Showing papers in "Organization in 2008"
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify the 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.
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.
923 citations
TL;DR: Social science research can play a valuable role in enabling people to understand how their personal predicaments relate to the broader structures and historical circumstances in which they arise as mentioned in this paper, which can help people understand their own predicaments better.
Abstract: Social science research can play a valuable role in enabling people to understand how their personal predicaments relate to the broader structures and historical circumstances in which they arise. ...
681 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored the phenomenon of academics' resistance to managerialism in the contemporary university and conducted interviews with 30 academics in ten Australian universities, drawing on interviews conducted by the Australian Institute of Technology (AIT).
Abstract: This article explores the phenomenon of academics' resistance to managerialism in the contemporary university. Drawing on interviews with 30 academics in ten Australian universities, it employs a r...
304 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors supplement the theory that identity work incorporates a dialogic process by focusing on how such processes can proceed, and the research question is: how do people's identities beco...
Abstract: This paper seeks to supplement the theory that identity work incorporates a dialogic process by focusing on how such processes can proceed. The research question is: how do people's identities beco...
266 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the phenomenon of intensive remedial identity work by exploring responses to the trauma and stigma of adult bullying at work and investigate the processual nature of this identity work.
Abstract: This study investigates the phenomenon of intensive remedial identity work by exploring responses to the trauma and stigma of adult bullying at work. It analyses the narratives of 20 workers who reported being bullied at work, in which they talk about persistent emotional abuse and their shifting, intensifying identity work in response. The following specifi c questions are explored: (a) what threats to identity does workplace bullying trigger?; (b) what are the types and remedial goals of identity work?; (c) what is the processual nature of this identity work? Analysis resulted in seven inter-related types of identity work: fi rst-and second-level stabilizing, sensemaking, reconciling, repairing, grieving and restructuring. Each of these was associated with specifi c identity threats and a constellation of remedial goals. Comparative analysis among self-narratives suggested that identity work occurred in three approximate phases associated with abuse onset, escalation and cessation. Findings extend understanding of intensive remedial identity work in the face of persistently traumatic and stigmatizing organizational experiences. Key words. intensive remedial identity work; stigma; trauma; workplace bullying Although identity and its relation to organizational life is widely studied in academic research, for the layperson, 'identity only becomes an issue when it is in crisis' (Mercer, 1990: 43). When faced with workplace bullying,
249 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the notion of role as a boundary object was proposed to recognize role as an inherently incomplete and emergent intermediary in identity construction processes. But role theory appears to have been largely dismissed from the contemporary critical literature, role is nevertheless a persistent theme in the discourses of organizational actors.
Abstract: Although role theory appears to have been largely dismissed from the contemporary critical literature, role is nevertheless a persistent theme in the discourses of organizational actors. This paper argues that it is timely, therefore, to re-view role particularly as it articulates with the processes of constructing identity. Drawing on three interview segments that evoke a variety of roles, we develop the notion of role as a boundary object (a concept that we have appropriated from the sociology of science and technology literature). We show that this provides a much richer and more complex understanding that recognizes role as an inherently incomplete and emergent intermediary in identity construction processes. Further, we suggest that this view of role resonates with, and informs wider theoretical conversations about identity construction.
156 citations
TL;DR: The authors suggest that institutions of academic publishing are constantly reproduced through hegemonic practices that serve to maintain and reinforce core-periphery relations between the Anglophone core and peripheral countries such as Finland.
Abstract: Drawing on a reflexive account of a British—Finnish joint publishing experience, we suggest that institutions of academic publishing are constantly reproduced through hegemonic practices that serve to maintain and reinforce core-periphery relations between the Anglophone core and peripheral countries such as Finland. The wider academic milieu with its taxonomies of academic performance and journal quality serves to perpetuate these practices. This results in academic researchers from the periphery contributing to `othering' within the publishing process.
137 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the ability of the older worker to become part of this enterprise culture through the analysis of an Australian government inquiry and found that older workers are unable to don the mantle of enterprise, although they are nonetheless subjected to it.
Abstract: The discourse of enterprise has permeated contemporary society with significant implications for government, organizations and individuals alike. In particular, enterprise prescribes an ideal identity, that of the `enterprising self'. This study examines the ability of the older worker to become part of this enterprise culture through the analysis of an Australian government inquiry. Our findings show that certain categories of identity—such as older workers—are unable to don the mantle of enterprise, although they are nonetheless subjected to it, helping to explain why the discourse of enterprise is so persistent and durable.
137 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, accountability arrangements in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other organizations that set standards for certification and eco-labelling are analyzed, focusing on two types of accountability that are likely to be achievable and important to non-state standards organizations.
