ABSTRACT This paper evidences the contributions of the discourses analysis and of their metaphors as a means of investigating and to understanding the articulations that involve the participation processes in organizations. A theoretical discussion about privatization and anti-privatization, participation, discourse analysis and metaphors has guided a qualitative empiric research to evidence the articulations for employee participation in a Brazilian banking organization (Banespa) undergoing a privatization process. Data collection was accomplished through 45 interviews and documents of the anti-privatization movement. The data was analyzed through discourse analysis (Fiorin, 2001) and treated based in Sand oval's (1994) model of the seven dimensions of participation. As a result, the discourses and the metaphors confirmed that the lack of viable collective proposals to face privatization lead to individual alternatives, which were consolidated, after the privatization, in the lack of favorable spaces for participation in the discussion of other issues.
discourses; metaphors; participation; anti-privatization