attach your application and CV´.

Similarly to the previously examined job advertisement this one contains extra information

which does not really belong under any of Rafaeli & OlivHU¶V� �� IRXU� VNHOHWDO� HOHPHQWV��

Therefore it was suggested in the previous sub-section (section 10.4.1.1) that there should be a

category called practical information under which the following extract also would belong: ³If you

would like to know more about this position, please contact Head of Corporate Communications,

Charlotte Simonsen on >��@´ (section 14.3.3).

There is a relatively high degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992) in this job advertisement.

Even though this job advertisement does not have a section dedicated to describing the organisation

(size, financial status et cetera) there is an indirect attempt at impression management illustrated in

the extracts in the first paragraph of this sub-section. Therefore it can be argued that there is

organisational advertising and impression management discourse at in play in this job

advertisement. Additionally this job advertisement also uses recruitment related discourse and

comply with genre characteristics for job advertisements (skeletal elements, job specification

elements and personnel specification elements). On top of this the job advertisement also contains

examples of conversational discourse as the first of the examined job advertisements. To sum up

this job advertisement contains different discourses and genres which are articulated together to

create a communicative event.

83

With respect to intertextuality (Fairclough; 1992) the job advertisement draws on conventional

recruitment discourse it cannot avoid using phrases and words that other job advertisements have

used before especially when it follows classic genre conventions. But there are no examples of what

Fairclough (1992) calls manifest intertextuality which is where the communicative event explicitly

quotes other job advertisements. This does not seem to be a practice used within job advertisements.

All in all this advertisement prioritized the job specification section higher than the personnel

specification section. It is the first job advertisement where the shift in emphasis Bratton & Gold

(2007) mentioned becomes clear and it is the first job advertisement to use personification of the

sender and receiver resulting in examples of conversational discourse.

10.4.2.2 Analysis level two This sub-section will focus on examining whether there is a link between the themes found in the

corporate communication curricula from 2006 and the contents of this job advertisement. As

mentioned in section 10.4.1.2 seven themes were found in the Corporate Communication curricula

and they are as follows: µMarketing Communications¶, µGlobal Communication¶, µCorporate

Communication¶, µTourist Communication¶, µCommunication with the public authorities¶,

µ6WDNHKROGHU�&RPPXQLFDWLRQ¶ and lastly µMiscellaneous¶.

This job advertisement does provide a lot of information, but as stated in the section above, it is the

first where the shift Bratton & Gold (2007) described is present. This means that instead of

describing ordinary tasks and responsibilities related to the vacant position it describes the results

which have to be achieved. These results relate more directly to the overall subject descriptions and

their aims presented in the themes than of the description of tasks did in the previously examined

job advertisements. Because the subject descriptions in the curricula, describe the knowledge and

tools the student will acquire not the materials they will learn to produce such as press releases. The

following data extract belongs to the VXEMHFW� µ6WUDWHJLF�0DQDJHPHQW�RI�2UJDQLVDWLRQV¶ which is a

component of the theme µmiscellaneous¶:

´7KH�SXUSRVH�RI� WKLV� VXEMHFW� LV� WR�SURYLGH�\RX�ZLWK� IXQGDPHQWDO� WKHRUHWLFal and practical insight

into

strategic management and into how to develop, implement and evaluate a corporate strategy with

SDUWLFXODU�UHIHUHQFH�WR�PDQDJLQJ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�SURFHVVHV´ (Curricula; 14.5.1, 24)

84

The skill set described in the data extract above is echoed in several sentences in this job

advertisement. The following data extract is one of many from the job advertisement that illustrates

this:

³[..] Your job is to create best practices by leading and driving communication consultancy to key

areas in the LEGO Group. This could for example be developing strategies and plans on a

FRUSRUDWH�OHYHO�DV�ZHOO�DV�IRU�VSHFLILF�EXVLQHVV�DUHDV�RU�SURMHFWV´ (section 14.3.3).

The µglobal communication¶ theme is also present in job advertisement. It can be seen in the

elements of this extract:

³Another key part of your position is to build and lead a global network of communication

employees. The challenge will be to look beyond Denmark to find the right members. Also, it will be

to enthuse and inspire the members and thus establish an attractive network that will generate a top

of the class global cooperation on internal communication´ (section 14.3.3).

The purpose RI� WKH� VXEMHFW� µ,QWHUQDWLRQDO� 0DQDJHPHQW� DQG� *OREDOLVDWLRQ¶ which belongs to the

theme µglobal communication¶ LV� WR� WKH� VWXGHQW� ZLWK� ³advanced knowledge within central

conditions characteristic of international management and organisations in a global context which

may influence the strategic planning of communication´ (curricula; 14.5.1, 36). Among other

things the student will gain solid knowledge about WKH�� ³Basic principles of international

management´, ´LQWHUFXOWXUDO� PDQDJHPHQW´ DQG� ´diversity management and global human

ressource management´��FXUULFXOD��14.3.3, 36) to mention a few. All of these elements will equip a

potential applicant to manage the vacant position.

Where requirements are concerned this job advertisement focuses on WKH�DSSOLFDQW¶V experience and

not educational requirement. Therefore none of the seven themes can be identified in that section of

the job advertisement.

85

10.4.3 Large job advertisement This section is going to analyse job advertisement number I2 which represents large sized job

advertisements from the year 2011. This particular job advertisement was sourced from the Danish

online job bank called Job Index on the 12th of October 2011.

10.4.3.1 Analysis level one This job advertisement is the total opposite compared to its predecessor in relation to the element

called organisational identity. The reasoning behind this statement is that this job advertisement

does not only have one section devoted to describing the organisation it has four sections, each with

a different focus. The first section describes the organisations ambitions and how these are going to

be fulfilled:

³CPH has a strong ambition to be a company where information, news and knowledge are

paramount. There is therefore focus on creating a unique universe for internal communication - not

only through a strong communication platform but also through an extrovert and contact-making

communications team with a good understanding of operational and strategic organizational

communication, and find the "good stories" (section 14.3.3).

The second section is called ³:KR�DUH�ZH"´ (section 14.3.5) and introduces the HR-department, in

the organisation, which the new employee is going to be a part of. This section gives the reader

examples of what tasks the HR-department DUH�UHVSRQVLEOH�IRU��³HR in CPH consists of a number of

dedicated and experienced staff that works with a wide range of tasks from HR administration,

recruitment and development, consultancy and support to business units. HR is also responsible for

branding and initiatives related to employee satisfaction surveys´��section 14.3.5).

