Felippe de Medeiros Oliveira, Gazi Islam and Maria Laura Toraldo
Recent interest in the multimodal accomplishment of organization has focused on the material and symbolic aspects of materiality. We argue that current literature invokes diverse…
Abstract
Recent interest in the multimodal accomplishment of organization has focused on the material and symbolic aspects of materiality. We argue that current literature invokes diverse “multimodal imaginaries,” that is, ways of conceiving the relation between the material and the conceptual, and that the different imaginaries support a plurality of perspectives on materiality. Using the empirical case of a large urban renewal project in São Paulo, Brazil, we illustrate three different multimodal imaginaries – the concrete, the semiotic, and the mimetic – and indicate how each imaginary determines the way in which the site in question is discursively constructed. After outlining the different approaches, we discuss their theoretical implications, advantages, and constraints, setting an agenda for future studies of materiality in organizational and institutional contexts.
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Gazi Islam, Charles-Clemens Rüling and Elke Schüßler
Particularly in governance and policy processes, critique is embedded in highly institutionalized formats. In this chapter, the authors apply Boltanski’s concept of critical tests…
Abstract
Particularly in governance and policy processes, critique is embedded in highly institutionalized formats. In this chapter, the authors apply Boltanski’s concept of critical tests to examine accepted forms of expression in the context of an institutionalized policy setting, the annual Conferences of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The authors find that different policy actors’ uses of critique reflect embedded field positions and interests. While marginal actors drew upon existential tests to construct radical critique, the highly ritualized performance of critique called into question its efficacy in promoting change within the overall structure of a highly institutionalized event. The authors discuss inroads to studying the relations between critique, power, and microfoundations of institutions.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine the monstrous in organizational diversity by introducing the concept of cultural anthropophagy to the diversity literature. Using…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the monstrous in organizational diversity by introducing the concept of cultural anthropophagy to the diversity literature. Using Kristeva's notion of abjection to better understand cultural anthropophagy, the paper argues that cultural anthropophages cross boundaries, and build identity through desire for and aggression toward valued others.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses a conceptual discussion of abjection, along with a historical survey of anthropophagic approaches from Brazilian art and cultural studies.
Findings
Anthropophagic approaches highlight unique features of organizational identity, framing identity formation as a fluid process of expulsion and re-integration of the other. While abjection approaches focus on the exclusion of material aspects of the self and the formation of self-other boundaries, anthropophagy focusses on the re-integration of the other into the self, in a symbolic gesture of re-integration, desire, and reverence for the other.
Originality/value
The idea of anthropophagy is a recent entrant into the organizational literature, and the close relation between anthropophagy and abjection is illuminated in the current paper. Original insights regarding the search for positive identity, the ambivalence of self and other, and the relation of the particular and the universal, are offered with regards to the diversity literature.
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Quazi Tafsirul Islam, Jashim Uddin Ahmed and Afnan Sayed
Digitization is the process of transforming analog systems into digital ones, and it has become a crucial factor in the sustainable development of emerging economies. Although…
Abstract
Digitization is the process of transforming analog systems into digital ones, and it has become a crucial factor in the sustainable development of emerging economies. Although implementing digitization may be challenging due to limited budgets, missing strategies, pushback from employees, and the existing organizational structure, it can bring multifaceted benefits to the economy, such as improved employment and income, enhanced access to knowledge and education, and reduced costs for companies and countries. Moreover, digitization can significantly impact economic growth, as it can create new job opportunities, foster innovation, and improve infrastructure, among other benefits. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide a global agenda for creating a more sustainable, equitable, and prosperous future by 2030, and digital technologies have become increasingly important in addressing the challenges of achieving these goals, particularly for emerging economies. However, achieving these ambitious goals presents significant challenges, particularly for emerging economies. Hence, this literature review aims to discuss the potential impact of digital technologies on the implementation of the SDGs in emerging economies, supported by scholarly research and opinions. In conclusion, digital technologies have significant potential to contribute to the achievement of the SDGs by promoting economic growth and innovation while also promoting sustainability, creating a more prosperous and equitable world for all.
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Gazi Islam and Michael J. Zyphur
The purpose of this paper is to use the work of Robert Frost to give insights into the diverse meanings that work holds in daily lived experience. It aims to use this analysis to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use the work of Robert Frost to give insights into the diverse meanings that work holds in daily lived experience. It aims to use this analysis to discuss general ways in which the content and formal properties of poetry allow unique insights into the world of work.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses the approach of literary criticism and analysis to give insights into how work can be experienced as personally liberating but also culturally stifling, a tool both for and against human self‐fulfilment. After a brief discussion of the use of poetry to understand organizational life, various excerpts from Frost's well‐known and lesser known works are analyzed.
