Performance under fire: A study of rhetorical firefighter identities

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dc.contributor.advisorBusl, Gretchen
dc.creatorSchuth, Megan
dc.creator.orcid0000-0002-6680-7769
dc.date.accessioned2022-06-28T21:50:21Z
dc.date.created2022-05
dc.date.issued5/25/2022
dc.date.submittedMay-22
dc.date.updated2022-06-28T21:50:22Z
dc.description.abstractFirefighters, through the repetitive performance of their shared job, construct a collective rhetorical identity. Fire departments, like many organizations, often adopt written core values in an aim to guide employee behavior and represent the organization’s beliefs, both internally and externally. From my personal experience working in a fire department that recently adopted new core values, I developed an interest in how other fire departments adopt such values and if those values contribute to the rhetorical identities of the firefighters. To investigate this question, I conducted a qualitative discourse analysis of a five-year sample of professional papers written by executive fire officers of the National Fire Academy. The purpose of this study is to examine fire department core values as rhetorical symbols of organizational rhetoric and identification strategies of constitutive rhetoric that are intended to influence the firefighter identity. In this study, I coin the phrase “entrenched group identity,” which I define as a constitutive identity that has an ingrained culture inherent to the profession, and exposure to traumatic events, danger, and high levels of stress influence how this group works and acts together. I assert that firefighters have an entrenched group identity, which I analyze using a theoretical framework drawn from Kenneth Burke, Chaïm Perelman, Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca, and Judith Butler. From the study, I found that while core values assigned by the organization do not have a constitutive effect on the firefighter identity, the unspoken value of masculinity is historically and rhetorically embedded into the job and the identity of the firefighter.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/13802
dc.language.isoen
dc.subjectFirefighter
dc.subjectCore values
dc.subjectOrganizational rhetoric
dc.subjectIdentities
dc.subjectConstitutive rhetoric
dc.subjectMasculinity
dc.subjectGender
dc.subjectPower
dc.subjectCulture
dc.titlePerformance under fire: A study of rhetorical firefighter identities
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext
local.embargo.lift5/1/2024
local.embargo.terms5/1/2024
thesis.degree.departmentEnglish, Speech, and Foreign Languages
thesis.degree.disciplineRhetoric
thesis.degree.grantorTexas Woman's University
thesis.degree.levelDoctoral
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy

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