The third section commences with the title ³Become a part of an ambitious company with a

ZLQQLQJ� PHQWDOLW\´ (section 14.3.5). In this section communication with the general public

(customers, shareholders, general spectators and/or investors) as well as potential applicants is in

focus and there are several examples of impression management discourse in this section. The

following example is one of the many:

³We have a desire to maintain our position as one of the world's best airports - and it requires

dedicated, ambitious and responsible employees, all of which contribute to further strengthening

our position as a world class airport´ (section 14.3.5).

86

The fourth and last section which provides information about the organisation is called ³$ERXW�8V´�

(section 14.3.5) and focuses on the company which owns and operates the airports (its size, number

of employees et cetera): ³Copenhagen Airports Ltd. (CPH) owns and operates airports in

Copenhagen and Roskilde, and we provide infrastructure, buildings and service facilities for the

many companies that run their business at the airport´ (section 14.3.5).

In this section there are also clear examples of impression management discourse that is targeted at

the general public for example: ³We want all our passengers must have an excellent experience

from start to finish in their journey, and we take responsibility together with the more than 500

companies operating at the airport´ (section 14.3.5).

All in all there is an overwhelming argument for this job advertisement having multiple target

audiences just as Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) argue. It provides a wealth of information about the

organisation which would not be necessary in the same degree if the job advertisement only

targeted potential applicants. The sections mentioned above make up four out of the seven sections

the job advertisement contains in total, which suggests that this job advertisement acts in two

analytically distinct directions namely attracting applicants and impressing people about the

organisation.

The organisations human resource needs are presented directly in the title of the job

advertisement: ³&RPPXQLFDWLRQV� &RQVXOWDQW� IRU� +XPDQ� 5HVRXUFHV´ (section 14.3.5). The job

advertisement also contains many more elements which belong to the job specification besides the

title. There are for example descriptions of specific duties and responsibilities the employee will be

responsible for:

x ³,QWHUYLHZV�ZLWK�DOO�HPSOR\HH�JURXSV�LQ�&3+V�RUJDQL]DWLRQ

x Participation in business management meetings and from there to communicate key

messages

x Daily operations, publishing and updating content on the intranet

x Establish process to ensure that the content on the intranet is perceived as valid and current

x Facilitation of regular meetings with the editor Corps

x Development of tools for internal communication

x Self internal communications projects - from project idea for execution

x 9DULRXV�DG�KRF�WDVNV�UHODWHG�WR�FRPPXQLFDWLRQV��LQWHUQDO�PDQDJHPHQW�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ´

(section 14.3.5)

87

These eight tasks do not illustrate the same shift of emphasis which was discussed in relation to the

analysis of the previous job advertisement. But this does not mean that there are not also examples

in this job advertisement which emphasizes the results the new employee needs to achieve: ³In

several contexts, you will be the driving factor in attaching external activities, management

initiatives and ambitions together and ensuring that employees in CPH feel well informed and can

provide input to make CPH WR�DQ�HYHQ�EHWWHU�SODFH�WR�ZRUN´ (section 14.3.5)

So her in this job advertisement both techniques are present which illustrates that developments

such as this shift of emphasis in job descriptions away from specifying tasks towards describing the

results which needs to be achieved is a process that takes a while to be widely used/implemented

and that there will be periods in this implementation process where both techniques might be used

before one of them takes over completely.

This job advertisement has fairly specific requirements especially in regards to educational

qualifications (attainments) which are as follows:

x ´Academic training in communication

x Selling and convincing flawless written communication

x Experience managing, updating and editing an intranet portal

x Some knowledge of communication tools such as video, podcasts, etc.

x Good understanding of marketing and other communications media

x ExperieQFH�WR�VHHN�RXW�WKH�JRRG�VWRULHV��LQWHUYLHZLQJ�DQG�FRPPXQLFDWLQJ´

(section 14.3.5)

The other requirements stated in this job advertisement all fall under what Rodger calls disposition,

which is the heading that describes the kind of personality traits the organisation are looking for.

For example the next two extracts illustrate that they are looking an applicant with a driven,

committed and energetic personality:

³You thrive on a combination of communication, administrative and developmental tasks and

planning and follow-up´ (section 14.3.5).

³Through your commitment and positive energy, you get your environment to see internal

communication as an important communication medium´ (section 14.3.5).

88

Lastly this job advertisement also provides the reader with information about how to contact the

organization. The following extract does personify the readers by use of personal pronouns when

encouraging them to apply for the position, but the sender is not personified therefore there is not

any examples of conversational discourse in the following extract: ³6HQG�\RXU�DSSOLFDWLRQ�GLUHFWO\�

to "[email protected]" or by clicking on the "apply for position" below. If you send your application

GLUHFWO\�WR�WKH��+XGVRQ��\RX�PXVW�PDUN�LW�ZLWK��´ (section 14.3.5)

Similar to the two previously examined job advertisements this job advertisement contains elements

which do not belong under any of the four skeletal elements, job descriptions or personnel

specifications. Therefore it was suggested previously that there should be a category called

practical information where the following extract ZRXOG�EHORQJ��³For more information about the

SRVLWLRQ��SOHDVH�FRQWDFW�&DPLOOD�6YHQGVHQ�RU�)LH�.ROOHUXS�IURP�+XGVRQ�RQ�WHOHSKRQH��´�

(section 14.3.5) as well as information about the application deadline. This particular job

advertisement contains new elements which also belong under practical information for example

that the recruitment process is being contracted out to another company and contact information for

this HR recruitment company:

³In this recruitment we are working with Hudson´ (section 14.3.5).

³If you have questions about the recruitment process, please feel free to contact HR Recruitment at

PDLOMRE#FSK�GN´�(section 14.3.5).

This job advertisement contains a high degree of interdiscursivity (Fairclough; 1992). Because of its

multiple target audiences more than just traditional recruitment related discourses and genre

characteristics (skeletal elements, job specification elements and personnel specification elements)

are at play. In the wealth of information provided about the organisation there are many examples

of organisational advertising and impression management discourses. Unlike its predecessor there

are on conversational discourses present in this job advertisement. In relation to intertextuality

(Fairclough; 1992) this job advertisement draws on conventional recruitment discourse but not in an

explicit way with quotes. As stated in the previously examined job advertisement this does not seem

a practice used within job advertisements.

To sum up this job advertisement focuses a lot on providing information about the company

and impressing more than just possible applicants. It also illustrates the shift of emphasis which

89

Bratton & Gold (2007) suggest but not to the same degree as its predecessor because it also just

specifies task and duties related to the job.

10.4.3.2 Analysis level two This sub-section is going to compare the themes found in the corporate communication curricula

from 2006 with the contents of this job advertisement.

