Organizational Phenomena Research Articles

The Phenomenon of Women in Managerial Positions in Public Cultural Institutions

The purpose of this paper was to explore the organisation of a support system for the professional development of women in public cultural institutions. The deliberations in this paper are based on qualitative research. The research included biographical interviews with ten women who currently work in managerial positions in public cultural institutions in Poland. This research strategy made it possible to get to know the experiences of women who reached managerial positions in their professional career in culture and to attempt an explanation of the observed phenomena as they are seen by people who were part of the system. Research has shown that the support system for the professional development of women in public cultural institutions seems to be largely based on informal solutions initiated within the personal support networks of women who are part of the system, its foundation being interpersonal relations. The main contribution of the paper is the interesting dataset gathered. Moreover, the proposed rhizome metaphor enriches the field of organizational research by suggesting new ideas that contribute to expanding on how we can see and perceive the complexity and variation in organizational phenomena of women in leadership positions and therefore opening up new interpretations and directions.

The Culture of Economic Life of Society: Essence, Basic Values, Management

Introduction. The processes that are taking place today under the influence of globalization in the world economy cause serious claims to the theory of economic management, since it mainly takes into account the economic component of economic activity and almost ignores its semantic, symbolic, moral, and aesthetic significance, which negatively affects labor productivity and efficiency management as a whole. Therefore, turning to the study of economic activity in the philosophical and cultural aspects seems relevant and justified. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is the philosophical and cultural conceptualization of the dynamic nature of the economic life of society, which will allow deepening the understanding of the essence of economic culture, its basic values, and its management system. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectical principle of cognition, systemic, cultural, historical, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of organizational phenomena and processes. Results. The essence of the culture of the economic life of the society is revealed. The regularities and trends of the development of economic culture have been revealed. The basic values of the culture of human economic activity, their semantic, symbolic, moral, and aesthetic significance depending on the stage of development of society and its cultural specificity are determined. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the research results lies in the deepening of the understanding of the essence of the culture of the economic life of society, the definition of its components, and basic values. The significance of the research is found in the addition of cultural science with new theoretical provisions about the culture of economic activity, as well as in the possibility of using them in the process of training managers of economic organizations.

Entrepreneurship: Theory, Genesis, Socio-Cultural Dimensions and Strategies

Introduction. In terms of economic relations transformation in Ukraine, entrepreneurship, which today, to a certain extent, goes beyond the scope of usual economic functions and roles, and is a socio-cultural phenomenon with its own history and civilizational specificity, occupies a special place. Given this, it should be considered not only as an economic category but also as a system of values and a special cultural phenomenon. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is a theoretical analysis of entrepreneurship as a unique phenomenon, which will deepen the understanding of its essence, socio-cultural dimensions, and strategies at various stages of society's historical development. The methodological basis of the study is the dialectical principle of cognition, systemic, historical, cultural, and interdisciplinary approaches to the study of organizational phenomena in society. Results. The history of the scientific opinion formation about entrepreneurship is considered. Socio-cultural principles and strategies of entrepreneurship are revealed. The cultural and historical factors of the entrepreneur's personality formation have been identified. The entrepreneurship functions and the role of an entrepreneur in society are analyzed. Determinants of activation and prospects for entrepreneurial activity development are determined. Conclusions. The scientific novelty of the research results lies in the cultural deepening of the understanding of the entrepreneurship essence as a unique socio-cultural phenomenon at various stages of the historical development of human society. The significance of the research is manifested in the addition of science with new theoretical provisions on entrepreneurship, as well as in the possibility of using them in the process of professional training of entrepreneurs and managers.

Organisational phenomena which influence communication and effectiveness

An overview is given of the traditional or classical views of organisations and organisational functioning. Empirical findings about how organisations really function are presented. It is shown that the organisational model created by the traditional views about organisations is largely an idealisation. The communication problems which develop in organisations are examined in the light of the empirical findings about organisational functioning. A few guidelines for the improvement of communication are presented in the light of the material covered in the paper.

