scholarly journals Organizational memorialization: spatial history and legitimation as chiasms

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
François-Xavier de Vaujany ◽  
Emmanuelle Vaast ◽  
Stewart R. Clegg ◽  
Jeremy Aroles
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Organizational Legitimacy ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
Management History ◽  
Phenomenological Perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand how historical materialities might play a contemporary role in legitimation processes through the memorialization of history and its reproduction in the here-and-now of organizations and organizing.Design/methodology/approachThe authors briefly review the existing management and organization studies (MOS) literature on legitimacy, space and history; engage with the work of Merleau-Ponty to explore how organizational legitimacy is managed in time and space; and use the case of two Parisian universities to illustrate the main arguments of the paper.FindingsThe paper develops a history-based phenomenological perspective on legitimation processes constitutive of four possibilities identified by means of chiasms: heterotopic spatial legacy, thin spatial legacy, institutionalized spatial legacy and organizational spatial legacy.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors discuss the implications of this research for the neo-institutional literature on organizational legitimacy, research on organizational space and the field of management history.Originality/valueThis paper takes inspiration from the work of Merleau-Ponty on chiasms to conceptualize how the temporal layers of space and place that organizations inhabit and inherit (which we call “spatial legacies”), in the process of legitimation, evoke a sensible tenor.

Adjusting to the unexpected

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 421-438
Author(s):  
Ajay K. Jain ◽  
Sherry Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Citation Analysis ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Management History

Purpose – This study aims to provide a literature review of the 56 articles published in the Journal of Management History (JMH) from 2000 to 2004. Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted a thematic analysis using the categories of person, topic or event to classify articles as well as a citation analysis using Google Scholar. Findings – The number of articles published from 2000 to 2004 was almost 50 per cent fewer than published in the previous five years, and citation rates were lower. Originality/value – Results suggest that high-quality articles focused on persons or topics are more likely to be published in the JMH.

Organizational access in qualitative research

2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Nathan Alexander ◽  
Anne D. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Primary Analysis ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Management Journal ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Gain Access ◽  
Administrative Science

Purpose While organizational access is central to much qualitative research, little is known about how researchers secure it. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic assessment of this critical methodological step. Design/methodology/approach A systematic review was conducted to establish how researchers gained access to organizations for qualitative research. Access type was identified and explanatory indicators were inductively developed to illuminate how access was obtained in a sample of 216 qualitative articles published in Administrative Science Quarterly and Academy of Management Journal between 1986 and 2013. A supplemental review of 306 articles published in Organization Studies over the same period augmented the primary analysis with a broader view of published accounts of access. Findings Learning prior to entering organizations, researchers’ backgrounds, organizational insiders, and outside contacts facilitated access. The role of these factors, which served as indicators of legitimacy, varied with the type of access. In addition, the authors found that many articles provide little information about how the researchers gained access, regardless of a publication’s domicile. Originality/value This study furthers the understanding of how researchers gain access to organizations to conduct qualitative research and discusses the implications of the limited access accounts in published studies. In addition, this research provides practical guidance for authors, editors, and reviewers.

scholarly journals Unlearning towards an uncertain future: on the back end of future-driven unlearning

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 454-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus F. Peschl
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Specific Result ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Innovation Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Conceptual Paper ◽  
Uncertain Future ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

Purpose While many approaches in the field of unlearning aim at describing, understanding or explaining the “what” and/or “how” of unlearning, this paper aims to focus on the “where-to” and the goal of unlearning. In many cases, unlearning starts off with a specific result or goal in mind. This paper suggests that such an approach has to be challenged in the context of a highly complex and uncertain world and to introduce a mode of unlearning following a strategy of future-oriented open-endedness. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper draws on (both theoretical/philosophical and empirical) interdisciplinary evidence from a wide variety of fields, such as organization studies, organizational (un)learning, systems theory, cognitive science and innovation studies. Findings It turns out that open-endedness in unlearning processes plays a central role, especially if we are confronted with high levels of uncertainty and complexity. In such an environment, following a strategy of co-becoming with an unfolding environment and with an emergent goal seems to be more promising than aiming at a preconceived (un-)learning goal. Originality/value The unlearning literature provides various approaches to what unlearning is and how it can be executed. However, understanding the actual goals and outcomes of unlearning and how these goals are identified and determined is a rather under-researched field. In many cases, they are preconceived in advance finding their realization in new forms of knowledge, assumptions, belief systems, values or routines. This paper challenges this strategy and addresses the gap of how it is possible to unlearn toward an uncertain future. This has an impact on the process of unlearning itself; it has to be reframed and understood as an open-ended strategy for identifying emerging future potentials, purposes and goals in a process of co-becoming with an unfolding future.

