PhD research and thesis

On these pages I would like to offer some insights into the method, findings and results of my PhD research which was critical discourse analysis based on a linguistic framework, applied to the field of international business management studies.

The core of all organizations are the people within them. Everything from our ability to effectively communicate and cooperate with each other to how adaptive and absorptive our capacities are, contribute to the efficiency of the organization.

As a discourse analyst my interest is focused on the use of language through which organizational processes can be studied. Because language is so pervasive in everyday human transactions, almost everything that we do is reflected in our use of language. Thus, a systematic study of language in use enables a deeper understanding of the possibilities and problems within the organizations, sometimes long before these have reached a conscious level.

During my research of the Swedish Management style as applied in Singapore, I had the pleasure of meeting with numerous Scandinavian top level managers successfully having established themselves in Asia. They all had amazing stories to tell.

In long interviews, these top level managers shared their experiences and insights with me, which were then transcribed and studied in detail, of which some of the findings and my method were subsequently presented in my doctoral thesis entitled “Swedish Management in Singapore: a discourse analysis study” The thesis is available for downloading here, in pdf format.

In short, it became obvious how at top management level, a single individual could make or break the entire organization. From a practical standpoint it pointed at the importance of the selection and training of those who were going abroad and from a theoretical standpoint - maybe even more important - on the workings of tacit knowledge transfer between and within organizations.

Current work

Currently, I work with customized programs for corporate education with the School of Executive Education AB, a subsidiary private company owned by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Background and previous experience

Prior to my current work I have spent time on both commercial work as well as research and academia.

Up to 2000 I pursued all academic interests in Singapore where I graduated with two separate masters degrees - a Master of Science in Information Studies and a Master of Arts in the English Language - from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore and the National University of Singapore (NUS).

From 2003 and onwards I studied Swedish as a language, and thereafter pursued a doctoral degree in the field of general linguistics at the University of Gothenburg. In 2009, I graduated with a PhD specializing in the study of discourse analysis and international management, specifically that of Swedish management in Singapore.

Representing Singapore

In 1999 while pursuing my masters degrees, I had the honour of being selected to represent the Republic of Singapore at the International Miss Universe Pageant in Trinidad and Tobago.

Besides being a good platform for creating contacts within international trade and politics in a multi cultural environment, I found this international pageant and the following years of representative work in general, a very useful training in public presentations.

Dr. Cheryl M. Cordeiro

Cheryl Marie Cordeiro