285 research outputs found
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The Performativity of Literature Reviewing: Constituting the Corporate Social Responsibility Literature through Re-Presentation and Intervention
Although numerous books and articles provide toolkit approaches to explain how to conduct literature reviews, these prescriptions regard literature reviewing as the production of representations of academic fields. Such representationalism is rarely questioned. Building on insights from social studies of science, we conceptualize literature reviewing as a performative endeavor that co-constitutes the literature it is supposed to âneutrallyâ describe, through a dual movement of re-presentingâconstructing an account different from the literature, and interveningâadding to and potentially shaping this literature. We discuss four problems inherent to this movement of performativityâdescription, explicitness, provocation, and simulacrumâand then explore them through a systematic review of 48 reviews of the literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for the period 1975-2019. We provide evidence for the performative role of literature reviewing in the CSR field through both re-presenting and intervening. We find that reviews performed the CSR literature and, accordingly, the fieldâs boundaries, categories, priorities in a self-sustaining manner. By reflexively subjecting our own systematic review to the four performative problems we discuss, we also derive implications of performative analysis for the practice of literature reviewing
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Reactivity to sustainability metrics: A configurational study of motivation and capacity
Previous research on reactivity â defined as changing organisational behaviour to better conform to the criteria of measurement in response to being measured â has found significant variation in company responses towards sustainability metrics. We propose that reactivity is driven by dialogue, motivation and capacity in a configurational way. Empirically, we use fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to analyse company responses to the sustainability index FTSE4Good. We find evidence of complimentary and substitute effects between motivation and capacity. Based on these effects we develop a typology of reactivity to sustainability metrics, which also theorises the use of metrics as tools for performance feedback and the building of calculative capacity. We show that when reactivity is studied configurationally, we can identify previously underacknowledged types of responses. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications for studying and using sustainability metrics as governance tools for responsible behaviour
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When do Theories Become Self-fulfilling? Exploring The Boundary Conditions of Performativity
Management researchers increasingly realize that some theories do not merely describe, but also shape social reality; a phenomenon known as "performativity." However, when theories become performative or even self-fulfilling is still poorly understood. Taking this gap in the research as our starting point, we develop a process model to show that new theories will only become self-fulfilling (1) if they motivate experimentation, (2) if experimentation produces anomalies, and (3) if these anomalies lead to a practice shift. On that basis, we identify six boundary conditions that determine whether theories will shape social reality. To illustrate our argument, we explore the conditions under which theories that postulate a positive link between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance may become self-fulfilling
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Materializing Power to Recover Corporate Social Responsibility
Through the development of CSR ratings, metrics and management tools, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is currently materialized at an unprecedented scale within and across organizations. However, the material dimension of CSR and the inherent political potential in this materialization have been neglected. Drawing on insights from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) and the critical discussion of current approaches to power in CSR studies, we offer an alternative sociomaterial conceptualization of power in order to clarify how power works through materialized forms of CSR. We develop a framework that explains both how power is constituted within materialized forms of CSR through processes of âassembling / disassemblingâ, and how power is mobilized through materialized forms of CSR through processes of âoverflowing / framingâ. From this framework, we derive four tactics that clarify how CSR materializations can be seized by marginalized actors to ârecoverâ CSR. Our analysis aims to renew CSR studies by showing the potential of CSR for progressive politics
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The moral microfoundations of institutional complexity: Sustainability implementation as compromise-making at an oil sands company
Research on institutional complexity has overlooked the fact that moral judgements are likely involved when individuals face a plurality of logics within organizations. To analyze the moral microfoundations of institutional complexity, we build on Boltanski and ThĂ©venotâs (2006 [1991]) economies of worth (EW) framework and explore how individuals produce moral judgement in response to the institutional complexity triggered by a major shift in the sustainability strategy within an oil sands company. Fifty-two interviews with employees, managers and executives reveal how actors rely on four types of justification that combine different moral principles and related objects with the aim of either forming (sheltering and solidifying work) or challenging (fragilizing and deconstructing work) a new compromise with regard to sustainability within the organization. Our results show how the EW framework can enrich institutional complexity theory by bringing morality back into the analysis as a core dimension of inhabited institutions while advancing the microanalysis of compromise-making around sustainability in organization studies
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A Performative Reading of The Work of Communication
The Work of Communication. Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism by Tim Kuhn, Karen Ashcraft, François Cooren , is a welcomed comprehensive and rigorous attempt at theorizing how communication âworksâ in contemporary capitalism. In this essay, we review what we see as the contributions of this book â as organization scholars interested in performativity â and address the following question: What does this book perform
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Designing the tools of the trade: How corporate social responsibility consultants and their tool-based practices created market shifts
Combining insights from the sociology of markets and studies of consultants, this article examines the tool-based practices by which market actors enable the agencing of the supply and demand of the market in ways that shape marketâs trajectory. Building on 30 interviews and a rich set of secondary data, we provide an analysis of the development of a market for consultancy products and services for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the province of Quebec (Canada). We analytically induced six tool-based practices by which consultants contributed to the agencing of the market, and our results show how these practices collectively created market shifts. Our analysis offers new insights into the processes by which consultantsâ tool-based practices produce market shifts, embed environmental and social concerns within market mechanisms, and âvascularizeâ markets
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The Resistible Rise of Bayesian Thinking in Management: Historical Lessons From Decision Analysis
This paper draws from a case study of decision analysisâa discipline rooted in Bayesianism aimed at supporting managerial decision makingâto inform the current discussion on the adoption of Bayesian modes of thinking in management research and practice. Relying on concepts from the science, technology, and society field of study and actor-network theory, we approach the production of scientific knowledge as a cultural, practical, and material affair. Specifically, we analyze the activities deployed by decision analysts to overcome the challenges of making a discipline built on Bayesâ legacy scientifically acceptable, managerially relevant, and long lasting. As a novel contribution to the discussion on the âBayesian revolution,â our study goes beyond institutional accounts of the legitimation of Bayesianism to highlight the role of politics and material artifacts in past and current attempts at importing Bayesianism. Our study also shows the importance of historical continuity in the promotion of Bayesian methods in management
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The politics of reactivity: Ambivalence in corporate responses to corporate social responsibility ratings
Organizational ratings exude anxiety and allure, but relatively little is known about how managers balance resisting and mobilizing ratings. We explore this duality with a qualitative study on managerial responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) ratings. Based on interviews focused on CSR ratings with managers of 60 companies, we induce four responses to ratings: grumbling, contestation, cherry-picking and microstatactivism. We further show how managers combine resistance and mobilization in two ambivalent engagement modes. Our analysis contributes to the literature by developing a more nuanced theory of corporate responses to organizational ratings, which demonstrates the importance of ambivalence in managing institutional pressure
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How do external regulations shape the design of ethical tools in organizations? An open polity and sociology of compliance perspective
In response to the numerous hard and soft ethical regulations that have emerged in the wake of recurrent corporate scandals, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have adopted ethical tools. This move is often interpreted as a means to garner legitimacy and as loosely coupled to corporate activities. Little is known, however, about the processes by which external regulations affect the design of ethical tools. Approaching organisations as open polities and building on institutional theory and the sociology of compliance, we conducted a qualitative study of the development of twenty-three ethical tools at four MNCs. We analytically induced a three-stage model that explains how ethical tools are externally sourced (importation), then subjected to competing pressures from distinct professional groups that replicate legal features of the environment (politicisation), to become finally turned into quasi-legal procedures (legalisation). Our analysis contributes to theory by explaining how external regulations relate to the organisational production of ethical tools in a self-reinforcing manner, while specifying the role of ethics professionals in the process of ethical tool production
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