Organizationally Situated Authorship

The difference between these varying “About Us” information sections of course comes from the different choices made by writers involved in organizationally situated authorship. Small businesses are just that, small. With few people on the payroll, the documents created are likely produced by those who are either employees of the company, or the CEO/ founding member. These documents are then coming from a writer with a position close to the business; he or she knows what the business stands for and what needs to be articulated. This is much lower stakes given that the boss or writer himself or herself is approving the message. What’s also noticeable is that these small businesses also stressed their beginnings and proprietors, often with personal stories, to imply that they know their customers and what they want. Additionally, this emphasis on the businesses’ beginnings implied that the company and employees still hold the same mindset, ethics, and attitudes first demonstrated when the company came into fruition. Overall, their statements truly show their connections to the community, which really works to entice their audience even more.

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However, large companies employ many more people and have the ability to contract corporate workers to create pieces like the “About Us” page. In this case the writer is coming from a different level and position in the organization than the small business. This makes their work more high stakes. For they must be aware of their boss as their audience as well as their shoppers. Furthermore, these writers must instead be sure to include company ethics and values in their writing. Unlike small businesses, the large business writer instead often chose to focus on the products and services offered by the company and how these offers distinguished their business from others. However, another pattern among the large businesses was incorporating some values by emphasizing their activity with other organizations and charities. This also was a way for the professional writer to manage and balance the focus of their "About Us" statement so as to not completely concentrate on promoting their products, services, etc. Taking this approach to their writing often appeared to mimic the approaches small businesses took to writing their company statements. By presenting themselves in a similar manner to the smaller, local businesses, large companies are able to appear less like a "retail giant".  That being said, I believe such similar presentations of businesses can make decisions of where to shop a little difficult for some customers as they read of such similar values, missions and services amongst companies.