A Qualitative Inquiry into Mission Creep at the Criminal Investigation Division of the Internal Revenue Service

ABSTRACT In the public administration literature, little exists on the criminal enforcement of the United States tax laws. Whereas many are aware of how the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) conducts the administrative function of selecting tax returns for audit, and about its power to assess interest and penalties for underpayment, the criminal enforcement of tax law presents itself as a world apart. Based on 30 interviews with current and retired IRS special agents, this study explores the choices they make in the furtherance of their self-interest and the public’s interest. Major insights include the documentation of “mission creep” that has taken the agency’s effort away from its primary purpose. Unlike other instances of this organizational phenomenon, this tendency has been driven by agents’ personal preferences and untempered by IRS management efforts.

Organizations on stage: organizational research and the performing arts

Management and organization scholars have long been intrigued by the performing arts—music, theater, and dance—as a rich context for studying organizational phenomena. Indeed, a plethora of studies suggest that the performing arts are more than an interesting sideline for authors, as they offer unique theoretical and empirical lenses for organization studies. However, this stream of literature spreads across multiple research areas, varies with regard to its underlying theories and methods, and fails to pay sufficient attention to the contextuality of the findings. We address the resulting limitations by identifying and reviewing 89 articles on management and organization related to the performing arts published in 15 top-tier journals between 1976 and 2022. We find that research in the performing arts advances organizational theory and the understanding of organizational phenomena in four key ways, namely by studying (1) organizational phenomena in performing-arts contexts; (2) performing-arts phenomena in organizational contexts; (3) organizational phenomena through the prism of performing-arts theories; and (4) organizational phenomena through the prism of performing-arts practices. We also find that, in contrast to other settings, the performing arts are uniquely suited for immersive participant-observer research and for generating genuine insights into fundamental organizational structures and processes that are generic conditions of the performing arts and management alike, such as leadership, innovation, and the management of uncertainty. Finally, based on our consolidation of the research gaps and limitations of the reviewed studies, we develop a comprehensive agenda for future research.

Will career plateau lead to employee silence? A moderated mediation model

PurposeCareer plateau and employee silence are negative employee management phenomena that should be overcome but are challenging. However, relatively speaking, when employees reach a particular career stage, it is inevitable that the hierarchical plateau in the career plateau will occur, while the phenomena of employee silence have the chance to improve. This paper aims to study the influence mechanism of the career plateau on employee silence in an uncertain environment and then provides theoretical support for enhancing the organizational phenomenon of employee silence.Design/methodology/approachAfter considering the effects of career plateau and social desirability of employee silence, this paper obtained 313 samples based on the pilot survey, which were collected anonymously online and offline. Based on passing the data quality test, this experiment uses hierarchical regression, Bootstrap method, interaction graph and slope test to test the mediating variableFindings The results show a significant positive correlation between career plateau and employees' silent behavior. Affective commitment plays a partial mediating role between career plateau and employees' silent behavior. Organizational justice not only negatively moderated the relationship between career plateau and affective commitment but also negatively moderated the indirect effect of career plateau on silent behavior through affective commitment.Originality/valueFirst, based on the theory of uncertainty management and social exchange theory, this paper develops a behavioral response to the organizational environment based on the principle of fair exchange when employees perceive an uncertain environment. This study innovatively applied the two theories together in one study, establishing a link between the two theories. Second, this study explores the influence of career plateau on employee silence and empirically tests the silent behavior based on the previous division of three dimensions of career plateau. The third study explores affective commitment, the black box of the relationship between career plateau and employee silence. This research also enriches the related research on affective commitment.

Navigating the promises and perils of researching emerging phenomena in strategy and organizations

Editors and reviewers often issue clarion calls for interesting research with novel theoretical contributions. In response to these calls, scholars often gravitate toward emerging phenomena—novel contexts lacking scholarly community or hot contexts with growing interest. However, simply examining novel and hot phenomena is insufficient to carve an “interesting” theoretical contribution. The promise of studying emerging phenomenon may be seductive, but doing so can also introduce under examined perils. We argue that novel and hot phenomena have distinct promises and perils that are under appreciated—with significant consequences for scholarly careers. Novel phenomena can provide first mover advantages to scholars and generate much interest but may constitute a lonely, risky journey if an appropriate theoretical community does not emerge. Hot topics attract significant attention, but can also be marked by conceptual confusion, fragmenting the accumulation of knowledge as scholars struggle to differentiate their work within a rapidly growing field. Yet, what is considered novel or hot is dynamic. Scholarly interest in novel phenomena can wax, ignite fascination, and become hot or wane with skeptical, uncertain acceptance, influencing both promises and perils. We contribute strategies to help strategy and organization scholars mitigate the perils and amplify the promises of theorizing from novel and hot phenomena.

