Ideology and the symbolic construction of fairness in organizational change

The theory of an interest‐driven ideology is applied with the intention of revealing ways that ideological discourse constructs perceptions of fairness, legitimacy and defensibility in organizational change. A framework for analyzing ideological content in change discourse is presented and several corporate communications addressing layoffs and the new work relationship are evaluated. Results reveal the many ways that ideologies are invoked in order to influence judgments about organizational change.