(Trans)Formative Trajectories of Decisions: An Analysis from The Translation Perspective

Motivated by an agenda for empirical research on decisions, we seek to understand how an issue or idea is labelled as a "decision". Based on the relational ontology, we used the Actor-Network Theory as a theoretical frame, and particularly the translation perspective. In order to understand the "process of formation and stabilization of decisions" focused on what makes actors act, we conducted an ethnographic study in a social enterprise for 30 months. Through narrative analysis, we propose the (trans)formative trajectories of decisions in which we describe the trajectory of these hybrid entities achieving the status of relative fixity labelled as "the decision". We understand the trajectory as an ongoing translation journey; thus, we tracked decisions in their trajectories of translation, packaging and legitimation. The elements of the organizational decision-making are re-signified as performative texts, which enter the network of relations. Therefore, decisions are (trans)formed on a journey of mediation among multiple actants. When objectified as crystallized texts, the decisions become performative, because they start to organize and participate in the constitution of the ongoing reality. This theoretical framework allowed us to extend the processual understanding of decision-making aligned with the relational ontology and the time-process perspective.

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Performative Silences: Potentiality of Organizational Change

Organization Studies ◽

10.1177/0170840618759816 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 40 (5) ◽

pp. 681-703 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Katia Dupret

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Organizational Change ◽

Network Theory ◽

Change Process ◽

Mental Healthcare ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Theory Approach ◽

Organization Studies ◽

Decision Making Processes

The article highlights the importance of silence in the change process of organizations, making the claim that silence distributes authority and decision-making processes. It thus adds to existing organization literature that applies a performative approach to silence as neither static nor neutral. It creates new realities. Silence as an act, rather than a noun, is conceptualized as central to organizational change. Through an ethnographic study in a mental healthcare organization, it is shown how different performances of silence make new decision-making processes available and influence new work practices that are central to understanding the particular characteristics of psychiatric organizations. Although the performance of silence can have somewhat immaterial and mundane connotations, when one uses an actor-network theory approach to organization studies, the performance of silence becomes helpful in conceptualizing how new and old practices are often imbedded into each other.

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Actor Network Theory (ANT)

Advances in Public Policy and Administration - Social Partnership and Governance Under Crises ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-8961-7.ch005 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 100-120

Keyword(s):

Critical Discourse Analysis ◽

Network Theory ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Critical Discourse ◽

Actor Network ◽

Social Partnership ◽

Analysis Methodology ◽

The Status ◽

Partnership Agreement ◽

Relational Interactions

Actor network theory (ANT) or the “sociology of translation,” is introduced, being a systematic way to explain the mechanics and dynamics of relational interactions, within networks. The unique ontology of ANT equates human and non-human systems thereby conferring the MOU social partnership agreement with the status of an actor. The text within the MOU Agreement as an intermediary becomes the inscription, enabling the agreement to obtain having a discourse of its own and the capacity to attain a “black box” status within the network of relations that it creates for itself. ANT's strengths and weaknesses, critiques and value are highlighted as well as its suitability to be used to analyse network relations partnering with critical discourse analysis methodology.

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Leaders as ventriloquists. Leader identity and influencing the communicative construction of the organisation

Leadership ◽

10.1177/1742715015584695 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (3) ◽

pp. 301-319 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Jonathan Clifton

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Network Theory ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Leadership Studies ◽

Time And Space ◽

Leader Identity ◽

Social Actors ◽

Hybrid Production ◽

Naturally Occurring ◽

Physical Presence

Traditionally leadership studies have focussed on psychological and quantitative approaches that have offered limited insights into the achievement of leader identity as an interactional accomplishment. Taking a discursive approach to leadership in which leaders emerge as those who have most influence in communicatively constructing the organisation, and using transcripts of naturally occurring decision-making talk, the purpose of this paper is to make visible the seen but unnoticed discursive resources by which leader identity emerges in talk. More specifically, using actor network theory as a methodology, this paper focusses on how the director of an organisation ventriloquises (i.e. makes another actor speak through the production of a given utterance) other entities to do leadership. Findings indicate that leadership is achieved by making relevant to the interaction hybrid presences of actants that allow certain organisational players to influence the communicative construction of the organisation and so manage the meaning of organisational reality. In this way, social actors talk into being a ‘leader identity’, which is not necessarily a purely human physical presence, but can also be a hybrid presence of human and nonhuman actants, which are dislocated across time and space. The hybrid production of presence(s) also allows leaders to enact authority as a way of influencing others to accept their version of organisational reality.