Abstract: This paper analyses accountability arrangements in the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and other organizations that set standards for certification and eco-labelling. It focuses on two types of accountability that are likely to be achievable and important to non-state standards organizations: control and responsiveness. In setting a global standard based on a multi-stakeholder governance structure, FSC established a model for other certification schemes, specifically within the forestry and fisheries sectors. By creating the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), FSC-supporters exported the certification model to the fisheries sector. Industry-led forest certification schemes that were initiated to compete with FSC and offer an industry-dominated model have come to mimic procedural accountability arrangements initially established by their competitor. However, they have carefully filtered out the prescriptions that could reduce their influence in standard-setting processes. The paper argues that while certifi...
124 citations
TL;DR: The concept of a default identity has been proposed in this article as a baseline identity that, because it is securely held, has a major role to play in the understanding, acquisition and performance of more emergent identity constructions.
Abstract: The dynamics between identity (who I am) and anti-identity (who am I not) are drawn on to explore the identity work of senior and middle managers who have elected to embark on formal, sustained and intensive leadership development work. We construct the concept of a default identity, not primarily as an oppositional or negative identity, but as a baseline identity that, because it is securely held, has a major role to play in the understanding, acquisition and performance of more emergent identity constructions. In exploring the dynamics between management (default identity) and leadership (emergent and desirable identity) for instance, it becomes clear that each is shaped by the other in subtle and overt ways. We conclude that the recognition of the dynamics and relationships between them holds some promise for new thinking and innovation in terms of individual organizational identity work, leadership development and organizational change.
120 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors studied the movement of various subjects and objects (including passengers, bags and aeroplanes) as they are assembled and disassembled by modes of ordering to facilitate the flows of exchange and interaction that for Castells binds the physically disjointed positions of social actors in contemporary global organization.
Abstract: In the era of an increasingly `light' and `liquid' modernity (Bauman, 2000) airports appear to be privileged and distinctive sites of organization, constitutive of what Castells calls a `space of flows' that is helping to extend and integrate the so-called `network age' of global economy and `glocal' culture. This paper draws on original empirical research at Fulchester International Airport and studies the movement of various subjects and objects (including passengers, bags and aeroplanes) as they are assembled and disassembled by `modes of ordering' to facilitate the flows of exchange and interaction that for Castells binds the physically disjointed positions of social actors in contemporary global organization. Our study explores the ways in which digital information and communications technology creates `spectral' and uncanny phenomena that feeds back into the here-and-now of mundane, organizational reality. We find that an emergent hybridity between the dimensions of the virtual and the real opens up an intensive space that seems to extend the becoming of a `post-human' ontology; but in so doing it also provokes the return of a recalcitrant and unpredictable mass.
TL;DR: The authors argue that mass scholarly ranking mechanisms, such as the British Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), create a general myopia on the part of business and management scholars towards a variety of political issues, even making a virtue out of ignorance in this regard.
Abstract: This article discusses our analysis of over 2,000 articles published within 20 top business and management journals. The article empirically demonstrates how little attention is being paid by the work published within these journals to contemporary political issues across the globe. We also demonstrate the extent to which the same is true of `critical' journals such as Organization . To this end we argue that mass scholarly ranking mechanisms, such as the British Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), create a general state of myopia on the part of business and management scholars towards a variety of political issues, even making a virtue out of ignorance in this regard. We suggest that this is not simply a problem for critical management studies and proceed to raise the question of what the responsibility of business and management academia actually is.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present enterprising selves not simulators as the active role of individuals in promoting enterprise, while the concept of enterprise identity has been extensively discussed, the role of the individual in promoting the enterprise is less understood.
Abstract: While the concept of enterprise identity has been extensively discussed, the active role of individuals in promoting enterprise is less understood. This article presents enterprising selves not sim...
TL;DR: The authors describe a reflexive ethnographic study of one management conference and find that it finds that there are no studies in organization research of conferences as part of the world of work, and that there have been no studies of conferences in the literature.
Abstract: There have been no studies in organization research of conferences as part of the world of work This paper describes a reflexive ethnographic study of one management conference It finds that upon
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an Organization, 2008, 15 (5), pp. 627-637, which is available from http://org.sagepub.com/content/15/5/627.
Abstract: This paper was published as Organization, 2008, 15 (5), pp. 627-637. It is available from http://org.sagepub.com/content/15/5/627. Doi: 10.1177/1350508408093645
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore three hyper-organizational spaces: the skyscraper, the resort and the office-park, and argue that these spaces can be understood as the product of ongoing struggle between centrally planned and practiced space, and peripheral lived space.
