[In]visible [in]tangibles: Visual portraits of the business élite
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors construct a framework from art theory to interpret portraits of the business elite and their associated intangibles, and identify four sets of rhetorical codes in portraiture: physical, dress, spatial and interpersonal.
Abstract: Visual portraits of the business elite are widely disseminated, and form significant sites for communicating messages regarding leadership and associated intellectual, symbolic and social intangibles, yet have been neglected in accounting research. At the same time, accounting for intangibles is recognised to be inadequate. This inter-disciplinary article constructs a framework from art theory to interpret portraits of the business elite and their associated [in]visible [in]tangibles. Four sets of rhetorical codes in portraiture are identified: physical, dress, spatial and interpersonal. Illustrative portraits from annual reports and the media are analysed to indicate how [in]visible [in]tangibles are portrayed through visual rhetoric.
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08 Jun 2018
TL;DR: This article analyzed constructions of an ideal gendered manager and employee in a mediated cultural setting by focusing on media texts and combining several empirical document materials with diverse analytical methods, including peer-reviewed journal articles, face value articles from The Economist newspaper and job advertisements published online in Finland and Estonia.
Abstract: SUMMARY
This study analyzes constructions of an ideal gendered manager and employee in a mediated cultural setting. Our contemporary culture is mediated in many ways: Media is strongly embedded in our lives and has a possibility to select what issues become visible and how those issues are represented. In that way, media shapes our understandings of the world and how we make sense of it.
In this interdisciplinary work, the theoretical framework is built upon the doing gender perspective, which understands gender as something we do and as something dynamic. By adopting a poststructuralist view on gender, I understand it as socially and culturally constructed. In such an approach, the focus of the study expands from the individual level into contexts, social and cultural structures, and settings. Thus, the interest of the study is not on individual women or men as such, but rather on how they are represented and how they and their meanings are constructed (Ahl 2007; Henry et al. 2016) in different media texts.
This dissertation provides an alternative way to study constructions of gender in business studies by focusing on media texts and combining several empirical document materials with diverse analytical methods. The empirical materials comprise academic peer-reviewed journal articles, face value articles from The Economist newspaper, and job advertisements published online in Finland and Estonia. I employ methods stemming from cultural studies, such as close reading and visual analysis, which are only seldom used in business studies, and discourse analytical methods.
The compilation thesis consists of a synthesis part and four independent studies, the latter of which complete the aim by exposing the studied phenomenon from different viewpoints. The first study explores the research methods scholars have used when empirically studying doing gender thinking, and argues for the relevance of document materials. The second study examines how femininity and gendered power are enacted in The Economist, and shows that the representations of global top women managers are still relatively traditional and done in a way that does not disturb the masculine discourse of management. The third study focuses on the constructions of ideal prospective employees in job advertisements published in Finland and Estonia, and depicts how the coding of gender varies culturally. The fourth independent study discovers how the gendering of expert work takes place in job advertisements by rendering subtly gendered articulations while allowing for interpretative repertoires to appear.
I argue that the constructions of an ideal manager and employee are gendered, and that the gendering processes are complex and multifaceted, and they depend on cultural settings and prevailing social orders. Interestingly, gendering seems to happen at different levels of working life, as I have studied employees and managers in both global and local contexts. This study provides theoretical contributions by anchoring the doing gender perspective more deeply into business studies and by showing the ubiquitous and fluid nature of gender. At the societal level, this study is relevant not only in its timeliness but also in the sense that media representations and constructions of ideals have an impact on individuals and their real lives in many ways. The current thesis provides re-readings of culture and gender and offers methodologically new ways of empirically studying constructions of gender in the business context. Future studies would benefit from using doing gender as an approach and studying it empirically with more creative methods than what has been done so far.
Keywords: doing gender, mediation of culture, women manager, ideal employee, document materials
6 citations
Cites background from "[In]visible [in]tangibles: Visual p..."
...The everyday, as a concept, has been prominent in cultural studies for a long time, and it has started to gain a foothold in business studies also (Davison 2010)....
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...stantly and significantly in recent times (Warren 2005; Davison 2010; 2014), and...
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TL;DR: In this paper , the authors explore the risks and consequences of the reliance on visualizations in performance measurement for the sake of the simplicity and actionability of performance information, and propose three multimodal relationships between visual, text, and numbers.
Abstract: This study explores the risks and consequences of the reliance on visualizations in performance measurement for the sake of the simplicity and actionability of performance information. Despite the mounting interest in the visual aspects of accounting, little is known about what can happen when visuals are so embedded in organizations that they become a key semiotic resource for communicating performance measurement information. Theoretically, we draw from multimodality research to unpack how different semiotic modes (i.e., visuals, text, and numbers) interact in organizational meaning-making. To explore these issues, we conducted a study of the visual practices of one of the largest infrastructure megaprojects in the UK. The paper makes two contributions. Our first contribution consists of qualifying what we call the lure of the visual: A seemingly paradoxical process whereby the increasing ubiquity and reliance on visuals in an organization induces the trivialization of performance measurement visualizations and limits the communicative opportunities they offer to users. In so doing, we offer a substantive qualification of the risks and consequences of visual approaches to performance measurement. Our second contribution to the accounting literature is the theorization of how multiple semiotic modes can interact in performance measurement. We theorize three multimodal relationships between visuals, numbers, and text that shed new light on how performance measurement artifacts generate meaning in organizations.
6 citations
6 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the risks and consequences of the reliance on visualizations in performance measurement for the sake of the simplicity and actionability of performance information, and propose three multimodal relationships between visual, text, and numbers.