The secret service of renaissance venice: intelligence organisation in the sixteenth century

ABSTRACT Contrary to more rudimentary espionage networks created by rulers (and their rivals) in various parts of early modern Europe, by the sixteenth century, early modern Venice had created a remarkable, centrally organised state intelligence organisation, the Venetian secret service. This was built on a rigid organisational hierarchy and branched out into distinct communication networks. This article describes, in detail, the structure and function of the Venetian secret service, dwelling on how it was administered and managed by the Council of Ten, Venice’s infamous spy chiefs. To explore the early modern organisational and managerial practices on which this service was premised, the article borrows theoretical concepts deriving from the disciplines of Intelligence Studies, Sociology, Organisation Studies, and Management, which it weaves together with archival sources and relevant literature. In doing so, the article explores some of the methodological challenges of studying the phenomenon of early modern intelligence organisation. Ultimately, the article puts forth the argument that systematised intelligence and espionage are not ‘modern’ phenomena, as conventional wisdom dictates, but date back to the early modern era.

“Busy idleness”: The active and moral dimension of boredom

In this essay, I argue for the value of studying boredom as a social and organizational phenomenon. Recently, an interest in the more active side of boredom has led to the publication of a number of popular psychology books on boredom’s motivational capacities. A key point in this literature is the focus on the individual ability to distinguish between activity and productivity, and to exploit boredom for self-development purposes. I argue that this trend in boredom studies should prompt us to look closer, not only at the moral history of boredom, and at how social reality has organized around it, but also on what boredom, and the countermeasures it represents, “produce” as a central experiential component of alienated labor.

Videographic profanations: A companion to the videography “Pride: Alternative Entrepreneurship Enjoyed”

This article is a companion to “Pride: Alternative Entrepreneurship Enjoyed,” a videography about the company Prezi’s engagement in the Budapest Pride parade. The aim is to advance video ethnographic methods within Organization and Management Studies (OMS) based on Agamben’s profanatory philosophical method, which puts into focus abstract “sacred” concepts and returns them to the sphere of the profane—of the everyday. A profanatory approach of use for OMS accounts for organizations, brands, and management in a way that do not reproduce their “sacredness”—entrepreneurial myths and management clichés. Instead, by opening them up to critical exposure, they can be moved from a “religious canon” of communication strategies, press releases, and policy documents, to everyday profane work. Through a methodological discussion of the videography, we show three ways in which profanation re-positions the myth of alternative entrepreneurship: by engaging in the logic of the sacred, by playing with notions of inside and outside, and by using musical soundtrack as an expressive tool. We suggest that these methodological strategies advance the analytical possibilities within video ethnography, also useful for other organizational phenomena, especially when economic interests are combined with ambitions of social change and ideals of self-realization.

Workplace gossip and the evolution of friendship relations: the role of complex contagion

Gossip is a pervasive phenomenon in organizations causing many individuals to have second-hand information about their colleagues. However, whether it is used to inform friendship choices (i.e., friendship creation, friendship maintenance, friendship discontinuation) is not that evident. This paper articulates and empirically tests a complex contagion model to explain how gossip, through its reputational effects, can affect the evolution of friendship ties. We argue that hearing gossip from more than a single sender (and about several targets) impacts receivers’ friendships with the gossip targets. Hypotheses are tested in a two-wave sociometric panel study among 148 employees in a Dutch childcare organization. Stochastic actor-oriented models reveal positive gossip favors receiver-target friendships, whereas negative gossip inhibits them. We also find evidence supporting that, for damaging relationships, negative gossip needs to originate in more than a single sender. Positive gossip about a high number of targets discourages friendships with colleagues in general, while negative gossip about many targets produces diverging trends. Overall, the study demonstrates that second-hand information influences the evolution of expressive relations. It also underscores the need to refine and extend current theorizing concerning the multiple (and potentially competing) psychological mechanisms causing some of the observed effects.

