Introduction to Constructing Organizational Life

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-13
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Key Dimensions

This chapter develops the arguments that underpin the rest of the book, and introduces the three forms of social-symbolic work explored in greater detail in subsequent chapters. It begins by exploring the possibility of social-symbolic work that is rooted in the historical changes associated with the transitions to modernity and postmodernity. It then develops the concept of social-symbolic work, explaining its roots in studies of social structure and agency, identifying its three key dimensions—discursive, relational, and material—and introducing three key forms of social-symbolic work (self work, organization work, institutional work). Finally, it presents a process model of social-symbolic work that guides the analysis of the different forms of social-symbolic work.

The Social-Symbolic Work Perspective

2019 ◽  
pp. 14-52
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Historical Changes ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Dimensions

This chapter develops the arguments that underpin the rest of the book and introduces the three forms of social-symbolic work explored in greater detail in subsequent chapters. It begins by exploring how the possibility of social-symbolic work is rooted in the historical changes associated with the transitions to modernity and postmodernity. It then develops the concept of social-symbolic work, explaining its roots in studies of social structure and agency, identifying its three key dimensions—discursive, relational, and material—and introducing three key forms of social-symbolic work (self work, organization work, institutional work). Finally, it presents a process model of social-symbolic work that guides the analysis of the different forms of social-symbolic work.

Constructing Organizational Life

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Organizational Life ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Work Identity ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Forms Of Work

Across the social sciences, scholars are showing how people “work” on facets of social life that were once thought to be beyond human intervention. Facets of social life once considered to be embedded in human nature, dictated by God, or shaped by macro‐level social forces beyond human control, are now widely understood as socially constructed – made and given meaning by people through social interaction, and consequently the focus of efforts to change them. Studies of these efforts have explored new forms of work including emotion work, identity work, boundary work, strategy work, institutional work, and a host of other kinds of work. Missing in these conversations, however, is a recognition that these forms work are all part of a broader phenomenon driven by historical shifts that began with modernity and dramatically accelerated through the twentieth century. This book explores that broader phenomenon: we propose a perspective that integrates diverse streams of research to examine how people purposefully work to construct organizational life. We refer to these efforts as social‐symbolic work and introduce three forms – self work, organization work, and institutional work – that are particularly useful in understanding how actors construct organizational life. The social‐symbolic work perspective highlights the purposeful, reflexive efforts of individuals, collective actors, and networks of actors to construct the social world, and focuses attention on the motivations, practices, resources, and effects of those efforts. Thus, the social-symbolic work perspective brings actors back into explanations of the social world, and balances approaches that emphasize social structure at the expense of action or describe social processes without explaining the role of actors.

scholarly journals Making Sense of Our Working Lives: The concept of the career imagination

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 263178772110046
Author(s):  
Laurie Cohen ◽  
Joanne Duberley
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Concept ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Working Lives ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Short Termism

This essay considers how the traditional concept of career retains its power in an age of contingency, short-termism and gig work. To answer this question, it introduces and explicates the concept of the ‘career imagination’. This concept has three key dimensions: perceptions of enablement and constraint, time and identity. Situated in the nexus of structure and agency, it is through our career imagination that we envisage and evaluate the progress of our working lives. Encapsulating continuity and change, our career imagination helps us to understand the enduring legitimacy of the traditional career as a yardstick by which to measure success, and the emergence of new possibilities.

Change: discourses of agency and progress in organisational change

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan Hearn
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Structure ◽  
Staff Training ◽  
Organisational Change ◽  
Middle Section ◽  
Moral Imperative ◽  
Making Sense ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Training Courses ◽  
Ideological Work

This chapter examines how HBOS staff were coping with and making sense of rapid organisational change during the early days of merger. But more specifically, using material from staff training courses, it looks at how the Bank, like other modern organisations, develops its own internal discourse of the necessity and value of change, as a kind of moral imperative imposed on staff. Moreover, it looks at how the discourse of change within HBOS tended to construct Bank of Scotland as older and backward, and Halifax as younger and progressive, and the ideological work this was doing. The concept of ‘social change’ is scrutinised in the middle section, along with corollary concepts of competition, social structure and agency.

