CFP: Subtheme 50, Organizing subjects: reflexivity, responsibility and transformation at work (original) (raw)
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Reflexive inquiry in organizational research: Questions and
Human Relations, 2003
Over the last 20 years, social science scholars have challenged conventional conceptions of social reality, knowledge, and the validity of our methods of inquiry. Many have criticized the aim of mainstream social science to provide an absolute, objective view of the world and have called for a reflexive stance in which we recognize all social activity, including research itself, as an ongoing endogenous accomplishment. Three main themes have emerged: a crisis of representation, an emphasis on the constitutive nature of language, and a call for reflexive approaches to research. Contemporary organizational theorists have found themselves drawn into the debate and struggling with a number of questions around how to carry out reflexive research. I examine those questions and explore the implications for organizational research. In doing so, I attempt to enact reflexivity through one layer of narrative circularity.
Towards an integrative reflexivity in organisational research
2010
Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to offer a more integrative and inclusive conceptualisation of reflexivity as a way of identifying, understanding and managing some of the risks associated with reflexivity's potentially solipsistic “inward turn”. Design/methodology/approach–The paper draws on the authors' experience of empirical qualitative research with working carers. This experience is grounded within the traditions of interpretative phenomenology and critical epistemology.
Reflections on Reflexive Theorizing: The Need for A Little More Conversation
Organization Theory
We investigate the nature and impact of recent ‘reflexive theorizing’ in the field of Organization Studies by examining articles that critically reflect on research, practice and the profession more generally with a view to defining, refining or changing future trajectories for the field. We identify a range of discursive practices used in these articles to establish authority, describe the field and make claims about the nature of theorizing. We then present three ‘ideal types’ that represent particular constellations of these discursive practices. We interrogate each of these ideal types in order to demonstrate how particular combinations of discursive practices can limit the potential of reflexive theorizing by shutting down conversations. Finally, we make a number of suggestions for weaving together discursive practices in ways that help to ensure that reflexive theorizing generates new forms of knowledge through conversations which are open to a wider range of voices, and where...
In recent years, Weber's image of the 'iron cage' has been challenged by the sociologists Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens. They claim that this image no longer applies to the late modern world we are entering. In the late modern era, individuals, institutions and organizations have become or will become reflexive, and as a consequence the iron cage of rationalization is opening. In this article, the authors largely subscribe to the theories of Beck and Giddens though formulate two objections. First, they demonstrate that the theories each illuminate only one level of social life in late modernity and should be combined. Second, they claim that in the theories of Beck and Giddens a search for a possible integrating phenomenon is largely missing. By combining the theories they disentangle a new form of integration, which may emerge in late modernity. This new form of integration they dub 'reflexive authority'.
Organization as Reflexive Structuration - Beacon of Organizational Sociology
Journal of Organizational Sociology , 2023
Our "Beacons of Organizational Sociology" series makes available, through first-time translations, texts that have shaped debates in organizational sociology in non-English-speaking countries, or presents reflections on such debates by established scholars. The first text in this series is a shortened English translation of the German article "Organisation als reflexive Strukturation" by Günther Ortmann, Jörg Sydow, and Arnold Windeler, published in 1997 in the highly influential book "Theorien der Organisation. Die Rückkehr der Gesellschaft" [Theories of Organization. The Return of Society]. The article applies Giddens' social theory to organizational research. In elaborating on "the principle of reflexive organization," the text provides a social-theoretically informed concept of organization that is of continuing relevance for organization research today. The publication can be classified as one of the decisive writings by the authors contributing to establishing organizational research based on structuration theory in the German-speaking world, informing many studies, e.g., on new organizational forms, innovation, and inter-organizational relations. The concise overview of the various existing studies in organization research using a structuration perspective at that time in the original manuscript is not part of this translation.
From Research Reflexivity to Research Affectivity: Ethnographic Research in Organizations
The Psychosocial and Organization Studies, 2014
While organizational ethnographers have embraced the concept of self-reflexivity, problems remain. In this article we argue that the prevalent assumption that self-reflexivity is the sole responsibility of the individual researcher limits its scope for understanding organizations. To address this, we propose an innovative method of collective reflection that is inspired by ideas from cultural and feminist anthropology. The value of this method is illustrated through an analysis of two ethnographic case studies, involving a 'pair interview' method. This collective approach surfaced self-reflexive accounts, in which aspects of the research encounter that still tend to be downplayed within organizational ethnographies, including emotion, intersubjectivity and the operation of power dynamics, were allowed to emerge. The approach also facilitated a second contribution through the conceptualization of organizational ethnography as a unique endeavour that represents a collision between one 'world of work': the university, with a second: the researched organization. We find that this 'collision' exacerbates the emotionality of ethnographic research, highlighting the refusal of 'researched' organizations to be domesticated by the specific norms of academia. Our article concludes by drawing out implications for the practice of self-reflexivity within organizational ethnography.
In Defense of a Complex Notion of Subject in Organizational Studies
Organizações & Sociedade, 2022
This essay reflects on the need to expand the complexity of the notion of subject in the critical approaches used in organizational studies and to contribute with a new perspective on the human attribute in collective issues based on a new concept: the concrete procedural subject. The human and social sciences are faced with the challenge of delimiting their object of study (human beings in their manifestations) without excluding the biological, social, historical, and psychological dimensions that are inherent to them, thus avoiding reductionism. It is believed that this complex perspective is relevant to analyses of socio-organizational spaces since we take the subject as a fundamental analytical unit to understand organizational dynamics. Organizations emerge from the interrelationships between subjects, expanding, structuring, and institutionalizing themselves. Therefore, the subject and organization are inseparable, and dichotomies must be avoided in favor of knowledge production in organizational studies and other correlated areas. Based on a critical analysis and adopting a multifaceted and plural approach, with contributions from psychoanalysis, sociohistorical psychology, and post-structuralism, all of which address the complexity of the human being, this essay presents a notion of subject that is contradictory and fluid, which are the marks of its procedurality in contemporary times and the foundation for understanding the complex socioorganizational dynamic and its phenomena.