Similar to the previously analysed job advertisement this job advertisement also shows signs of the

shift Bratton & Gold (2007) described, where descriptions of tasks give way to descriptions of

results that need to be achieved. However this job advertisement still describes task that relate to the

vacant position as the sub-section above also points out.

The primary theme which is present in this job advertisement is µsWDNHKROGHU�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ¶�

There are examples of this theme in both the task descriptions (see 14.3.5) as well as in the

description of results which have to be achieved. An example of the latter will be discussed in the

following paragraphs. The elements that illustrate this theme focus in particular on the skill sets and

NQRZOHGJH� EDVH� DFTXLUHG� LQ� WKH� VXEMHFW� µKXPDQ� UHVRXUFH� PDQDJHPHQW¶� WKDW� belongs to the

µstakeholder communication¶ theme. 7KH�µKXPDQ�UHVource management¶ subject focuses on;

´WKH� UROH� DQG� VWUDWHJLF� IXQFWLRQLQJ� RI� WKH� +5-department including personnel policy, strategic

recruitment and selection, employee loyalty strategies, competence development and training

programmes, integration of QHZ�SHUVRQQHO�JURXSV�HWF�´ (curricula; 14.5.1, 28)

As wells as on ´WKH�VRFLDO�DQG�SV\FKRORJLFDO�DVSHFWV� WKDW� LQIOXHQFH�SHUVRQQHO�SROLF\� VXFK�DV� WKH�

psychological working environment as well as employee motivatLRQ� DQG� LQFHQWLYHV´ (curricula;

14.5.1, 28)

These focus areas all represent knowledge of tools that help make an organisation a better work

place, which is exactly the result that needs to be achieved in the following extract from the job

advertisement:

90

³In several contexts, you will be the driving factor in, attaching external activities, management

initiatives and ambitions together and ensure that employees in CPH feel well informed and can

provide input to make CPH to an even better place to work´ (section; 14.3.5).

This again supports the statement made in section 10.4.2.2 that the description of results which

needs to be achieved, relates more directly to the subject descriptions and aims found in the

curricula, than the description of tasks related to the vacant position does.

The requirements listed in this job advertisement are more concerned with marketing and

communications skills. This is evident in the following data extract that lists what the potential

DSSOLFDQWV¶�DFDGHPLF�TXDOLILFDWLRQV�VKRXOG�EH�EDVHG�RQ��

x ³(xperience managing, updating and editing an intranet portal´ x ³6ome knowledge of communication tools such as video, podcasts, etc.´ x ³*ood understanding of marketing and other communications media´ x ³(xperience to seek out the good stories, interviewing and communicating´

(Section 14.3.5)

It can be argued that the theme µmarketing communications¶ from the corporate communication

curricula is present in the extracts above. This is an example of the curricula indirectly influencing

the requirements because none of the same terminology is used in both data sets but the subjects

within the theme µmarketing communications¶ equip the student with knowledge about:

³.H\�FRQFHSWV��PRGHOV�DQG�WKHRULHV�ZLWKLQ�WKH�W\SHV�RI�LQWHJUDWHG�PDUNHWLQJ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�DQG�

SXEOLF�UHODWLRQV´ (curricula; 14.5.1, 31)

Together with knowledge of: ´new information technology in the marketing and public relations

process (e-marketing and e-PR) as well as with alternative media and strategies, such as outdoor

marketing, events, sponsoring, co-brandinJ�DQG�VXEYHUWLVLQJ´ (curricula; 14.5.1, 31).

So the skill set and knowledge acquired in the subjects under the theme µmarketing

communications¶ would give the applicant the qualifications required to handle the tasks which go

along with the vacant position in this job advertisement.

91

11 Discussion/Evaluation This chapter will gather and discuss the results from the two levels of analysis performed in chapter

10 above, in an attempt to answer the thesis statement and any subsidiary aims.

11.1 Similarities and differences within job advertisements across the periods This section is going to highlight the similarities and differences found in the job advertisements

across the three examined years. The similarities and differences will be illustrated in table 17

below which counts how many times the individual elements identified, in the job advertisements,

occur in each of the three examined years. The table should provide an overview of which elements

are characteristic for each year, and whether there is a decline or increase in use of a specific

element. An element, can maximally occur once for each job advertisement meaning a maximal of

three times per year.

92

Table 17: Changes and developments in the contents of the examined job advertisements

Sections focusing on:

Element 1961 1991 2011

Organisational identify

Company name II III III

Field of occupation I III I

Culture & values I I

Expected growth/Financial status II

Company size (number of employees) I II III

Job description

Job title III III III

Location department II I II

Responsible to I II I

Responsible for I I

Main purpose of job I I

Responsibilities/duties III III

Economic and physical working conditions I III I

Personnel specification/ requirements

Physical make-up

Attainments/qualifications and experience III III III

Disposition I III

General intelligence/innate abilities I

Special aptitudes I II I

Adjustments I

Circumstances III I

Interests

Practical information

Application deadlines II

Date the position is to be filled III I

When interviews are being held I

Recruitment process shown to be contracted out to another company

I

Contact information for recruitment company I

Availability of Follow up / Extra information offered

I I

Contact information

Company address, e-mail, phone number et cetera. II III III

93

There are four types of developmental changes which can be seen in table 17 above. The first type

is in the form of elements that do not develop or change, they consistently occur in all job

advertisements for all three years. These elements are company name, job title, requirements for

educational qualifications and experience and lastly contact information. This is not a surprising

discovery, considering that these elements are the ones, which Rafaeli & Oliver (1998) deemed

skeletal elements and the foundation of any job advertisement.

The second type are elements which have ceased to be used, such as the element called

circumstances that covered special requirements for age, domestic ties, mobility, unsocial work

hours et cetera. This element was very much present in the job advertisements in 1961 where age

and gender requirements in job advertisements were common practice, but the element does not

appear at all in 2011.

The third type of development covers elements, which are new developments appearing only in

1991 and 2011. These are elements such as description of organisational culture & values as well

as information about the organisations financial status, in other words elements used as tools of

impression management. The elements main purpose of job and responsibilities/duties also fall

under the third type of developmental change, DQG�DFFRUGLQJ�WR�)HOGPDQ�HW�DO�¶V��UHVHDUFK�(see

5.1) they are used to boost the perceived attractiveness of the vacant position.

)LQDOO\� WKHUH� LV�HYLGHQFH�VXJJHVWLQJ�D�PRYHPHQW�DZD\�IURP�5RGJHU¶V�VHYHQ-point plan as the

elements physical make-up and interests, do not appear in any of the nine analysed job

advertisements.

