The purpose of this research is to investigate the discursive legitimation of two competing discourses about workplace location, that of Amazon and its Return to Office mandates and Spotify and its Work from Anywhere policy. Data consists of media articles (n=44) and corporate blog posts (n=24) as well as letters to shareholders and impact reports (n=6) coming from both Amazon and Spotify. A critical discursive analysis has been conducted, focusing on discursive strategies and foundations. Findings highlight that Amazon and Spotify’s discourses about workplace location share some similarities and differences in how they are built and the ideologies that support these discourses. Both discourses rely on the same discursive strategies (appeal to reason, appeal to ethos, appeal to authority, and appeal to precedent) and cover the same key questions (who do we do it for, why do we do it, what are the key success factors). However, the answers to such questions tend to differ, and tend to be associated with distinct ideologies about management and leadership, that are either leaning towards control or trust. This research contributes to the literature on discursive legitimation by analyzing a specific situation of competing discourses and how they are built and feed off of each other. It specifically uncovers the key role of critical topics of contention and of ideological opposition for the legitimation process.
