This study explores the rhetorical evolution of CEOs across four career stages: establishment, Growth, Maturity, and Legacy, using a longitudinal qualitative content analysis of 20 CEOs (10 male, 10 female). Drawing on metadiscourse theory, the research examines how CEOs construct leadership through shifts in authority, risk communication, stakeholder engagement, and scope of influence. Findings reveal clear stage-specific rhetorical patterns, with male CEOs tending toward competitive, visionary, and philosophically reflective discourse, while female CEOs emphasize collaboration, stakeholder integration, and societal transformation. Metadiscourse analysis shows that self-mention dominates in both groups, but female CEOs employ more engagement markers, indicating greater audience alignment. These findings contribute to a deeper understanding of gendered leadership discourse and how rhetorical authority is negotiated over time. The study also provides a framework for analyzing leadership narratives and offers insights into leadership development, succession planning, and gender equity in executive communication. By tracing how rhetorical voice evolves, the research sheds light on how leadership is discursively constructed at the highest levels of organizational life.
AgnihotriA.BhattacharyaS. (2023). General motors creating shareholder value through diversification in electric vehicles: Can a legacy company win?SAGE Publications: SAGE Business Cases Originals. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529617221
2.
AhmadN. (2021). Presidential rhetoric in the COVID-19 pandemic era: Jokowi’s Aristotelian rhetorical leadership models before and after implementation of semi-lock down policy. Jurnal Komunikasi Ikatan Sarjana Komunikasi Indonesia, 6(1), 72–85. https://doi.org/10.25008/jkiski.v6i1.538
3.
AlleyneS. (2010). Unduplicated success: named CEO of Xerox, Ursula M. Burns is making history as the first African American woman to run one of the world’s largest corporations. Now, she’s reshaping the company and, in the process, proving that its business formula is one of a kind. Black Enterprise, 40(7), 88–99.
4.
Al-MuhaisenB.HammouriS. (2024). Analyzing the discourse of communication in times of crisis: The speech of the CEO of nestle for the year 2009 as a sample. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, 51(3), 303–309. https://doi.org/10.35516/hum.v51i3.3711
5.
AndoH.CousinsR.YoungC. (2014). Achieving saturation in thematic analysis: Development and refinement of a codebook. Comprehensive Psychology, 3, 03-CP. https://doi.org/10.2466/03.CP.3.4
BurrellG. (1988). Modernism, post modernism and organizational analysis 2: The contribution of Michel Foucault. Organization Studies, 9(2), 221–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084068800900205
9.
CamicP. M.RhodesJ. E.YardleyL. (2003). Qualitative research in psychology.
ChakrabortyP.SerraD. (2023). Gender and leadership in organisations: The threat of backlash. The Economic Journal, 134(660), 1401–1430. https://doi.org/10.1093/ej/uead110
13.
ConradC. (2011). Organizational rhetoric: Strategies of resistance and domination. Polity.
14.
CoombsW. T. (2007). Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage.
DubnerS. J. (Host). (2018). I wasn’t stupid enough to say this could be done overnight. [Audio podcast episode 336]. In Freakonomics Radio. WNYC Studios.
17.
EaglyA. H.CarliL. L. (2007). Through the labyrinth: The truth about how women become leaders (Vol. 11). Harvard Business School Press. https://doi.org/10.1108/gm.2009.05324aae.001
18.
FonteynM. E.VetteseM.LancasterD. R.Bauer-WuS. (2008). Developing a codebook to guide content analysis of expressive writing transcripts. Applied Nursing Research, 21(3), 165–168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apnr.2006.08.005
19.
FossS. K.FossK. A.TrappR. (2014). Contemporary perspectives on rhetoric. Waveland Press.
20.
FoucaultM. (1972). The archaeology of knowledge: Translated from the French by AM Sheridan Smith. Pantheon Books.
21.
GuestG.BunceA.JohnsonL. (2006). How many interviews are enough? An experiment with data saturation and variability. Field Methods, 18(1), 59–82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822X05279903
HerawastutiS.NasutionY. (2023, September). Sustaining organizational change trajectory: The role of charismatic rhetoric leadership model towards turnover intention during organizational changes [Conference session]. 7th Global Conference on Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship (GCBME 2022) (pp. 1358–1369). Atlantis Press. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-234-7_143
24.