Abstract: This paper explores three hyper-organizational spaces: the skyscraper, the resort and the office-park. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's account of the production of space, we consider how these spaces are socially produced, how they materialize relations of power and how inhabitants engage in struggle to change these spaces. Three novels by J. G. Ballard are selected to explore each of these spaces. We argue that in each of these novels, such hyper-organizational environments can be understood as the product of ongoing struggle between centrally planned and practiced space, and peripheral lived space. This both animates these spaces and the lived relations that comprise them, as well as potentially destroying them.
TL;DR: The rise of evidence-based management (EBM) is read as the latest form of resistance to pluralism, one that might prove particularly hard to refuse given the popularity of many other forms of evidencebased practices as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Methodological and ideological pluralism has been a defining feature of much organizational analysis for many years now—although resistance to it has always been present The rise of `evidence-based management' (EBM) is read as the latest form of resistance to pluralism— one that might prove particularly hard to refuse given the popularity of many other forms of evidence-based practices So I explore the prospects for EBM within organization studies and some of its implications for those who value the continuation of pluralistic forms of analysis in organizational research
TL;DR: In this article, the role of management consultants in the diffusion of fashionable ideas is examined by drawing on an ethnographic study of managers in the UK, where the authors examined how the consultants made sense of a newly emerging discourse of work-life balance using the metaphor of a ''bandwagon''.
Abstract: What is the role of management consultants in the diffusion of fashionable ideas? This paper addresses this question by drawing on an ethnographic study of management consultants in the UK. The study examined how the consultants made sense of a newly emerging discourse of work-life balance. Using the metaphor of a `bandwagon', the study reveals the shifting interpretations of the work-life balance discourse as the consultants found themselves `riding alongside', `cashing in', `steering', `steering clear of' and `falling off' the bandwagon. These findings question the idea that fashion-setters always `jump on' to fashion bandwagons, thereby acting as passive channels in the diffusion of popular discourses. Instead, the study highlights the similarities between fashion-setters and their audiences in the reflexive and strategic ways in which discourses can be interpreted, enacted and appropriated.
TL;DR: The authors examined the responses of primary health care clinicians (doctors and nurses) to an invitation to enterprise contained in a new contract which offers financial rewards for meeting targets, and suggested that far from being swept along by a hegemonic enterprise discourse or having no choice but to comply, the engagement of their study participants in enterprising behaviours can be understood in terms of a more active process, albeit one characterized by new bureaucratic forms.
Abstract: This paper examines the responses of primary health care clinicians (doctors and nurses) to an invitation to enterprise contained in a new contract which offers financial rewards for meeting targets. We suggest that far from being swept along by a hegemonic enterprise discourse or having `no choice but to comply' (Cohen and Musson, 2000: 45), the engagement of our study participants in enterprising behaviours can be understood in terms of a more active process, albeit one characterized by new bureaucratic forms. Rather than riding roughshod over cherished traditional identities, part of the attraction of enterprise in our case study can be understood in terms of its role in assisting enterprising clinicians in managing the tensions inherent in these identities.
TL;DR: Critical Management Studies (CMS) as discussed by the authors is a counterforce to mainstream organizational research, which is dominated by instrumental reasoning and bottom-line concerns, and it aims to expose and reform the mundane and frequently unnoticed practices that privilege some groups (and individuals) at the expense of others and thereby create injustices in organizations and in society at large.
Abstract: Critical Management Studies defi nes itself as a counterforce to mainstream organizational research, which is dominated by instrumental reasoning and bottom-line concerns. Scholars whose work has been broadly classifi ed as falling within CMS have sought to challenge the assumption that management is a neutral, value-free activity concerned with attaining the instrumental goals of organizations, which themselves serve a common good. Instead, CMS is concerned with ‘questioning of taken-for-granteds, both about practice and its social and institutional context.... [and] Identifying and questioning both purposes, and confl icts of power and interest’ (Reynolds, 1998: 192). It aims to expose and reform the mundane and frequently unnoticed practices that privilege some groups (and individuals) at the expense of others and thereby create injustices in organizations and in society at large (for a more detailed overview, see Adler et al., 2006). Critical researchers also note that ‘conventional’ organizational research tends to take a managerial point of view, and in aiming to help managers attain their objectives, such as maximum productivity, it pays insuffi cient attention to the socioeconomic conditions within which organizations function (Adler et al., 2006; Alvesson and Willmott, 1992) or the potentially detrimental impact of these prerogatives on other organizational stakeholders. The needs of employees, for example, are considered only from an instrumental perspective—if at all—and within a predetermined structure. By tackling the central issues in organizational life, such as power, politics, domination, and identity formation, CMS seeks to offer more than a theoretical alternative but may accord closely with the experiences of
TL;DR: In this paper, the future of Critical Management Studies might include the forging of closer connection with social movements, such as Global Justice, will most probably and very fortunately be found problematic or wanting.
