Corporate newspeak is basically a manifestation of cultural capital that's particularly close to Stephanie Thornton's idea of subcultural capital but outside the context of youth culture, isn't it? It's showing off that you're a Serious Business Person and spend enough time talking to other Serious Business People that you can convincingly speak their language. Demonstrating linguistically that you're at home in this culture and have (presumably) internalized its other values and practices as well.
Oh totally, if you can drop 'synergy' into a sentence regarding anything from redesign to sacking the receptionist, you clearly know your stuff and are to be trusted with the next task...which is why I've never worked anywhere that hasn't had people going down the pub after work, singling out highly paid bullshitters in the departments and asking "How the hell does s/he get away with it??' The answer's that they're just better at the lingo - which obviously causes real frustrations for anyone who can't understand why they're paid half as much for doing work that actually requires some degree of concentration. And yet I've known people who were actually very good at their jobs who turned into pathetic idiots months in to their promotions to managerial level, and actually became unfit to resume their previous positions, let alone handle their new roles.
I was actually given managerial training (mandatory) in my last place, a series of (expensive) one-on-one training sessions with this guy. In the first session, I told him that I actually wasn't interested in management as I prefer the hands-on side of the role - it's what I went into it for and pretty much one of the things I enjoyed most. I knew straight away I'd 'messed up' and that a serious issue could arise from me being honest. Come the 2nd session, it was a 'given' that I was interested in learning more about managerial training. Subsequently, I just listened to whatever he said and nodded, came away with a tick in the box, a thumbs-up and more confusion over what managers actually do than ever before.
Business seems to have been co-opting subcultural elements for a while - the idea that if you're young, crazy, looking for thrills, hoping to expand your mind, express YOUR uniqueness, take no shit from anyone, work when you goddamn like...well, you'd obviously want to intern at Microsoft, no?