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Trajectory and exhibition of a time-based media work. ‘The drawing of the girl running away from her support’ (2014), by Ana Vieira (1940-2016)

Conservar Património ◽

10.14568/2020062 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sofia Gomes ◽

Rita Macedo

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Contemporary Art ◽

Network Theory ◽

Necessary Conditions ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Video Installation ◽

Actor Network ◽

Running Away ◽

Media Work

Ana Vieira (1940-2016) left a set of installations without systematised documentation or set guidelines. In an attempt to preserve her legacy, heirs have promoted exhibitions as a way to document the tangible and intangible characteristics of these complex works. In 2017, there was an attempt to reinstall the video installation The drawing of the girl running away from her support at the Graça Morais Contemporary Art Centre, but without success. However, in 2019, the necessary conditions were met for its reinstallation at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology. Through this case study and based on Latour's Actor-Network-Theory, it was demonstrated that the exhibition is a crucial moment in the trajectory of the work and in the analysis of a network of agents, human and non-human, giving rise to documentation that is essential to inform future decision-making.

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Trajectory and exhibition of a time-based media work. ‘The drawing of the girl running away from her support’ (2014), by Ana Vieira (1940-2016)

Conservar Património ◽

10.14568/cp2020062 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sofia Gomes ◽

Rita Macedo

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Contemporary Art ◽

Network Theory ◽

Necessary Conditions ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Video Installation ◽

Actor Network ◽

Running Away ◽

Media Work

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Using actor-network theory to reveal strategy processes in design firms

Conference Proceedings of the Academy for Design Innovation Management ◽

10.33114/adim.2017.132 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Alison RIEPLE ◽

Antonius VAN DEN BROEK

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Network Theory ◽

Methodological Approach ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Digital Design ◽

Strategy Development ◽

Actor Network ◽

The Rich ◽

Actor Networks ◽

Design Firms

In this paper we illustrate the utility of actor-network theory (ANT) as a methodological approach to understand the effect of the eclectic characteristics of design firms on their strategy development processes. The need for creativity, expertise knowledge and the constant need to innovate suggest that the mainstream strategy or decision-making theories provide unsatisfying insights into how strategy of the design firm emerges. These culture laden organisations often operate with limited formality, therefore require attention to the social side of decision-making. To address this rich complex social-fabric of decision-making, we suggest to study strategy development as the result of the formation of actor-networks. By illustration of data collected from 13 interviews with design firms in mainly Europe and a longitudinal study of a global digital design firm, we illustrate how an ANT-based approach allows theorists to analyse the rich cultural complexity of design firms’ decision-making in a focused and coherent manner.

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Between Blackboxing and Unfolding

International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation ◽

10.4018/ijantti.2013100104 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 5 (4) ◽

pp. 47-64 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Ingrid Christine Reite

Keyword(s):

Professional Learning ◽

Network Theory ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Interesting Case ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Learning Networks ◽

Bruno Latour ◽

A Value ◽

Everyday Work ◽

The Church

In this article the author will analyse professional learning of pastors. Pastors can be an example of a value-oriented profession being both a keeper of traditions and an innovator facing the challenges of globalization and secularization. The analysis of pastor networks is therefore an interesting case of professional learning in a changing society. The author presents an ethnographic study of five pastors from the Church of Norway doing their everyday work. The author asks: What characterize the professional learning networks of pastors between blackboxing and unfolding? The analytical perspectives of Actor-Network Theory and Bruno Latour (1987) are employed, as the author argues that professional learning is a process of moving between “blackboxing” and “unfolding”. Thus, the author brings a socio-material perspective into the value-oriented field of education. The case of pastors can contribute to elaborate the tools for analysing professional learning The findings illuminate the challenges many professionals have today, namely to handle different modes of learning.