HoyD. C. (1986). Foucault: A critical reader. B. Blackwell.
25.
HuangJ.XiaoW. (2024). Use of interactional metadiscourse and identity construction in responses to negative online reviews of Chinese and British hotels. PLoS One, 19(12), e0316071. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0316071
26.
HuntH. (Ed.). (2021). Jeff Bezos: In his own words. Agate Publishing.
27.
HylandK. (2005). Metadiscourse: Exploring interaction in writing. Continuum.
IhlenO.HeathR. L. (Eds.). (2018). The handbook of organizational rhetoric and communication. John Wiley & Sons.
31.
IlieC. (2003a). Discourse and metadiscourse in parliamentary debates. Journal of language and Politics, 2(1), 71–92. https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.2.1.05ili
32.
IlieC. (2003b). Interruption patterns in British parliamentary debates and drama dialogue [Conference session]. Dialogue Analysis IX: Dialogue in Literature and the Media. Selected Papers from the 9th IADA Conference, Salzburg (pp. 415–430). https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110946062.415
33.
JablinF. M. (2001). Organizational entry, assimilation, and disengagement/exit. In JablinF. M.PutnamL. L. (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 732–818). Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412986243
34.
JurstakovaK.NtontisE.ReicherS. (2023). Impresarios of identity: How the leaders of Czechoslovakia’s ‘Candlelight Demonstration’enabled effective collective action in a context of repression. British Journal of Social Psychology, 63(1), 153–169. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12671
O’BrienB. C.HarrisI. B.BeckmanT. J.ReedD. A.CookD. A. (2014). Standards for reporting qualitative research: a synthesis of recommendations. Academic Medicine, 89(9), 1245–1251. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000388
37.
OliveiraG. (2023). Developing a codebook for qualitative data analysis: Insights from a study on learning transfer between university and the workplace. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 46(3), 300–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727X.2022.2128745
ReyesV.BogumilE.WelchL. E. (2021). The living codebook: Documenting the process of qualitative data analysis. Sociological Methods & Research, 53(1), 89–120. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124120986185
41.
StarkeyK. P.McKinlayA. (1997). Foucault, management and organization theory: From panopticon to technologies of self. SAGE Publications Ltd.
UmarU. (2021). Female leadership in organisational communication perspective: A systematic literature review. Jurnal Studi Komunikasi (Indonesian Journal of Communications Studies), 5, 453–470. https://doi.org/10.25139/jsk.v5i2.3508
44.
VromanS. R.DankoT. (2020). Against what model? Evaluating women as leaders in the pandemic era. Gender, Work & Organization, 27(5), 860–867. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12488
45.
WidodoA. S.DaniR. (2023). When the president endorses the nation’s next leader: Detecting the concept of power in Javanese Culture through presidential communication. Warta Ikatan Sarjana Komunikasi Indonesia, 6(1), 94–106. https://doi.org/10.25008/wartaiski.v6i1.223
46.
YanB.AertsW.ThewissenJ. (2019). The informativeness of impression management− financial analysts and rhetorical style of CEO letters. Pacific Accounting Review, 31(3), 462–496. https://doi.org/10.1108/par-09-2017-0063
47.
YangZ.AiB. (2025). “We’re doing well in virtually every corner of the world”: A corpus-assisted discourse study of persuasiveness in apple’s earnings conference calls. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 39(3), 275–301. https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519251326577
48.
YueC. A. (2021). Navigating change in the era of COVID-19: The role of top leaders’ charismatic rhetoric and employees’ organizational identification. Public Relations Review, 47(5), 102118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2021.102118
49.
ZhengX. (2025). Beyond apologies: mapping the strategic shifts in bp’s leadership rhetoric from crisis to recovery. Academic Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 12(1), 55–60. https://doi.org/10.54097/qqkqd142
50.
ZhuY. (2025). Authentic leadership: Fostering ethical cultures, employee engagement, and organizational resilience in complex environments. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Research in Humanities and Social Sciences (Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1–14). https://doi.org/10.33422/icrhs.v2i1.838
