From ‘matters of concern’ to ‘matters of authority’: Studying the performativity of strategy from a communicative constitution of organization (CCO) approach

Anchored in a ‘communication as constitutive of organization’ approach, this article aims to develop a theoretical framework for understanding the performativity of strategy through an organizational lens. We define the performativity of any form of knowledge as a communicational praxis, involving theories or ideas, actors and texts, through which matter of concerns become matters of authority. More specifically, our framework shows that for matters of concern to become matters of authority the three following communicational practices have to be articulated: (1) voicing and collectively negotiating matters of concern, (2) transporting and materializing matters of concern through texts, and (3) recognizing matters of concern as legitimate (i.e. authorized and authored). In order to illustrate these practices we draw on the empirical material taken from a strategic planning process in a community-based organization. Through these illustrations we show that strategy, as a particular and situated form of knowledge, can act as a matter of concern (it can be voiced, negotiated, transported and recognized as legitimate, or not) and as a matter of authority; thus authorizing and authoring actors, their tools and statements. It is also through these practices that strategy gains authority and is granted social reality

Collaborating Without (Formal) Organization: How Do Independent Workers Call Into Question the Matter of Organization?

International audienceThis chapter focuses on independent workers and on the organizational specificities of the independent workers' phenomenon. We treat independent workers as an emergent and continually shifting organizational phenomenon questioning some of our assumptions about what organizations are, and revealing trends that are currently reshaping work. We suggest viewing the independent workers' phenomenon as an open organizational phenomenon in which activities are project-oriented, temporality-oriented, and inclusive. This chapter contributes to an understanding of the independent workers' phenomenon as an organizational one that constantly (re)defines rules, roles, and statuses. It also contributes to a broader reflection on the matter of organization. Considered as an open organizational phenomenon, the independent workers' phenomenon calls the organization-society dualism into question. Finally, revealing the organizational aspects of independent workers' activities allows us to better understand some of the transformations that are nowadays affecting more traditional forms of work

Pratiques de branding en contexte universitaire. Une approche processuelle de la marque

La marque est étudiée ici comme un mode d’organisation des représentations à travers une approche verticale-ascendante consistant à expliquer l’ordonnancement social à partir d’interactions. Dans cette perspective, le branding est conçu comme un processus interactionnel des pratiques spécifiques de production, de consommation et de distribution d’éléments de marque à travers lesquels les acteurs représentent l’organisation. À partir de l’étude de la production d’un site web dans un contexte universitaire, nous montrons comment ces pratiques soulèvent des questions d’identités individuelle et collective. De cette manière notre étude se positionne au-delà des habituelles problématiques commerciale, économique ou encore juridique du marketing.Taking a bottom-up approach, which consists of studying social ordering starting from interactions, this paper presents a study of the brand as a mode of organizing representation. Following this approach, we define branding as an interactional process consisting of specific practices of production, consumption, and distribution of the brand through which actors represent the organization. Based on the study of website production in a university context, we show how these practices confront actors with individual and collective identity issues. In doing so, it goes beyond the usual commercial, economic, and legal problematizations found in marketing studies

Highlighting the plural : leading amidst romance(s)

The current crisis makes leadership more visible and allows us to reflect on how leadership is conceived. In this essay, we consider how leadership has been represented during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in articles published in the business and general press. We show that, while images of heroic leadership are prevalent in this popular discourse – reminding us vividly of the romance of leadership – other elements, such as references to plural and decentred forms of leadership can be seen as also coexisting in this discourse, while not necessarily being explicitly acknowledged. Opting for a plural, relational and processual conception of leadership allows us to reveal these under-recognized elements. This leads us to propose that these elements are not specific to leadership in times of crises, but are always constitutive of leading in practice. We conclude by arguing that renewing understandings of leadership may require that we acknowledge simultaneously the inevitable presence of romance(s) in how we approach this phenomenon as well as its collective and relational accomplishment. Referring, in turn, to the central phenomenon as leading rather than as leadership may help us reach beyond the seductiveness of the romance(s) of leadership to capture its inherent relationality