The third subsidiary aim of this dissertation was to map the developments within the job

advertisement format (which has been done above), and on the basis of that suggest an all-round up

to date format for job advertisements that could be used within human resource management in the

future. The format presented below is the result of the mapping of the developments within the job

advertisements. It is inspired by elements from�� 5DIDHOL� � 2OLYHU¶V� �� VNHOHWDO� IUDPHZRUN,

%UDWWRQ� � *ROG¶V� �� DQG� 0DUFKLQJWRQ� � :LONLQVRQ� �� IRUPDWV� IRU� MRE� GHVFULSWLRQs,

5RGJHU¶V� VHYHQ-SRLQW�SODQ�DQG�)UDVHU¶V� ILYH-fold grading system for personnel specifications that

were used continuously throughout the examined job advertisements. Additional inspiration comes

in the form of new elements identified during the analysis of the job advertisements. The suggested

format is created for rich job advertisements. It contains six principal areas that can be argued to be

94

the foundation of a contemporary rich job advertisement. Each principal area has a descriptive sub-

heading that specifies the type of information that the principal area can contain. The underlying

sub-headings are not obligatory elements, but are suggested on either the basis of their continual

occurrence in the analysed job advertisements above, or because they were present in some of the

job advertisements from 2011. The significance of HOHPHQWV�DSSHDULQJ�LQ��¶V�MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV�

is that they might be indicative of the beginning of new trends within the future of job

advertisements. This is the reason why elements, such as the recruitment process shown to be

contracted out to another company are part of the format despite only appearing in one job

advertisement in 2011

Table 18: Format for job advertisements Title

Organisational Identity:

Company name

Field of occupation

Culture and values

Organisational History

Financial status

Company size (number of employees)

Job description:

Job title

Location/department

Responsible to

Responsible for

Main purpose of job

Responsibilities/duties

Economical and physical working conditions

Personnel specifications:

Educational qualifications and experience

Disposition

Special aptitudes

Application deadlines

95

Practical information:

Date the position is to be filled

Week interviews are being held

Recruitment process shown to be contracted out to another

company

Contact information for the HR recruitment company

Availability of Follow up/Extra information offered

Contact information: Company address/e-mail address/ phone number

This format serves two functions: announcing an employment opportunity and impressing

secondary audiences (other organisations, the general public, current members of the organization).

11.2 Curricula and job advertisements The aim of this sub-section is to outline the results and tendencies found during the second level of

analysis in chapter 10, which examined whether any of the themes in the curricula can be found in

the content of the job advertisements. On the collective basis of this analysis it will be discussed

whether a link between the curricula and job advertisements exists.

All six sub-sections that compared the themes, found in the curricula, with the contents of the job

advertisements individually found that some select themes could be identified within the sections

focused on describing tasks related to the job and the requirements the applicant has to fulfil. Now it

cannot be argued that a link exists between job advertisements and curricula purely on the basis of

only one theme being found in one job advertisement. However when one or more themes are found

in six job advertisements, that were specifically chosen to capture maximum variation, this indicates

a more significant correlation between the two data sets. The fact that this pattern emerges out of

heterogeneity only adds to its significance (Patton; 2002, 235). So it can be argued that there is an

undefined link present here. Table 19 below gives a simple overview of the results from chapter 10.

96

Table 19: Overview of comparative results

Year Job advertisements

Themes found in the job advertisement

1991 D2 Business language,

E2 Business language,

Language production

F2 Language description

Business language

2011 G2 Stakeholder relations

Marketing communications

H2 Miscellaneous

Global communication

I2 Stakeholder relations

Marketing communications

This overview also reveals patterns for the individual years examined. All the job advertisements

from 1991 have elements that focus on the theme called µbusiness language¶. Only three out of the

five themes found in the correspondent education curricula from 1986 (see section 9.1.1) are present

in the job advertisements, which says something about the focus of the positions advertised in 1991.

In regards to the themes found in the job advertisements from 2011 there is a bit more variation. It

can be argued that this has something to do with each theme being a highly specialised area under

the large umbrella called ³corporate communication´, and that communication job advertisements

have also become focused on finding applicants with knowledge about individual specialised areas

within corporate communication.

It is not enough merely to say that there is a link between the tasks and requirements described in

job advertisements and the communication curricula. What is interesting now is to discuss how this

undefined link functions. During the analysis of the job advertisements from 1991 (see 10.3.3.2) it

was postulated that the curricula could influence the contents of the job advertisements on two

97

levels. The first level covers indirect influence. This is where skills and knowledge relating to entire

subject areas and themes from the curricula, can be identified in the contents of a job

advertisements. The second level covers direct influence. This is where the curricula have

influenced the language/terminology used in the job advertisement to describe the tasks and

requirements. In other words direct influence is when the same buzz words appear in both sets of

data.

The results do support this postulation that there are examples of both levels of influence

present in the job advertisements. However when commenting on the job advertisements as a

whole, the influence the curricula have on them is compellingly indirect in nature, and not as much

direct. There is only one advertisement (E2) where the curricula truly have been found to influence

the language used in the job advertisement in more than one instance (see section 10.3.2.2). The

occurrences of the same terminology in job advertisement E2 and the curricula cannot be brushed

off as random uses of specialised terminology WKDW�KDYH�QRWKLQJ�WR�GR�ZLWK�WKH�FXUULFXOD¶V�LQIOXHQFH��

For one thing none of the specialised terminology found in job advertisement E2 can be found in

the job advertisements from 1961, which as mentioned earlier acts as a baseline for comparison.

$QRWKHU�UHDVRQ�LV�WKDW�RQH�RI�WKH�H[DPSOHV�RI�VSHFLDOLVHG�WHUPLQRORJ\�³word processing´�IRXQG�LQ�

E2 is also present in job advertisement F2 (see 10.3.3.2). As a whole this means that an argument

can definitely be made for the curricula directly influencing the contents of job advertisements, but

this level of influence is just not overwhelmingly presented by the examined job advertisements.

98

Model 3: Influence of communication curricula on job advertisements

All in all the use of thematic analysis to analyse the communication curricula, helped capture the

social aspect of Fairclough¶V�WKUHH-dimensional model. This then allowed for the comparison of the

job advertisement contents with the themes found in the curricula resulting in a link being found

between the two data sets, which is primarily indirect in nature. This process is illustrated in Model

3 above.

