For Capitalist Purposes Only – A Critical Discourse Analysis of Organizational Purpose Communication by the Big Four

Organizational purpose has attracted attention in corporate practice and academic research, yet it has received limited scrutiny from organizational communication scholars. Adopting a critical organizational communication perspective, this study examines how purpose communication reflects and reinforces capitalist ideology. While purpose resembles earlier corporate attempts to moralize capitalism, it also operates in distinct ways: it frames social value creation as an organization’s core identity rather than an external obligation, collapses the boundary between social and economic value to naturalize capitalist interests, and humanizes capitalism by inviting employees and customers to treat work and consumption as moral projects. Using critical discourse analysis, we investigate communication by the Big Four consultancies: Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC. Their discursive practices influence management practices and play a central role in reinforcing politico-economic ideologies. This study contributes to understanding purpose as a capitalist discourse in several ways. The study demonstrates how capitalism is reinforced through everyday purpose communication in ways often taken for granted, shows that purpose is not a neutral ideal but a discursive strategy justifying capitalism through softer social values, and reveals how purpose communication commodifies social issues and constructs a “purposeful self.”