“Ella Says…” How Authority in Eponymous Firms is Authored Through Ventriloquial Acts

Abstract

This article advances ‘communicative constitution of organization’ (Ashcraft, Kuhn & Cooren, 2009: 7) understandings of how authoring authority organizes daily practice. We show how authority is eponymously authored during ventriloquial acts and produces multidirectional, temporal and fluid organizing patterns. Our ethnography of a cosmetics firm demonstrates how performative, segmented and misfiring authoring impacts quotidian activity in subtle, nuanced and precarious ways. This research also enhances communicative understandings of authority and elevates eponymy’s role within organization and management theorizing.