12 Conclusion This dissertation has investigated the existence of a possible link between communication curricula

DQG� WKH�FRQWHQWV�RI� MRE�DGYHUWLVHPHQWV�E\�XVLQJ�)DLUFORXJK¶V� WKUHH-dimensional model for critical

discourse analysis. Thematic analysis was used to analyse and find themes present in the curricula

IURP��DQG��UHVSHFWLYHO\��WKHUHE\�FDSWXULQJ�)DLUFORXJK¶V�VRFLDO�GLPHQVLRQ��DQG�DOORZLQJ�IRU�

the comparison of the curricula themes with the contents of the job advertisements. This

investigation showed that there is a link between the teaching content of the two education

programmes examined and the description of tasks and requirements stated in the job

advertisements. This link was found to primarily be indirect in nature meaning that some of the job

advertisement content mirrored skills acquired from whole subject areas, which were covered by

99

different identified themes. There were also a few examples where the curricula directly influenced

the specialised terminology used in the job advertisements.

This dissertation contributes to the ever expanding research about job advertisements and to the

SUDFWLWLRQHU¶V� NQRZOHGJH� DERXW� ZKDW� FRQVLGHUDWLRQV� DQG� HOHPHQWV� JR� LQWR� SURGXFLQJ� WKHP�� 7KH�

importance of this dissertatLRQ¶V�ILQGLQJV�LV�WKDW�DZDUHQHVV�RI�WKH�LGHQWLILHG�OLQN�FDQ�EH�XWLOLVHG�E\�

practitioners to produce highly targeted job advertisements, which would result in a more qualified

pool of applicants.

Where future research is concerned it would be interesting to complement this diachronic

comparative study with a study comparing how the theory taught in education programmes

corresponds with the actual job, the tasks and responsibilities during a normal working day. This

kind of research could extend the already existing knowledge base further.

Despite the methods and data corpus in this dissertation being carefully chosen there are always

OLPLWDWLRQV� DQG� WKLQJV�� ZKLFK� FRXOG� KDYH� EHHQ� GRQH� GLIIHUHQWO\�� :KHQ� ORRNLQJ� DW� )DLUFORXJK¶V�

method used in this dissertation it has certain limits which made the use of thematic analysis

necessary to capture the social dimension, thereby creating a multiperspectival research framework.

This adds further complexity to the already extensive research method used in this dissertation. If

something critical has to be said about thematic analysis as a research method it would be that it can

EH� WRR� IOH[LEOH�� EXW� E\�XVLQJ�%UDXQ��&ODUNH¶V� �� VL[� VWHS�DSSURDFK� WKLV� IOH[LELOLW\�KDV�EHHQ�

given some structure, which then adds to the usefulness of it as a research tool.

It could be argued that even with the use of maximum variation, a even larger data set could be

gathered and would then provide a wider statistical foundation for the results and thereby add to its

value.

Altogether this dissertation sought to and provided clarity to an area of human resource

management which normally does not receive much attention in literature.

100

13 Bibliography

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313.

Bernard, H. Russell, and Gery W. Ryan. 2003. Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15

(1): 85..

Bratton, John, and Jeffrey Gold. 2007. Human resource management: Theory and practice. 4. ed.

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Bryman, Alan. 2001. Social research methods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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policies and procedures. 3. ed.,Revised ed. London: Kogan Page, Limited.

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Eggins, Suzanne. 2004. An Introduction to Systemic Functional Linguistics. Second edition. Continuum.

Fairclough, Norman. 2008. Discourse and social change. Paperback ed. Cambridge: Polity Press.

²²². 2003. Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge.

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Harlow, Eng.: Longman.

²²². 1995. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Language in social life

series. London: Longman.

Feldman, Daniel C., William O. Bearden, and David M. Hardesty. 2006. Varying the content of job

advertisements: The effects of message specificity. Journal of Advertising 35 (1): 123.

101

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in progress.

Fu, Xiaoli. 2012. The use of interactional metadiscourse in job postings. Discourse Studies 14 (4):

399.

Jørgensen, Marianne, and Louise Phillips. 2002. Discourse analysis as theory and method. London:

SAGE.

Marchington, Mick, and Adrian Wilkinson. 2007. Human resource management at work: People

management and development. 3. ed., 3. printing ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel

and Development.

Patton, Michael Quinn. 2002. Qualitative research and evaluation methods. 3. ed. ed. Newbury

Park: Sage.

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advertising. Journal of Organizational Behavior 27 (6): 747.

Rafaeli, Anat, and Amalya L. Oliver. 1998. Employment ads. Journal of Management Inquiry 7 (4):

342.

Rienecker, Lotte, and Peter Stray Jørgensen. 2012. Den gode opgave : Håndbog i opgaveskrivning

på videregående uddannelser. 4. udgave / Lotte Rienecker og Peter Stray Jørgensen / med

bidrag af Signe Skov ed. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.

Roberts, Celia, and Srikant Sarangi. 2005. Theme-oriented discourse analysis of medical

encounters. Medical Education 39 (6): 632.

Roberts, Gareth. 1997: Recruitment and Selection: A competency approach, London: IPD

Schjoldager, Anne, Henrik Gottlieb, and Ida Klitgård. 2008. Understanding translation. 1. edition

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Stewart, Greg L., and Kenneth G. Brown. 2009. Human resource management: Linking strategy to

practice. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

102

Virginia Braun, and Victoria Clarke. 2006. Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative

Research in Psychology - LA English 3 (2): 77.

Winther Jørgensen, Marianne, and Louise Phillips. 1999. Diskursanalyse som teori og metode. 1.

udgave ed. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur.

13.1 Websites

Web 1: http://berlingskemedia.dk/45735/ Acces date: 16-12-12 Web 2:

http://www.politikenannoncer.dk/upl/14548/MediaPack10102012.pdf

Acess date: 16-12-12

Web 3:

http://www.asb.dk/omos/profil/arkiv/historie/handelshoejskolensinstitutter/


Web 4:

http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Samfund%2c_jura_og_politik/Samfund/Kvindesagen/ligestilling/lig

estilling_(Arbejdsretlige_aspekter)


Web 5:

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/clm-

studieordninger-for-2004-2008/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-

eksamen/studieordning/studieordningsarkiv/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/


http://berlingskemedia.dk/45735/

http://www.politikenannoncer.dk/upl/14548/MediaPack10102012.pdf

http://www.asb.dk/omos/profil/arkiv/historie/handelshoejskolensinstitutter/

http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Samfund%2c_jura_og_politik/Samfund/Kvindesagen/ligestilling/ligestilling_(Arbejdsretlige_aspekter)

http://www.denstoredanske.dk/Samfund%2c_jura_og_politik/Samfund/Kvindesagen/ligestilling/ligestilling_(Arbejdsretlige_aspekter)

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/clm-studieordninger-for-2004-2008/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/clm-studieordninger-for-2004-2008/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/studieordningsarkiv/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/studieordningsarkiv/

http://studerende.au.dk/studier/fagportaler/bcom/undervisning-og-eksamen/studieordning/

103

Web 6:

http://bcom.au.dk/profile/history/

Access date: 17-02-2013

http://bcom.au.dk/profile/history/

104

14 Appendix

14.1 Job advertisements from 1961

14.1.1 A1 (Danish) Small

14.1.2 A2 (English) small

Danish Correspondent We are looking for, preferably immediately, a skilled

young lady. Who is experienced in Danish shorthand and

commerce correspondence.

