Introducing the New Rhetoric into organization studies

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the New Rhetoric and show its relevance for organisation studies. The expression “New Rhetoric” refers here to the theory of argumentation that Chaïm Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca have originally presented in The New Rhetoric—A Treatise on Argumentation (1969) [hereafter the Treatise], originally published in French as the Traité de l’argumentation – La nouvelle rhétorique (1958). The paper follows the presentation of the New Rhetoric in the Treatise, but with illustrations taken from managerial and organisational contexts.