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An “Ethical Moment” in Data Sharing

Science Technology & Human Values ◽

10.1177/0162243916648220 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 42 (1) ◽

pp. 3-28 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Catherine Heeney

Keyword(s):

Data Sharing ◽

Network Theory ◽

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Research Community ◽

Status Quo ◽

Empirical Ethics ◽

The Status ◽

The Uk ◽

Ontological Uncertainty

This study draws on interviews with forty-nine members of a biomedical research community in the UK that is involved in negotiating data sharing and access. During an interview, an interviewee used the words “ethical moment” to describe a confrontation between collaborators in relation to data sharing. In this article, I use this as a lens for thinking about relations between “the conceptual and the empirical” in a way that allows both analyst and actor to challenge the status quo and consider other ethical possibilities. Drawing on actor network theory (ANT), I approach “the empirical” using the concepts of controversy and ontological uncertainty as methodological tools to tackle the problem of ethics. I suggest that these concepts also provide a bridge for understanding the ontological structure of the virtual and the actual, as described in Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition. While other science and technology studies scholars have sought to draw on Deleuze, this article addresses the integration of ethics and empirical research. It arises as a critical reaction to existing treatments of this problem as found in empirical ethics, especially in the sociology of bioethics, and indirectly in ANT texts.

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Competitive Intelligence in the Enterprise

International Journal of Actor-Network Theory and Technological Innovation ◽

10.4018/jantti.2013040104 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 50-64

Author(s):

Relebohile Moloi ◽

Tiko Iyamu

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

Competitive Advantage ◽

Network Theory ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Competitive Intelligence ◽

Study Research ◽

Implementation Processes ◽

Sociotechnical Theory

Due to increasing challenges, as well as competitiveness, many organisations have sought advantaging and beneficiary techniques and options. One of those options is through Competitive Intelligence (CI) products, which some organisations have come to rely upon for sustainability and competitive advantage. Unfortunately, and to some degree, fortunately, there are different CI products which organisations could choose from. The products are supposed to be selected and deployed based on organizational requirements from both technical and business perspectives. Some organisations deploy more than one competitive intelligence product. Others are not guided, and do not understand the essence of the deployment, regarding achieving the organisational objectives. The fortunate and unfortunate situations which occur in the deployment of CI products in organisations are drawn from relationships amongst stakeholders in the selection and implementation processes. The relationships are manifested from control of sources which use the power for decision making. The relationships emanate from the fact that there are no proper comparisons of the products, driven by requirements. As a result, the organisations are faced and challenged with duplication and waste of resources. They struggle to determine their competitive advantage. This situation further manifests the complexity of technical and business artefacts. Case study research was conducted to understand how CI products are deployed in the organisation. A sociotechnical theory, actor-network theory was employed in the analysis of the data, primarily to examine and understand how control of resources for power defined and shaped relationships.

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The relational ontology of resistance: Hybridity, ventriloquism, and materiality in the production of bike commuting as resistance

Organization ◽

10.1177/1350508417723719 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (6) ◽

pp. 873-893 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Elizabeth D. Wilhoit ◽

Lorraine G. Kisselburgh

Keyword(s):

Network Theory ◽

Actor Network Theory ◽

Human Action ◽

Relational Ontology ◽

Relational Understanding ◽

Actor Network ◽

Organizational Resistance ◽

American Midwest ◽

Bicycle Commuting ◽

And Control

Many studies of organizational resistance have focused on a knowing agent who intends to challenge power. In contrast, we suggest that resistance is the product of many agents of varying ontological statuses acting together. Using a study of bicycle commuting in the American Midwest (an activity that takes place at the edges of organizations), actor-network theory, and Cooren’s theory of ventriloquism, we demonstrate that resistance has a relational ontology. We show that bike commuters do not intend to resist through biking to work, decentering human action and intention in resistance. We then highlight three aspects of a relational understanding of resistance. First, bike commuting (and other resistive activity) is produced by a plenum of agencies of all ontological statuses, making resistance a hybrid activity, not limited to human agents. Second, activities of resistance and control come to have these meanings through their relationship with one another. Third, actions that come to mean resistance and control are put into conversation with each other to gain these meanings through ventriloquism. Through these arguments, we expand what can count as resistance, how resistance is produced, and who produces it, demonstrating that resistance is a relational production.

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