Organization 

About: Organization is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Sociology & Critical management studies. It has an ISSN identifier of 1350-5084. Over the lifetime, 1550 publications have been published receiving 79874 citations. The journal is also known as: organisation & org.

Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems

Abstract: This essay argues that the success of organizations depends on their ability to design themselves as social learning systems and also to participate in broader learning systems such as an industry, a region, or a consortium. It explores the structure of these social learning systems. It proposes a social definition of learning and distinguishes between three `modes of belonging' by which we participate in social learning systems. Then it uses this framework to look at three constitutive elements of these systems: communities of practice, boundary processes among these communities, and identities as shaped by our participation in these systems.

Identity matters: Reflections on the construction of identity scholarship in organization studies

Abstract: Key tensions underlying much of the identity literature; we foreground identity matters as encountered by individuals, understood as social; durability of identity; identity in its various conceptualizations offers creative ways to understand a range of organizational settings and phenomena while bridging the levels from micro to macro.

Agency and Institutions: The Enabling Role of Individuals’ Social Position:

Abstract: Although early neo-institutional studies did not explicitly tackle the issue of agency, more recent studies about institutional entrepreneurship have brought it to the forefront. Institutional entrepreneur-ship has been presented as a promising way to account for institutional change endogenously. However, this notion faces the paradox of embedded agency. To overcome this paradox, it is necessary to explain under what conditions actors are enabled to act as institutional entrepreneurs. Some neo-institutional theorists have already addressed this issue. Their studies focus mainly on the organizational and organizational field levels of analysis. In this paper, I aim to complement their work by examining under what conditions individuals are more likely to engage in institutional entrepreneurship. By doing so, I take into account the individual level of analysis that neo-institutional theorists often tend to neglect. Relying on Bourdieu’s conceptualization of fields, I propose that individuals’ social posit...

Identities and Insecurities: Selves at Work:

Abstract: This article explores the growing interest in selves and subjects at work. In particular, it examines the analytical importance of insecurity for understanding the subjective power relations and survival strategies of organization. Insecurity in organizations can take many different, sometimes overlapping forms. Highlighting how these insecurities can intersect in the reproduction of workplace selves and organizational power relations, the article argues that attempts to overcome these insecurities can have contradictory outcomes. It also illustrates how `conformist', `dramaturgical' and `resistant' selves may be reproduced, particularly in surveillance-based organizations. The article concludes that a greater appreciation of subjectivity and its insecurities can enhance our understanding of the ways that organizational power relations are reproduced, rationalized, resisted and sometimes even transformed within the contemporary workplace.