Please call us at C. 82 96 ext. 61

Brothers A. & O. Johansen A / S Larsbjørnsstræde 3, K

105

14.1.3 B1 (Danish) medium

14.1.4 B2 (English) medium

English Correspondent Sharp lady, age is of no importance, perfect in English and with all-round office training, sought for our office in Ørholm. Accession the 1/10 or possibly the 1/11 this year. Salary approx. dkk 1000 per. mth. or in accordance with skills. Ticket number 20497 to Berl Tidende.

106

14.1.5 C1 (Danish) large

14.1.6 C2 (English) large

Correspondent An experienced female correspondent around 30 years old is sought as soon as possible for one of our sales offices for electronic equipment. The requirements are: perfect at shorthand, familiar with English and Danish correspondence. Knowledge of German would be an advantage. As a result of the department head's frequent business trips, a lady who is accustomed to working independently will be preferred. personal inquiries are kindly requested to

Phillips public limited company

personnel office Prague Boulevard 80, S. - Asta 22 22 local 360th

107


14.2.1 D1 (Danish) small

108

14.2.2 D2 (English) small

1 Flash-scripture = lynskrift

Correspondent

We are looking for an English correspondent for early commencement (of

employment). Applicants must be able to write Danish shorthand or flash-

scripture1.

Furniture Transport, Denmark Ltd. is an international moving company with

approx. 1000 employees.

The work will mainly consist of correspondence relating to international

relocation and contact with our worldwide network of agents.

Salary according to qualifications

Written application:

DENMARK

FURNITURE TRANSPORT Furniture Transport Denmark Ltd.

109

14.2.3 E1 (Danish) medium

110

14.2.4 E2 (English) medium

LOUISIANA Secretary / Correspondent

Responsibilities:

x Secretary of our information and activities manager and one of our curators

x Letter writing by dictation/concept x Caseworker for all incoming mail x Coordination of tasks x Translation, mainly English but also German and French x Participation in other Secretariat tasks

We require an employee who:

x Can translate from/into English. Preferably on BDD or an equivalent level with German and French as a second language

x Has some years of practical office experience, preferably knowledge of word processing

x Can work independently and committed x Has good interpersonal skills x Likes to work under pressure and to give an extra hand in

critical situations x Shows pliancy when getting through multiple tasks and

possess a strong sense of order We offer:

x a job with abundant opportunities in a museum with many different activities

x an inspiring working environment x 37 hour working week

A written application should be sent to the personnel office

LOUISIANA Museum of Modern Art

Gl Strandvej 13 3050 Humlebæk

111

14.2.5 F1 (Danish) large

112

14.2.6 F2 (English) large

P & V is looking for a

Correspondent / language expert secretary

(English, German and / or French)

Responsibilities: work takes place in our patent department that deals with world-wide establishment of in particular patents and advice on strategically correct use of intellectual property systems. You will mainly perform various linguistic and administrative tasks related to patent applications at home and abroad. It is an independent position in close cooperation with our caseworkers, who have educational backgrounds in: MS in Engineering, MS in Medicine, MS in Pharmacy, Licentiates, DMV, Horticultural graduates, MSc, PH.D, LL.M etc Qualifications: You are theoretically sound, have good interpersonal skills and can participate actively in a dynamic and dedicated team. You may have some years of work experience. You are good at prioritizing your tasks and staying organized. In addition, you can express yourself linguistically correct and are adept at word processing (knowledge of WordPerfect an advantage). You must have the desire and ability to familiarize yourself with the operation of new technology, as we strive to continually keep us up to date with the latest developments. We offer: Excellent salary based on qualifications, an attractive and inspiring working environment and good development opportunities. A written application, which will of course be treated confidentially, should be sent to the Administrative Manager Anne Pors

Plougmann & Vingtoft

113

St. Annæ 11, PO Box 3007 1021 Copenhagen K. Tel. 33 11 05 66

Plougmann & Vingtoft is a modern patent and trademark agency with approx. 45 employees, 8 of which are owners. We deal with internationally oriented consultancy work in all branches of intellectual property law. Our clients include a large number of Danish and foreign companies and institutions with advanced research and development. We emphasize a good working climate with responsible, flexible and highly educated employees whose goal is to provide our clients with effective and professional service.

114


14.3.1 G1 (Danish) small

115

14.3.2 G2 (English) small

AARHUS UNIVERSITY

Communications Employee For the Danish-Chinese University Centre Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC) is looking for a skilled inventive and energetic employee with an educational background in communications or journalism Your tasks will include making SDC's activities more visible to the general public: recruiting students for SDC educations in China: developing and implementing SDC Secretariat's communication strategy and PR plan: producing articles, press releases, memos, etc. and develop and update our website. The secretariat is located at Aarhus University. We expect that you have a relevant degree within communications, journalism or similar. The position should be filled the 1st November 2011. The application deadline is 8th September 2011 at 12:00 The full posting can be seen on http://www.au.dk/om/stillinger / Read more about Sino-Danish Centre for Education and Research (SDC) at http://www.sinodanishcenter.dk

Aarhus University offers an inspiring education and

research environment for 40,000 students and

11,000 employees, ensuring results of a high

international standard. The budgeted turnover for

2011 amounts to 5.9 million dkk. The university's

strategy and development contract is available at www.au.dk

http://www.au.dk/

116

14.3.3 H1-2 (English) medium

Director Communication Consultancy

Set new standards for strategic communication in the LEGO Group!

Would you like to:

��'HVLJQ�WKH�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�VWUDWHJLHV�LQ�D�ZRUOG-renowned company?

��:RUN�JOREDOO\"

��%HFRPH�SDUW�RI�D�KLJKO\�SURIHVVLRQDO�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�HQYLURQPHQW�LQ�WKH�/(*2�*URXS"

Raise the bar for strategic communication

You will join Corporate Communications which consists of 9 sharp communication professionals

responsible for all external and internal corporate communication in the LEGO Group.