Findings
Through a series of passages in Frost's works, the paper shows how these illuminations of the poet's own experiences hold insights by which scholars can understand the experience of work more generally.
Practical implications
It is argued that an understanding of poetry is a way for scholars to expand their understanding of the world of work, both through paying attention to the contents of poems and, more generally, from considering a poetic form of expression as shot‐through with theoretical and epistemic insights.
Originality/value
While some papers have incorporated poetic expressions and explanations for various organizational phenomena, this work represents an attempt to incorporate this rarely studied feature into organizational studies. To the authors' knowledge, the mainstream organizational literature has few if any in‐depth poetic analysis, and none of the work of Frost, whose focus on work is widespread and illuminating.
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The aim of this paper is to develop the idea of recognition in organizations, arguing that recognition is a fundamental building block of workplace dignity, and a key element of…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to develop the idea of recognition in organizations, arguing that recognition is a fundamental building block of workplace dignity, and a key element of cultural respect in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
As a conceptual paper, the current work approaches discussions of human resource management through the lens of recognition theory, applying ideas of recognition and reification to workplace issues.
Findings
Workplace reification can be observed in diverse areas of human resource management, reflecting a “human capital” view of employees. The paper traces this view in terms of measurement and incentives, as well as individual and group diversity within the workplace.
Originality/value
The paper contributes to the literature on care in human resources by briding ideas from management and critical social theory, contributing to the former by couching workplace dignity in terms of social theoretic foundations of recognition, and contributing to the latter by showing how the workplace can form an important site for recognition.
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The current study aims to explore the role of stories in organizational sensemaking processes. Rather than positioning stories as one among many different sensemaking mechanisms…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study aims to explore the role of stories in organizational sensemaking processes. Rather than positioning stories as one among many different sensemaking mechanisms, it is argued that stories allow a particular kind of sensemaking that is inherently open‐ended, distinguishing it from theoretical and propositional explanations for organizational phenomena. Drawing on previous Foucaultian discussions of epistemes, the paper aims to introduce the notions of epistemic impasse and epistemic spillover, arguing that cross‐functional interaction can cause tensions between incompatible epistemic bases, and that stories can act as a mechanism to overcome such tensions.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative methodology is used to illustrate the above mechanism in an ethnographic, participant‐observer study of a university student‐support center.
Findings
The results show how storytelling led to an increasingly open and ultimately universalizing tendency with the center, thus demonstrating both the potentials and limits of using stories within organizations.
Originality/value
The current paper adds to the storytelling literature by showing how stories not only act as a sensemaking mechanism, but also reimagine the definition of sense in a way that makes it more polyvalent and open to multiple epistemic standpoints.
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Sergio Lazzarini, Gazi Islam and Luiz Mesquita
The purpose of this paper is to reconcile alternative managerial views regarding self‐serving behavior in organizations: while some propose that such behavior is commonplace and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to reconcile alternative managerial views regarding self‐serving behavior in organizations: while some propose that such behavior is commonplace and detrimental to performance, and suggest policies to counteract such conduct, critics contend that such policies generate distrust and diminish performance. The authors integrate elements from agency and interactional justice theories, and hypotheses that managerial attitudes not related to self‐interest can influence behaviors often attributed to the desire to curb self‐interest, and vice‐versa.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors employ structural equation modeling based on survey data from 387 team‐leaders from both Brazil and the USA.
Findings
An asymmetric relation is found in the aforementioned theoretical “cross‐talk:” managers concerned with self‐interest tend to devise policies solely focused on curbing self‐interest, while managers concerned with justice not only adopt justice‐enhancing practices but also certain incentivizing agency‐related practices which jointly increase performance.
Research limitations/implications
By proposing and testing theoretical interactions between agency and justice theories, support is found for both enthusiasts and critics of self‐interestedness, but pointedly they occur in different domains.
Practical implications
The results suggest that managers should foster interactional justice, promoting incentivizing agency‐related behaviors that may be interpreted as justice‐seeking, while avoiding those that send a message of distrust.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is one of the first empirical papers directly addressing the ongoing debate raised by Ghoshal and others on the merits of managerial theories based on the assumption of self‐interest.