Disorganization At Work: What Is It, How Does It Work and Why Does It Matter?

“Disorganization” also referred to as ‘mess’, ‘deviation,’ or ‘disorder’ is a concept embedded in the view of organizations as complex human systems. The word hints at organizational phenomena that deviate from organizational schema and procedures in an unplanned and unstructured manner. This is a concept that is yet to be given full attention by management scholars, despite its continuous appearance partially under different labels throughout the history of the discipline for over five decades. Currently, there is a need for contributions that synthesize these various branches of management thinking into a coherent narrative. In addressing this gap, this article presents a review that synthesizes and integrates these various strands of literature on disorganization with the intent to explore whether and to what extent disorganization can contribute to management theory and practice. As such in this paper we systematically gather, review, organize and integrate the extant literature (n. 157) around the concept of disorganization to map the evolution of the concept. In so doing, we lay out a foundational body of literature that highlights the importance of enhancing our understanding of management through the integration of disorganization into our conversations about modern business. As such this paper presents the theoretical infrastructure for the definition, analysis, and treatment of disorganization management. Through the exploration and analysis of the literature, we propose new conceptualizations while mapping out the development of the concept over time. This is followed by exploring the implications these developments present to both management theory and practice.

Remembering the Body: Surfacing Critical Insights Into the Body’s Role in Organizations

Although the body is the mediator of all experiences in organizations our scholarship often renders invisible the body’s involvement in organizing. This is puzzling since the body is a constant across organizational phenomena. Making the body’s involvement in organizing more visible may help management scholars address today’s grand challenges, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, broad social and political unrest related to race, gender, and class dynamics in our countries, as well as resulting economic upheavals that span international boundaries. “Creating a Better World” may be more feasible if we first acknowledge that the body is an essential aspect of experiencing our world in positive, life-giving ways, and that our theories about organizing could be better leveraged in such pursuits if they allowed for a different stance towards human bodies. In our interactive symposium, we convene a panel of junior and senior scholars to share and build on each other’s ideas regarding what we lose sight of in organizations when the body is obscured, and what we can do about it as scholars. We will invite audience members to build on our panelists’ insights on how the situated or embedded nature of bodies might better explain challenging organizational experiences; how work or professional practices impinge upon the body; and how our theories could better account for how bodies adapt in response to changing organizational environments. Organizational Body Work Presenter: Thomas B. Lawrence; Oxford U., Saïd Business School Presenter: Emily Dunham Heaphy; U. of Massachusetts, Amherst Presenter: Rohini Jalan; U. of Oxford Presenter: Eva Katharina Schlindwein; U. of Oxford Out of Body Experiences: Embodied othering and systematically obscured bodies at work Presenter: Njoke Thomas; Boston College Presenter: Estelle Archibold; Case Western Reserve U. Striving For Perfect Ballet Bodies: Perfectionism As An Embodied Experience Presenter: Joel Gardner; Boston College Presenter: Lyndon Earl Garrett; Boston College Presenter: Ali Block; The Institute for Integrative Psychiatry The Emergence of New Bodies: An Ontological Perspective Presenter: Alexandra Michel; U. of Pennsylvania Bodies that stand together: The ethical and political imperative of assembly Presenter: Alison Pullen; Macquarie Business School, Macquarie U.

Paradox from a Buddhist Perspective

Given the intellectual intersection of paradox theory and Eastern thought, many organizational researchers have explored the concept of paradox through the lens of Eastern philosophy. However, how this philosophy actually manifests itself in people’s daily lives largely remains unexplored. Through five years of fieldwork across 32 Korean Buddhist temples that confronted the visceral tension between the need for financial resources and the religious values that disavow money, this study investigates how paradox manifests in the lives of Buddhist monks. Through a deep immersion into their lives, I revealed six cognitive tactics that Buddhist monks use to address the tension they experience. Additionally, I examined how meditation contributes to their identification of the nature of this tension. The findings contribute to paradox theory in several ways. First, it theorizes the monks’ fundamental worldview of tension by integrating the perspectives of Buddhist philosophy, paradox theory, and mindfulness. Second, it offers an alternative perspective to the recent debate on the ontology of paradox. Altogether, this study raises the important question of whether the organizational phenomenon or mechanism that organizational researchers believe to be paradox is indeed paradox.