As our new Director for Communication Consultancy, you will add to the strategic capabilities in

the Corporate Communications team as well as meet the increasing need from the rest of the

organisation for communication support on a strategic and tactical level. You will report the Head

of Corporate Communications.

Communication consultancy that shines through

Being the primary strategic resource and go-to person for communication consultancy, your job is

to create best practices by leading and driving communication consultancy to key areas in the

LEGO Group. This could for example be developing strategies and plans on a corporate level as

well as for specific business areas or projects. Further, you will be responsible for continuously

developing and carrying out communication training activities for managers across the

organisation.

Another key part of your position is to build and lead a global network of communication

employees. The challenge will be to look beyond Denmark to find the right members. Also, it will

117

be to enthuse and inspire the members and thus establish an attractive network that will generate a

top of the class global cooperation on internal communication.

You will be taken on a thrilling and challenging LEGO journey with a wide spectre of activities

and organisational touch points.

Extensive communication consultancy experience

<RX�KDYH��\HDUV¶�H[SHULHQFH�ZLWKLQ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�DQG�VROLG�H[SHULHQFH�ZLWKLQ�FRPPXQLFDWLRQ�

consultancy ± from an agency and/or a major corporation. You have successfully advised

businesses on management level on communication within corporate areas. Your English is of

course at a high level, and Danish is not a prerequisite in this position.

With your communication expertise, you know how to add value to the businesses ± and create an

impact. Your ability to collaborate and establish new relations is imperative to position yourself as

a strategic communication expert and to establish a successful global network. Finally, you have

the patience to understand and get acquainted with a large and complex organisation.

Application & contact

If you would like to know more about this position, please contact Head of Corporate

Communications, Charlotte Simonsen on [...] . Please send us your motivated application and your

CV as soon as possible.

To apply, use the 'APPLY/ANSØG'-button above or below. Please remember to attach your

application and CV.

Source: http://www.jobindex.dk/cgi/showarchive.cgi?tid=h322639

118

14.3.4 I1 (Danish) large

Kommunikationskonsulent til Human Resources

Kommunikationskonsulent til Human Resources - intern kommunikation som værdiskabende og kulturbærende

CPH har en stærk ambition om at være et selskab, hvor information, nyheder og vidensdeling er i højsædet. Der er derfor fokus på at skabe et unikt univers for intern kommunikation ± ikke kun via en stærk kommunikationsplatform men også gennem et udadvendt og kontaktskabende kommunikationsteam med en god forståelse for operationel og strategisk RUJDQLVDWLRQVNRPPXQLNDWLRQ��RJ�VRP�ILQGHU�GH�´JRGH�KLVWRULHU´�

'H�´JRGH�KLVWRULHU´��VNULIWOLJ�IRUPLGling og videreudvikling af intern kommunikation Stillingen som Kommunikationskonsulent er en central og synlig rolle internt i CPH. I flere sammenhænge bliver du drivende i at binde eksterne aktiviteter, ledelsestiltag og ambitioner sammen og sikre, at medarbejderne i CPH føler sig godt informeret og kan bidrage med input til at gøre CPH til en endnu bedre arbejdsplads. Sammen med din kollega i intern kommunikation samt et engageret redaktørkorps i forretningsenhederne finder du de gode vinkler og historier, sikrer budskaberne og skriver historierne. Dertil kommer en række spændende daglige opgaver, som du bliver driver af:

� Interview med alle medarbejdergrupper i CPHs organisation � Deltagelse i forretningens ledermøder og herfra at kommunikere nøglebudskaberne � Dagligt drift, publicering og opdatering af indhold på intranettet � Etablering af proces til at sikre, at indholdet på intranettet opleves som validt og aktuelt � Facilitering af jævnlige møder med redaktørkorpset � Udvikling af værktøjer i intern kommunikation � Selvstændige interne kommunikationsprojekter ± fra projektide til eksekvering � Diverse ad hov opgaver knyttet op til kommunikation / intern ledelseskommunikation

Et vigtigt parameter for din succes bliver din evne til at udvikle intern kommunikation til et endnu stærkere medie, samt at skabe et stærkt internt netværk.

Erfaring med skriftlig formidling, samt administration og udvikling af en intranetportal Du har en passion for at arbejde med videreformidling og gennem klar og overbevisende skriftlig kommunikation at fange dine målgrupper. Du trives med en kombination af kommunikative, administrative og udviklende opgaver og er planlæggende og opfølgende. Gennem dit engagement og positive energi evner du at få dine omgivelser til at se intern kommunikation som et vigtigt IRUPLGOLQJVPHGLH��'X�KDU�HQ�nEHQ�LQGVWLOOLQJ�RYHUIRU�DQGUH��HQ�´MRXUQDOLVWLVN�Q VH´�IRU�GH�JRGH�historier, kombineret med en udadvendt opsøgende tilgang til dit arbejde. Din faglige ballast tager

119

afsæt i en:

� akademisk uddannelse indenfor kommunikation � sælgende og overbevisende fejlfri skriftlig kommunikation � erfaring med administration, opdatering og redigering af en intranetportal � en vis viden om kommunikationsværktøjer såsom video, podcasts osv. � god forståelse for marketing og andre kommunikationsmedier � erfaring med at opsøge de gode historier, interviewe og formidle

Hvem er vi? HR i CPH består af en række engagerede og erfarne medarbejdere, der arbejder med en bred række af opgaver fra HR administration, rekruttering og udvikling, til rådgivning og support mod forretningsenhederne. HR er endvidere ansvarlig for employer branding og initiativer knyttet op til medarbejdertilfredshedsmålinger.

HR er et centralt omdrejningspunkt for CPHs medarbejdere og ledelse og er direkte repræsenteret i CPHs øverste ledergruppe. Der er et tæt samarbejde funktionerne imellem, og intern kommunikation vil endvidere have meget at gøre med den øvrige organisation.

Bliv en del af en ambitiøs virksomhed med vindermentalitet Vi har et ønske om at fastholde vores position som en af verdens bedste lufthavne ± og det kræver engagerede, ambitiøse og ansvarlige medarbejdere, der alle bidrager til fortsat at styrke vores position som en lufthavn i verdensklasse.

Som en attraktiv arbejdsplads har vi naturligvis fokus på dygtige ledere, som via bl.a. vores værdier formår at omsætte virksomhedens mål til konkrete mål for medarbejderne. Derfor støtter vi vores ledere i at realisere deres forretningsmæssige mål og derved skabe et CPH, hvor medarbejderne skaber resultater, udvikler sig fagligt og personligt, og hvor der er en høj grad af medarbejdertilfredshed.