Abstract: Cardiff University, Cardiff, UKWhat is the point and direction of ‘Critical Management Studies’? If we take seriously critiques of the attribution of ‘goals’ to organizations (e.g. Georgiou, 1973), then reaching consensus on this question is unlikely. Different factions within Critical Management Studies (CMS) will pri-vilege different ‘points’. Any response, however comprehensive or authoritative it might purport to be, will run up against its own limits—experienced by its recipients as a sense of dissatisfaction, undecidability or incompleteness. My suggestion that the future of CMS might include the forging of closer connection with social movements, such as Global Justice, will most probably and very fortunately be found problematic or wanting—illegitimate, superfl uous, impractical—in numerous respects.Acknowledging that my suggestion is partial and will be, and should be, contested, I want to locate it within a couple of key sentences that form the Domain Statement of the CMS Interest Group (IG) of the Academy of Management (AoM).
TL;DR: Do we need to study popular culture within organization studies, and exactly what is it we do if we choose to do so? Is it nothing more than organizational scholars co-opting yet another discipline as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Do we need to study popular culture within organization studies, and exactly what is it we do if we choose to do so? Is it nothing more than organizational scholars co-opting yet another discipline ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose a theory of habitual appropriation in carnival dance to examine the mechanism through which the principles of social organization, whilst internalized and experienced as natural, are embodied so that humans are capable of spontaneously generating an infinite array of appropriate...
Abstract: Building on the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Maurice Merleau-Ponty we seek to open up traditional categories of thought surrounding the relation `body-organization' and elicit a thought experiment: What happens if we move the body from the periphery to the centre? We pass the interlocking theoretical concepts of object-body/subject-body and habitus through the theoretically constructed empirical case of `carnival dance' in order to re-evaluate such key organizational concepts as knowledge and learning. In doing so, we connect with an emerging body of literature on `sensible knowledge'; knowledge that is produced and preserved within bodily practices. The investigation of habitual appropriation in carnival dance also allows us to make links between repetition and experimentation, and reflect on the mechanism through which the principles of social organization, whilst internalized and experienced as natural, are embodied so that humans are capable of spontaneously generating an infinite array of appropriate ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss the role of knowledge as a mechanism of colonisation in the development of critical management studies in Latin America and how they have been developed in the region.
Abstract: To discuss properly the situation of Critical Management Studies in Latin America, it is necessary to recognize the colonial condition under which the region has developed since the ‘discovery/(invasion)’ of America fi ve centuries ago. Generally, the discussion over coloniality emphasizes its political dimension, but not its epistemic one. When we consider Management Studies and how they have been developed in Latin America, it is essential to discuss the function of knowledge as a mechanism of colonization. Coloniality must be understood in its institutional dimensions, as a deliberate action of power to dominate and subjugate the other. It is the hidden face of Modernity, always considered the stage made possible by the development of reason, instead of the process of invasion/destruction/ invention based of the power of weapons, ideas and symbols to impose a unique civilizing process. From this point of view, power instead of reason explains the splendour of Europe and America and the prevalence of some kind of knowledge over others. At least three institutions have been essential in the operation of colonization: the Church and evangelism to produce silence and colonize the soul; the Hacienda and mills to produce discipline and obedience at work and to colonize the body; and the University and science to produce truth and colonize the understanding of the world. The organization of knowledge and their associated practices in the modern Universitas has guaranteed the reproduction of disciplines as we know them and, at the
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the representations of women working with finances in popular culture and the case of the banker Robin Saunders that has been reported in two different ways in the UK and Germany, one supporting the s...
Abstract: This paper concerns the representations of women working with finances in popular culture. Popular culture retrieves plots from a common repertoire, and in this way transmits ideals and furnishes descriptions of reality, but it also teaches practices and provides a means through which practices might be understood. Apart from portraying its own era, it also perpetuates strong plots, i.e. established and repeated patterns of emplotment. One such strong plot seems to be persistent in popular culture's representations of women working with finances. Their fate is depicted along the lines known best from Euripides' tragedies: they transgress `women's place' and commit heroic or mad deeds. By doing so, they might save the city (Athens in the case of Euripides, the City in finance stories), but afterwards they must either die or be sent back. The later part of this paper is dedicated to the case of the banker Robin Saunders that has been reported in two different ways in the UK and Germany, one supporting the s...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore two discourses that are bound up with ''producing' two types of subject in a UK Bank: an enterprise discourse which stresses responsible, customer focused, team players that use their initiative and a Fordist discourse, which conceives of employees as mechanical beings who repetitively process work.
