ABSTRACT In corporate coworking, corporate teams enter coworking spaces, deliberately seeking informality for stimulation, inspiration, and novelty. Formal organizational rules still exist for such coworkers and intersect with the informality of the coworking space. Based on 36 semi-structured interviews with eight teams, we examine how corporate coworkers experience and navigate the interplay between formality and informality, and the resulting tensions. We draw upon Luhmann’s concept of decision premises to theorize formality/informality as (un)decided expectation structures. Using abductive reasoning, we refer to curatorial practices in the arts and suggest the concept of curated informality as a complementing analytical lens through which to interpret how informality is perceived and enacted. We empirically identify six dimensions of curated informality and demonstrate that tensions stem from persistent formalities, mismatched expectations, and informal adjustments. The study contributes to the understanding of corporate coworking dynamics and to debates on the (purposeful) cultivation of informality within formal organizations.

ABSTRACT This article investigates some interconnections among postfeminism, authenticity, and leadership through an exploration of one self-proclaimed fashion entrepreneur’s use of social media to enhance their brand and their own leadership credibility. I concentrate on the fashion influencer Trinny Woodall, whose social media presence is central to the success of her company, Trinny London®. Trinny has amassed a large online following due to her confident, engaging persona. I argue that Trinny Woodall cultivates a kind of authentic persona on social media, one that is influenced by postfeminism, and intertwined with the promotion of her company. By exploring three episodes of The Trinny TakeOver Show in detail, I illustrate how she is emblematic of a postfeminist fashion influencer who uses her social media platform to create a kind of authentic connection with their followers. In making my argument, I draw together distinct literatures in cultural studies, feminist media studies, and leadership studies.

ABSTRACT This article examines how professional wrestling destabilizes conventional distinctions between ‘authentic’ organizational leadership and its cultural representations by analyzing World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) owner-CEO Vince McMahon’s sustained portrayal of his malign alter ego, ‘Mr McMahon.’ Integrating critical leadership studies, theories of spectacle, and the pro-wrestling concepts of gimmicks and kayfabe, the study undertakes a qualitative textual analysis of televised storylines, industry archives, and secondary historiography. It traces the evolution of managerial caricature from peripheral heel-manager roles to the executive heel turn precipitated by the 1997 Montreal Screwjob, demonstrating how McMahon’s self-satirizing performance simultaneously commodified anti-corporate sentiment and consolidated corporate authority. By foregrounding caricature and carnivalesque spectacle as diagnostic lenses, the article extends debates on leadership performativity, illustrates how managerial identity can be both embodied and merchandised, and highlights the utility of popular culture phenomena for theorizing contemporary managerialism.

ABSTRACT Scant academic attention has been paid to damaging contradictions in the responsibilisation of mothers regarding the quality of fathers’ relationships with their children in Private Law Proceedings (PLP), otherwise known as the family court. Recent research has highlighted both the poor physical and mental health experiences of women going through family court proceedings and how parental alienation allegations are weaponised to trap, silence, and pathologise mothers. This paper utilises an autoethnographic case study to explore the positioning of mothers by professionals within complex discourses of motherhood in PLP. The regulation, surveillance and possible sanctions of the PLP left limited options for resistance, as resisting the position of the ‘good’ mother could result in detrimental sanctions against the mother and children. This paper evidences how patriarchal institutional processes are complicit in enabling fathers to maintain coercive control over mothers and their children.

ABSTRACT Due to its reliance on the rational principles of strategic analysis, crisis management scholarship often operates under the assumption that the future is predictable, and therefore that the effectiveness of resilience during organizational breakdowns can be anticipated. This study presents an empirically and theoretically informed account of how hope emerges not simply as a cognitive orientation or motivational force but as a dynamic process interwoven with mindful organizing, emotional ambivalence, and collective sensemaking. The paper examines how resilience-making, as a hopeful organizational practice, is not solely the result of individual capacities or technical resources, but of psycho-social group processes activated in moments of breakdown. From a qualitative perspective, we analyse interviews to explore how collective practices in a resilience-making case -the 2010 Chilean miners’ crisis- express a hopeful mode of (self-) organizing, in which not only perseverance but also imagination is put to the service of reconstructing a viable future.

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on exploring the intersection between relationality and decolonisation to develop future-oriented practice-based methods. The paper explores the concept of various colonial logics and how it is imbued in the present pursuit of knowledge. The paper looks at decolonialisation through the lens of relationality, i.e. the notion that everything in the world is interrelated, emphasizing that nothing exists in solitude but rather in a web of relationships. There is also an exploration of the current nexus between decolonisation and practice-based methods. This is then followed by alook at practice-based methods and the concept of decolonisation. A new conceptual space is introduced to foster future-makingpractices in non-western settings, aiming to address, delineate, and integrate decolonization, relationality, and practice-based methods. A discussion focuses on the interplay between decolonization, relationality, and practice-based methods. Aframework for developing narratives in future-making practices is provided.

ABSTRACT This paper explores how the principles of deconniatry – a critical, French-origin psychiatric movement – can inspire a reimagining of academic writing norms in organizational research. Deconniatry resists the imposition of strict rationality and hierarchical authority, favoring pluralistic, experience-based, and dialogical forms of expression. By connecting psychiatric critique to academic production, the paper argues for formats that amplify marginalized voices, disrupt linear reasoning, and welcome neurodiverse perspectives. We discuss how these principles may reshape not only content but also the form and sensorial texture of academic work. This call aligns with a broader shift towards inclusive, reflective, and ethically engaged scholarship.

ABSTRACT In this article, the works of Slavoj Žižek is made relevant for understanding professional discretion and its relation to bureaucracy. This issue is acute given that social work is facing increased bureaucratization. From Žižek’s theoretical framework, the article argues against using discretion as a form of resistance to thwart rigid bureaucratic structures, noting that discretion offer a sense of freedom that even further binds subjects to the system’s ideology. Discretion is inherent to the role of street-level bureaucrats which often smooths the harsh edges of bureaucracy, while generally upholding the existing order. The article cautions against fetishizing discretion and suggests alternative strategies, like strategic overidentification, where workers adhere strictly to rules to expose the system’s absurdities, potentially opening space for radical critique and change. Strategic overidentification can be a form of resistance utilizable for professional resistance and deserves a space in the arsenal of practitioners.

ABSTRACT This article examines whether belief affects how employees respond to managerial approaches that draw on metaphysical rhetoric, discourses, and values. Drawing on in-depth, qualitative interviews with participants who hold various metaphysical and secular beliefs, it argues that those who identified as religious were less likely to respond positively to spiritualised management despite wanting to express their faith through work compared to those who identified as atheist and who overtly rejected religiosity in the workplace. These responses are theoretically contextualised through the works of Peter Berger and colleagues (1966, 1967, 1973). The article contributes theoretically by exploring how spiritualised management performs important social functions, particularly for those who do not have faith in metaphysical frameworks of belief: it responds to the need for new ‘institutional homes’ that realign public and private aspects of existence following the decline of primary religious institutions in some Western liberal democracies.