Alt dette ± og meget mere - kan du læse om på vores hjemmeside www.cph.dk/job

Kan du se dig selv hos os? Så glæder vi os til at få din ansøgning hurtigst muligt og senest den 31. oktober 2011. I denne rekruttering arbejder vi sammen med Hudson. For mere information om stillingen, er du velkommen til at kontakte Camilla Svendsen eller Fie Kollerup fra Hudson på telefon 7027 7733.

Send din ansøgning direkte til ´GN#KXGVRQ�GN´�HOOHU�YHG�DW�NOLNNH�Sn��V¡J�VWLOOLQJ��QHGHQIRU��6HQGHU�GX�GLQ�DQV¡JQLQJ�GLUHNWH�WLO�´+XGVRQ´��VNDO�GX�P UNH�GHQ�´��´� Hvis du har spørgsmål til rekrutteringsprocessen, er du velkommen til at kontakte HR Rekruttering på [email protected].

___________________________________________________________________________

http://www.cph.dk/job

mailto:%E2%80%[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

120

Lidt om os: Københavns Lufthavne A/S (CPH) ejer og driver lufthavnene i København og Roskilde, og vi stiller infrastruktur, bygninger og servicefaciliteter til rådighed for de mange virksomheder, som driver deres forretning i lufthavnen. Vi ønsker, at alle vores passagerer skal have en excellent oplevelse fra start til slut i deres rejse, og det tager vi ansvaret for sammen med de over 500 virksomheder, der opererer i lufthavnen. CPH er en vigtig del af samfundet i det sydlige Skandinavien. Tilgængeligheden, vækstmulighederne og arbejdspladserne i Danmark og Øresundsregionen er afhængige af, at Københavns Lufthavn kan fastholde og udbygge positionen som Nordeuropas vigtigste knudepunkt. Vi er 2000 engagerede medarbejdere, der arbejder med en stor bredde af opgaver inden for områder som projektledelse, produktudvikling, IT og finansielle kernefunktioner såvel som driftmæssige områder som håndværk, rengøring og Security.

Source: http://www.jobindex.dk/cgi/showarchive.cgi?tid=r4065722

121

14.3.5 I2 (English) large

Communications Consultant for Human Resources

- Internal communication to create value and cultural significance

CPH has a strong ambition to be a company where information, news and knowledge are paramount. There is therefore focus on creating a unique universe for internal communication - not only through a strong communication platform but also through an extrovert and contact-making communications team with a good understanding of operational and strategic organizational communication, and find the "good stories".

The "good stories", written communication and development of internal communication

The position of Corporate Communications is a central and visible role within CPH. In several contexts, you will be the driving factor in attaching external activities, management initiatives and ambitions together and ensure that employees in CPH feel well informed and can provide input to make CPH to an even better place to work. Along with your colleague in internal communication and a dedicated editor corps in the business units to find some good angles and stories that ensures messages and write stories. In addition, a number of exciting daily tasks that you will be responsible for:

x Interviews with all employee groups in CPH's organization x Participation in business management meetings and from there to communicate key

messages x Daily operations, publishing and updating content on the intranet x Establish process to ensure that the content on the intranet perceived as valid and current x Facilitation of regular meetings with the editor Corps x Development of tools for internal communication x Self internal communications projects - from project idea for execution x Various ad hoc tasks related to communications / internal management communication

An important element of your success will be your ability to develop internal communications to an even stronger media, and to create a strong internal network.

Experience with written communication, and management and development of an intranet portal

You have a passion for working with dissemination and through clear and convincing written communication to catch your audiences. You thrive on a combination of communication, administrative and developmental tasks and planning and follow-up. Through your commitment and positive energy, you get your environment to see internal communication as an important communication medium. You have an open attitude towards others, a "journalistic nose" for the

122

good stories, combined with an outgoing proactive approach to your work.

Your academic qualifications is based on a:

x academic training in communication x Selling and convincing flawless written communication x experience managing, updating and editing an intranet portal x some knowledge of communication tools such as video, podcasts, etc. x good understanding of marketing and other communications media x experience to seek out the good stories, interviewing and communicating

Who are we?

HR in CPH consists of a number of dedicated and experienced staff that works with a wide range of tasks from HR administration, recruitment and development, consultancy and support to business units. HR is also responsible for branding and initiatives related to employee satisfaction surveys.

HR is a key focal point for CPH employees and management and is directly represented in CPH's senior management team. There is close cooperation between functions, and internal communication will also have much to do with the rest of the organization.

Become a part of an ambitious company with a winning mentality

We have a desire to maintain our position as one of the world's best airports - and it requires dedicated, ambitious and responsible employees, all of which contribute to further strengthening our position as a world class airport.

As an attractive employer, we naturally focus on skilled managers that through our values are able to translate business objectives into specific objectives for employees. Therefore, we support our leaders to realize their business goals, creating CPH where employees produce results, develop professionally and personally, and where there is a high degree of employee satisfaction.

All this - and more - you can read about on our site www.cph.dk / jobs

Can you see yourself with us?

Then we look forward to your application as soon as possible and no later than 31 October 2011.

In this recruitment we are working with Hudson. For more information about the position, please contact Camilla Svendsen or Fie Kollerup from Hudson on telephone 7027 7733rd

Send your application directly to "[email protected]" or by clicking on the "apply for position"

123

below. If you send your application directly to the "Hudson", you must mark it with "20 347".

If you have questions about the recruitment process, please feel free to contact HR Recruitment at [email protected].

About Us: Copenhagen Airports A / S (CPH) owns and operates airports in Copenhagen and Roskilde, and we provide infrastructure, buildings and service facilities for the many companies that run their business at the airport. We want all our passengers must have an excellent experience from start to finish in their journey, and we take responsibility together with the more than 500 companies operating at the airport.

CPH is an important part of society in southern Scandinavia. Availability, growth opportunities and jobs in Denmark and the Øresund Region is dependent on that Copenhagen is to maintain and expand its position as Northern Europe's main hub.

We have 2000 dedicated employees who work with a vast range of tasks in areas such as project management, product development, IT and financial core functions as well as operation-related areas such as crafts, cleaning and Security.

14.4 Curricula from 1986

14.4.1 Correspondent one language 1986 See CD-Rom

14.4.2 Correspondence two languages 1986 See CD-Rom

14.5 Curricula from 2006

14.5.1 Corporate communication (English) 2006 See CD-Rom

14.5.2 Corporate communication (Danish) 2006 See CD-Rom

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