scholarly journals Race and place

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (11/12) ◽  
pp. 913-922
Author(s):  
Karim Murji ◽  
Giovanni Picker
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Space And Place ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Short Account ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Relational Approach ◽  
Sociological Work ◽  
Race And Place

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to introduce the special issue on race and place. Design/methodology/approach The approach used by the authors is to combine an overview of sociological debates on place within a framework that makes the case for a relational approach to race, space and place. Findings The overview provides an account of place in sociology, of the relationality of race and place, and the making of race and place in sociological work. Originality/value The Introduction sets the papers in context, providing a short account of each of them; it also aims to present an argument for attention to race and place in sociology in a setting characterized by racism and reaction.

Partnerships with the police – logics and strategies of justification

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertil Rolandsson
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Organizational Legitimacy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Cost Efficient ◽  
Empirical Material

Purpose – Political reforms call for new types of public-private or community partnerships, in which public services are shaped in collaboration with networks of public, business or non-governmental organizations. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how municipal partners justify and thereby maintain partnerships with the police. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical material comprises documents and 26 semi-structured interviews with civil servants, politicians, and police staff. This qualitative study investigates three Swedish municipalities engaged in partnerships with the same police authority. Findings – Based on Boltanski and Thévenot’s order of worth, the paper describes how municipal partners manage two partly contradictory arrangements; one constituted by industrial and civic logics, and one constituted by domestic and industrial logics. Guided by these two different arrangements, they justify and thereby maintain their partnership with the police by alternating between a compromising strategy promoting adaptation to the police and a compensating strategy stating that they are independent partners with demands on the police. Research limitations/implications – This is a qualitative study that needs further confirmation before general conclusions can be drawn. Still, it suggests that partners justify themselves by making claims on being both collaborative and independent within these partnerships. Originality/value – Unlike research investigating how authorities initiate partnerships to organize integrated and cost-efficient public services, the paper highlights how partners justify their participation by alternating between two rather different but linked justifying strategies. The study applies a justificatory logic perspective that helps us understand that complex and sometimes contradictory arrangements of logics, which could threaten partner participation, also enable them to justify and thereby maintain their partnership with the police. Unlike institutional studies describing how tensions challenge organizational legitimacy this study describes how justificatory strains remain even when partners are able to justify their participation.

Legitimized identity vs identifiable legitimacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-120
Author(s):  
Lin Xiu ◽  
Feng Lu ◽  
Xin Liang
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Theory ◽  
Organizational Identity ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Organizational Adaptation ◽  
Organizational Legitimacy ◽  
Organizational Studies ◽  
Social Perspective ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Comprehensive Studies

Purpose Organizational identity and organizational legitimacy are related constructs, but comprehensive studies of the relationship have been lacking in the literature of organizational studies. This paper aims to propose a framework that includes four possible relationships between organizational legitimacy and identity. Design/methodology/approach The authors evaluate the causes of each of these relationships and an important consequence of the relationship: their influences on organizational adaptation. Findings With a series of propositions, the authors make a tentative, but valuable, move toward integrating two broad streams of social perspective of organizing, institutional theory and organizational identity and call for research efforts in this direction. Originality/value The paper is the first one that explores the relationship between organizational identity and organizational legitimacy in a comprehensive way.