Institutional Work

2019 ◽  
pp. 188-217
Author(s):  
Thomas B. Lawrence ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Work ◽  
History Of ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
History Of Institutions

Institutional work involves actors purposefully engaging with their institutional contexts in order to create, modify, or disrupt institutions. In this chapter, we review the history of institutions as social-symbolic objects. We then conceptualize institutional work as a form of social-symbolic work, focusing on identifying the key dimensions of institutional work, and exploring the variety of actors engaged in institutional work.

scholarly journals Early childhood education leadership in Finland through the lens of structure and agency

2020 ◽  
pp. 174114322090372
Author(s):  
Jan Varpanen
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Early Childhood Education ◽  
Distributed Leadership ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Education Leadership ◽  
Childhood Education ◽  
Structure And Agency ◽  
Education Leaders ◽  
Key Dimensions ◽  
Group Interviews

In early childhood education, the concept of distributed leadership has emerged as a key analytical tool for understanding leadership as well as a normative guide for what leadership should be. The concept originates in Peter Gronn’s work, where it is positioned as overcoming the structure-agency debate, which is a foundational question in the study of social reality. While distributed leadership itself has been extensively studied, the problem motivating Gronn’s work—the structure-agency problematique—has rarely been investigated. In an effort to create a deeper understanding of the role of structure and agency in constituting early childhood education leadership, this study examines how these two key dimensions of social reality structure early childhood education center leaders’ understanding of leadership. The data for the study consist of focus group interviews where early childhood education center leaders discuss various aspects of leadership. The data are analyzed in the broad framework of post-structural discourse analysis, using the analytic concept of frame, which reveals the interplay of structure and agency in early childhood education leaders’ understandings of their work. The findings show that early childhood education center leaders’ understanding of leadership is mainly focused on the side of structure and offers few chances for the kind of collective effort hoped for by Gronn.

Class is What Capitalism Makes of It: Challenging the Lure of ‘‘Realism’’ in Mainstream Class Analysis

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-223
Author(s):  
Guillaume Durou
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Class Structure ◽  
Class Analysis ◽  
Key Dimensions

This article addresses polemically, perhaps, the most prominent class analyses today – the occupational and stratification approaches (OSAs) developed by various sociologists and economists. Strongly opposed to the “big class” of conventional Weberian and Marxian typologies, the stratification and occupational models have, unsurprisingly, claimed more realistic grounds. By contrast, key dimensions of social relations such as domination, exploitation and oppression are purposely overlooked. Moreover, the lack of theorization – even marginally regarded, does not take into consideration the qualitative explanatory strength for the analysis of social structure. Alternatively, the underlying optimistic market-oriented belief of the “realistic” class framework overestimates the role of institutions and economics. Thus, this “Smithian” background unveils a market fetishism as well as a functionalist and naturalized vision of class structure.

Brand religiosity

2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-32
Author(s):  
Juhi Gahlot Sarkar ◽  
Abhigyan Sarkar
Keyword(s):  
Social Structure ◽  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Large Volume ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Process Model ◽  
Brand Relationships ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Prior Literature ◽  
Integrative Process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define the brand religiosity phenomenon and develop a theoretical process model showing the interrelationships between brand religiosity and other related concepts leading to the formation of a distinct brand sub-culture or community. Design/methodology/approach A large volume of prior literature on consumer–brand relationships has been reviewed to develop the conceptual framework. Findings The framework developed shows several actionable antecedents and desirable marketing outcomes of brand religiosity. The framework also depicts that brand religiosity leads to the creation of social anti-structure by forming a distinct brand community that frees individuals from the regular social structure and motivates them to adopt a distinct brand sub-culture formed. Theoretical contributions and business policy-related implications of brand religiosity are discussed. Originality/value Value of the study lies in conceptualizing brand religiosity and developing an integrative process model centering the concept.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document