Abstract: This paper explores two discourses that are bound up with `producing' two types of subject in a UK Bank. An enterprise discourse, which stresses responsible, customer focused, team players that use their initiative and a Fordist discourse, which conceives of employees as mechanical beings who repetitively process work. Through attending to the work experiences of back office clerks, the paper considers how the latter discourse `represses' the former. Although distinct, the two discourses share a common bureaucratic rationale and a logic of individualization that represses more collective ways of being or alternative subjectivities that might challenge or question the status quo. Nonetheless, the paper indicates limits to the power that management is able to exercise through enterprise, given the contradictory and flawed approach that was adopted.
TL;DR: The authors demonstrate the usefulness of derision as developed by the French Lacanian psychoanalyst Denis Vasse, as a way of understanding why people exposed to derision are exposed to it.
Abstract: The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of the concept of derision as developed by the French Lacanian psychoanalyst Denis Vasse, as a way of understanding why people exposed to—and ...
TL;DR: The authors examines media discourse surrounding two UK-German intercultural business controversies: the takeover of the German company Mannesmann by the British company Vodafone in 1999, and the disposal of its British subsidiary Rover by its German parent company BMW in 2000.
Abstract: This paper examines media discourse surrounding two UK— German intercultural business controversies: the takeover of the German company Mannesmann by the British company Vodafone in 1999, and the disposal of its British subsidiary Rover by its German parent company BMW in 2000. These controversies were framed in the media of both countries as part of a `clash of cultures of capitalism', with the `Anglo-Saxon model' on one side and the `German social model' on the other, and can be seen as `legitimacy crises' of the two models of capitalism involved. The paper examines how cultural, economic and political discourses relating to globalization were used strategically by actors to deal with these crises, in order to legitimize a neo-liberal transformation of the German model in the first case, and to legitimize a `rebranding' of the UK model in line with a move from a concentration on manufacturing to a service economy in the second.
TL;DR: In this paper, an actor-network perspective on organizational entrepreneurship is developed, based on the findings of an in-depth study of management consultants in a UK telecommunications firm, and they argue that ideas do not flourish because they are inherently more ''enterprising'' or ''innovative'' than others, but rather because of the success (or otherwise) of the process of ''enrolment''.
Abstract: In this paper we draw on and develop an actor-network perspective on organizational entrepreneurship—the study of enterprising behaviour within the firm. Based on the findings of an in-depth study of management consultants in a UK telecommunications firm, we argue that ideas do not flourish because they are inherently more `enterprising' or `innovative' than others, but rather because of the success (or otherwise) of the process of `enrolment'. Our study shows that the consultants were not `intermediaries without discretion', tasked with the diffusion of an already-established template. Rather, they acted as mediators by actively seeking to construct and maintain a network around their idea. By revealing the political tactics and power plays involved in this enrolment process, our study contributes to the actor-network literature by highlighting the link to organizational power and politics. The study also contributes by drawing attention to the subjectivity of network-builders—an issue often left under-e...
TL;DR: In this paper, Graeme Salaman and John Storey review the impact of enterprise initiatives on individuals' identities and argue for more nuanced and empirically based work exploring the ways enterprise is understood, valued, interpreted and deployed within organizations which are committed to achieving enterprise.
Abstract: The project of the special issue came about as a result of an ESRC seminar series based around Alvesson and Willmott’s (2002) discussion regarding the regulation of identity. Subsequently, we were involved in organizing in 2006 an EGOS sub-theme group in Bergen, Norway concerned with enterprising selves, which generated a set of debates that Graeme Salaman and John Storey review in the fi rst part of this special issue. To date, there has been relatively little work exploring the impact of enterprise initiatives on individuals’ identities (Storey et al., 2005) so this special issue aims to help address this gap. Further, emerging from these developments is a suggestion of a new orientation to the study of governmentality. Salaman and Storey argue that many scholars have approached enterprise from the perspective of bureaucracy and discipline. However, they contend that much of such research has involved a ‘misuse’ of discourse, in over-emphasizing its role to the exclusion of all else. In its place, Salaman and Storey argue for more nuanced and empirically based work exploring the ways enterprise is understood, valued, interpreted and deployed within organizations which are committed to achieving enterprise. Tara Fenwick responds in this debate and reinforces this idea, concurring that there is a need for ‘careful empirical tracings of complex everyday interactions of people, objects, spaces and meanings, analysing specifi c movements and moments of enterprise and its multiple potential effects’ (p. 331).