Abstract: This study explores the risks and consequences of the reliance on visualizations in performance measurement for the sake of the simplicity and actionability of performance information. Despite the mounting interest in the visual aspects of accounting, little is known about what can happen when visuals are so embedded in organizations that they become a key semiotic resource for communicating performance measurement information. Theoretically, we draw from multimodality research to unpack how different semiotic modes (i.e., visuals, text, and numbers) interact in organizational meaning-making. To explore these issues, we conducted a study of the visual practices of one of the largest infrastructure megaprojects in the UK. The paper makes two contributions. Our first contribution consists of qualifying what we call the lure of the visual: A seemingly paradoxical process whereby the increasing ubiquity and reliance on visuals in an organization induces the trivialization of performance measurement visualizations and limits the communicative opportunities they offer to users. In so doing, we offer a substantive qualification of the risks and consequences of visual approaches to performance measurement. Our second contribution to the accounting literature is the theorization of how multiple semiotic modes can interact in performance measurement. We theorize three multimodal relationships between visuals, numbers, and text that shed new light on how performance measurement artifacts generate meaning in organizations.
6 citations
23 Nov 2017
TL;DR: In this article, the authors deal with firms' visual and pre-visual self-representations in accounting narratives, i.e., those descriptions about the company that firms include in accounti...
Abstract: This dissertation deals with firms’ visual and pre-visual self-representations in accounting narratives. Self-representations are those descriptions about the company that firms include in accounti ...
6 citations
Cites background from "[In]visible [in]tangibles: Visual p..."
...construction of corporate identity (Guthey and Jackson, 2005; Davison, 2010)....
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...As part of this message, the CEO portraits are a way to convey messages of leadership and intangible values of organizations, which is why they are important for the visual construction of corporate identity (Guthey and Jackson, 2005; Davison, 2010)....
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References
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TL;DR: In this paper, it is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another, and the impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored.
Abstract: Analysis of social networks is suggested as a tool for linking micro and macro levels of sociological theory. The procedure is illustrated by elaboration of the macro implications of one aspect of small-scale interaction: the strength of dyadic ties. It is argued that the degree of overlap of two individuals' friendship networks varies directly with the strength of their tie to one another. The impact of this principle on diffusion of influence and information, mobility opportunity, and community organization is explored. Stress is laid on the cohesive power of weak ties. Most network models deal, implicitly, with strong ties, thus confining their applicability to small, well-defined groups. Emphasis on weak ties lends itself to discussion of relations between groups and to analysis of segments of social structure not easily defined in terms of primary groups.
37,560 citations
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01 Jan 1974TL;DR: The authors described three heuristics that are employed in making judgements under uncertainty: representativeness, availability of instances or scenarios, and adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical prediction when a relevant value is available.
Abstract: This article described three heuristics that are employed in making judgements under uncertainty: (i) representativeness, which is usually employed when people are asked to judge the probability that an object or event A belongs to class or process B; (ii) availability of instances or scenarios, which is often employed when people are asked to assess the frequency of a class or the plausibility of a particular development; and (iii) adjustment from an anchor, which is usually employed in numerical prediction when a relevant value is available. These heuristics are highly economical and usually effective, but they lead to systematic and predictable errors. A better understanding of these heuristics and of the biases to which they lead could improve judgements and decisions in situations of uncertainty.
31,082 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors draw upon previous research conducted in the different social science disciplines and applied fields of business to create a conceptual framework for the field of entrepreneurship, and predict a set of outcomes not explained or predicted by conceptual frameworks already in existence in other fields.
Abstract: To date, the phenomenon of entrepreneurship has lacked a conceptual framework. In this note we draw upon previous research conducted in the different social science disciplines and applied fields of business to create a conceptual framework for the field. With this framework we explain a set of empirical phenomena and predict a set of outcomes not explained or predicted by conceptual frameworks already in existence in other fields.
11,161 citations
Book•
21 Feb 1986
TL;DR: The first handbook on the sociology of education as discussed by the authors synthesizes major advances in education over the past several decades, incorporating both a systematic review of significant theoretical and empirical work and challenging original contributions by distinguished American, English, and French sociologists.
Abstract: The first of its kind, this handbook synthesizes major advances in the sociology of education over the past several decades. It incorporates both a systematic review of significant theoretical and empirical work and challenging original contributions by distinguished American, English, and French sociologists. In his introduction, John G. Richardson traces the development of the sociology of education and reviews the important classical European works in which this discipline is grounded. Each chapter, devoted to a major topic in the field, provides both a review of the literature and an exposition of an original thesis. The inclusion of subjects outside traditional sociological concern--such as the historical foundations of education and the sociology of special education--gives an interdisciplinary scope that enhances the volume's usefulness.
7,071 citations
Book•
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make a connection between the mind-body problem and the so-called "identity thesis" in analytic philosophy, which has wide-ranging implications for other problems in philosophy that traditionally might be thought far-removed.
Abstract: I hope that some people see some connection between the two topics in the title. If not, anyway, such connections will be developed in the course of these talks. Furthermore, because of the use of tools involving reference and necessity in analytic philosophy today, our views on these topics really have wide-ranging implications for other problems in philosophy that traditionally might be thought far-removed, like arguments over the mind-body problem or the so-called ‘identity thesis’. Materialism, in this form, often now gets involved in very intricate ways in questions about what is necessary or contingent in identity of properties — questions like that. So, it is really very important to philosophers who may want to work in many domains to get clear about these concepts. Maybe I will say something about the mind-body problem in the course of these talks. I want to talk also at some point (I don’t know if I can get it in) about substances and natural kinds.
5,988 citations