The Question of Technology, or How Organizations Inscribe the World

The paper relates technology studies to organization research and examines the technology-as-text metaphor. The study of organization is incomplete as long as tangible technology remains in its blind spot. Linguistic metaphors and analogues, while capturing and indeed amplifying much of received understandings of technology, succeed only partially in repairing the situation. The image of the palimpsest is used to highlight this critique and to visualize ways out. Thus, while the paper‚s main concern is to bring back technology to the study of organization, a specific approach to the study of technology is also argued for

Rationality as an Organizational Product

RATIONALITY AS AN ORGANIZATIONALPRODUCTAdministrative Studies, vol 11(1992): 3, 152-162A perspective which conceptualizes organizingas a process of reality construction reveals a possibility of considering rationality not as an organizational attribute but as an organizationalproduct. The focus of organizational studiesshould then shift from examination of rationalityto interpretation of its production. It is arguedthat such a shift would be followed by a changein researchers' main roles: from simplifying andlegitimizing to problematizing and unmasking

The translation of management knowledge : challenges, contributions and new directions

Across many sectors, new developments and discourses that emphasize change, collaboration, shifting professional boundaries and increased sharing of knowledge are taking place. One is thus challenged to question and/or develop further understanding of how and to what extent new ideas, scientific developments and technologies are translated within such contexts and thereby extend management and organization studies. To advance understanding about this significant field in the scholarly community, this special issue has assembled a diverse set of papers, which review developments in translation theory and seek to encourage new thinking and frameworks and open up new directions in management and organization studies more generally. By reflecting on these papers, the authors summarize key challenges in translational research and new framings, and point to exciting new research opportunities that can be found in fruitfully comparing, elaborating, expanding, contrasting and blending extant perspectives

The social construction of leadership studies: Representations of rigour and relevance in textbooks

Considerations of rigour and relevance rarely acknowledge students, learning or the textbooks many of the academic community use to frame education. Here we explore the construction of meaning around rigour and relevance in four leadership studies textbooks – the two most globally popular leadership textbooks and two recent additions to the field – to explore how these ideas are represented. We read the four texts narratively for structure, purpose, style and application. We further embed the analysis by considering the cultural positioning of the textbook-as-genre within leadership studies as a field more generally. This exploration of the textbook raises critical questions about rigour, relevance and the relationship constructed between them. From this, we argue for a re-commitment to the genuine ‘text-book’ written to engage students in understanding leadership as a continuing conversation between practices, theories and contexts, rather than as a repository of rigorous and/or relevant content that lays claim to represent an objective science of leadership studies

School violence, school differences and school discourses

This article highlights one strand of a study which investigated the concept of the violenceresilient school. In six inner-city secondary schools, data on violent incidents in school and violent crime in the neighbourhood were gathered, and compared with school practices to minimise violence, accessed through interviews. Some degree of association between the patterns of behaviour and school practices was found: schools with a wider range of wellconnected practices seemed to have less difficult behaviour. Interviews also showed that the different schools had different organisational discourses for construing school violence, its possible causes and the possible solutions. Differences in practices are best understood in connection with differences in these discourses. Some of the features of school discourses are outlined, including their range, their core metaphor and their silences. We suggest that organisational discourse is an important concept in explaining school effects and school differences, and that improvement attempts could have clearer regard to this concept

Creativity out of chaos

Creativity is said to be highly desired in post-modern and post-industrial organizations Creativity and anarchy on the one hand, and managerialism, on the other, can be seen as different forms of knowledge, two opposed ideals. In many organizational as well as societal reforms we currently observe it is the managerialist ideal that wins over the anarchic. In this paper, we wonder if people fear anarchy? We reflect on the possible reasons for the fear, and we also try to explain why we believe that anarchic organizing should not be avoided or feared

An intervention framework for collaboration

This paper provides an intervention framework for collaboration to improve services. When collaboration is an intervention, its development and effectiveness depend on intervention logic. Intervention logic requires a precise conceptualization of collaboration. This conceptualization emphasizes its vital and unique components. It includes a developmental progression in which collaboration is contrasted with companion concepts. It also includes progress benchmarks, outcome measures, and logic models. These models depict relations among the benchmarks and outcomes, and they identify the mediating and moderating variables that account for collaboration's development and effectiveness. These models are designed to improve planning, evaluation, and their relations. This intervention framework for collaboration contrasts sharply with other conceptualizations and strategies. Although its aim is to unify and improve collaboration policy and practice, its inherent selectivity is an obvious limitation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT

Revans reversed: focusing on the positive for a change

The classical principles of action learning, based on the work of Revans, usually include working with problems as the core. This article aims, by contrast, to show how a recent project of change has incorporated principles of appreciative inquiry (AI) based on social constructionism and positive psychology into an action learning process involving a wide range of participants. The concern for problems is considered showing that the process of diagnosing a problem can reinforce a deficit orientation. The key ideas of AI are presented, highlighting the purpose of finding out what is going on in terms of what is working well, and in doing so, it becomes possible to build a picture of the strengths and virtues of what is happening at work. Based on findings from a recent project of culture shift in a design and production company, a process of positive action learning is considered

Accountability and rural development partnerships: a study of Objective 5b EAGGF funding in South West England

Author's pre-print version. Final version available online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/Funding for Rural Development Partnerships has signalled a shift in rural policy, towards actively involving the rural population in determining the direction and implementation of change. However, early experience with partnerships has indicated that the funding bodies have retained significant control. One reason for this is that they are constrained by their accountability requirements. Furthermore, with not all members of the partnership accountable to the same degree, the funding bodies bear a significant proportion of the risk of new ventures which can result in conservative decisions. A study of the EAGGF component of an EU Objective 5b Programme in the South West of England highlights the tensions that can arise in a partnership from existing accounting arrangements. The lack of a trusting relationship between state and citizens resulted in excessively formal accountability requirements, creating difficulties for applicants, and producing risk-averse decisions by state administrative bodies. However, the case study demonstrates that through the development of networks, both accountability and thereby project responsibility and risk could be more widely spread, creating opportunities for locally shaped, novel and flexible development

More than a method? Organisational ethnography as a way of imagining the social

© 2016 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. The authors–two anthropologists and an organisational theorist, all organisational ethnographers–discuss their understanding and practices of organisational ethnography (OE) as a way of imagining and reflect on how similar this understanding may be for young organisational researchers and students in particular. The discussion leads to the conclusion that OE may be regarded as a methodology but that it has a much greater potential when it is reclaiming its roots: to become a mode of doing social science on the meso-level. The discussion is based on an analysis of both historical material and the contemporary learning experiences of teaching OE as more than a method to our students