Organization studies as symmetrical ethnology

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Czarniawska
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Social Implications ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Future Practice ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to challenge some of the taken for granted assumptions of contemporary ethnographic practice by exploring reasons for fieldwork and the debt that is owed to those in the field. Design/methodology/approach Exploring traditional and contemporary reasons for fieldwork and comparing ostensive and performative styles of reporting organization studies. Findings The argument is that traditional ethnographic approaches do not fit contemporary organizing practices. In their place, a “symmetrical ethnology” is proposed. Research limitations/implications More reflective use of labels and terms. Practical implications Better communication with practitioners. Social implications Better dialogue with wider circles. Originality/value An important and timely critique of ethnography together with a reformulation and a number of suggestions for future practice.

It’s about time: theorizing amodern time in historical organization studies

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Durepos ◽  
Terrance Weatherbee ◽  
Albert J. Mills
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
Actor Networks ◽  
History Approach ◽  
Chronological Time

Purpose This paper features a critique of the treatment of time in modern and postmodern historical organization studies. The authors reply to the critique by drawing on Lefebvre’s notion of rhythm to theorize time in an amodern condition. The purpose of this study is to call on historical organization studies scholars to theoretically engage with time. Design/methodology/approach After a pointed literature review of the treatment of time in modern and postmodern historical organization studies, an ANTi-History approach to time is developed through an exploration of how rhythm can inform key ANTi-History facets. Findings New insights on key ANTi-History facets are developed in relation to time. These include seeing the past as history through rhythmic actor-networks, a description of relationalism informed by situated rhythms, a suggestion that the performative aspect of history is rhythmic and an illustration of what one might see if they watched an amodern historian at work. Originality/value Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm has been largely neglected in historiography and historical organization studies. Rhythm offers a way to understand time in relation to situated actor practices as opposed to the universal clock or chronological time.

False binaries in management history, and the scope for a postcolonial project

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nidhi Srinivas
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Disciplinary Knowledge ◽  
Current Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Historical Texts ◽  
Management History ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose This study aims to offer a postcolonial approach that goes past current management history controversies. Design/methodology/approach Discussion of current management history controversies with examples. Findings Post-colonial approaches to management history enable engagement with questions of power and knowledge in the management discipline. Research limitations/implications Further historical research is needed that considers the interplay of disciplinary knowledge and the historical events under question, especially in post-colonial settings. Practical implications It is essential to engage with historical texts and interpretations to better understand the contextual limitations to management as a discipline: a better understanding of disciplinary pasts enables us to better understand the present. Social implications By considering management’s pasts, this paper can acknowledge more closely how the discipline continues to retain colonialist assumptions that need to be challenged and changed. Originality/value Examples of management history from formerly colonized regions.

Interfaith dialogue in a secular field

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 (8) ◽  
pp. 824-844 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kent D. Miller
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Community ◽  
Theological Reflection ◽  
Interfaith Dialogue ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Attitudes And Behaviors ◽  
Religious Perspectives ◽  
General Guidance ◽  
Organization Research

Purpose Bringing spiritual and religious perspectives to management and organization research requires clarifying the methodological implications and grappling with the diversity that characterizes the research community. This article aims to address both of these issues. The focal question addressed here is, how might spiritual and religious researchers effectively engage in interfaith dialogue in the ostensibly secular field of management and organization studies? Design/methodology/approach This article takes exception to privileging secularism over other faiths and argues for admitting spiritual and religious perspectives into the field of management and organization studies. It addresses how theological reflection can be carried out within a spiritually and religiously pluralist research community in management and organization studies. Findings Section 2 characterizes secularity and raises the possibility of moving beyond secularism to interfaith dialogue in the field of management and organization studies. Section 3 reviews influential perspectives on dialogue to identify attitudes and behaviors conducive to social learning. Section 4 introduces theological reflection as a method for conducting management and organization research and provides guidance and methods for pursuing interfaith dialogue. Research limitations/implications This article proposes interfaith dialogue as a way to explore important assumptions, ultimate concerns and innovative practices that currently go largely unraised in management and organization research. Originality/value This article adds to the methods available in the field by characterizing effective dialogue and introducing and explaining theological reflection. It contributes general guidance and proposes specific methods for moving to interfaith dialogue among researchers working from diverse faiths.

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