Behavioral Strategy and Microfoundations

Although behavioral strategy research has long been a central subject in organizations and strategy, it has not been sufficiently microfoundational. The goal of this panel symposium is to highlight this gap and propose future directions to advance our understanding for the human element in an organizational phenomenon. Our distinguished group of panelists will introduce their own research program and discuss how behavioral mechanisms (e.g., cognitive biases, communication, conflicts, decision-making structures, and resource allocation) occurring at the lower-level in an organizational hierarchy shape a variety of macro-level organizational outcomes.

Cognition as Configuration: A Set-theoretic Approach to Managerial and Organizational Cognition

The jobs of organizational decision-makers are particularly complex, and complex organizational tasks are likely to require complex cognitions too. The Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) – a configurational methodology – offers great potential to investigate such complex forms of cognitions, where multiple mechanisms contribute simultaneously to an outcome in question. To date, however, research that investigates managerial and organizational cognition through configurational lenses is scarce because prior studies have tended to explain complex phenomena by means of a linear logic that each time focuses on a single superior mechanism, in isolation of other mechanisms. The papers presented in this symposium aim at illustrating how the configurational approach works in several lines of research associated to managerial and organizational cognition. The symposium discussion ultimately not only aims at shedding light on the multi-dimensional nature of cognition involved in complex phenomena, but also advances the use of a relatively a novel, underutilized methodological approach to study the impact of configurations of cognitive mechanisms in managerial and organizational phenomena. Decentralized platforms: coordination without managers and early stage growth Presenter: Ying-Ying Hsieh; Imperial College Business School Presenter: Jean-philippe Vergne; UCL School of Management How entrepreneurs generate business ideas: a fuzzy-set analysis of think-aloud protocols Presenter: Zorica Zagorac-Uremovic; Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, ETH Opportunities and Challenges of a Neo-Configurational Perspective for Research on MOC Presenter: Johannes Meuer; Kühne Logistics U. Presenter: Maricela Arellano Caro; HEC Montreal Your (un)divided attention: a fuzzy-set analysis of attention and adaptation Presenter: Andrew Sarta; York U.

Future-Making Practices in Innovation: A Conviction Narrative Perspective on Foresight

Foresight is an effective instrument for creating an anticipatory intelligence for decision-making in innovation management. Innovation actors involved in distal innovation scenarios are challenged by the uncertainty of futures for which rational and systemic decision-making approaches fall short. By contrast, decisions are made under radical uncertainty requiring mental time travel and the construction of conviction narratives that involve known facts, assumptions, inferences, and felt emotional ambivalence from individual actors and groups engaged in foresight. Thus, understanding the processes by which conviction narratives are developed and sustained is important to informing innovation management practices. We apply conviction narrative theory (Tuckett, 2011) to craft a more nuanced account of foresight in innovation management and identify two dimensions (perspectives volume and factor breadth) along which distal future decisions in innovation management may be characterized, which enable us to develop tactics for sustaining innovation-fostering mind states. These tactics seek to strengthen individual competences, enable team cohesion, and establish an institutional frame for foresight in innovation management. Our research sheds light on the microfoundations of foresight, offers insights about future-making practices as organizational phenomenon and extends CNT giving rise to managerial implications to better understand and manage foresight in innovation management.

Managing the entanglement of Algorithms: Enabling Traveling Algorithms Across Time and Space

An increasing number of organizational practices become digitalized through the implementation of algorithms which enhance processes, complement human activities, and complete tasks efficiently. Following a performativity-inspired approach literature suggest that algorithms’ entanglement in their contexts complicates the translation of them across time and space. However, literature also points to the relevance of translating algorithms into other contexts. To understand algorithms’ translation, this study seeks to analyse how the entanglement of algorithms can be resolved and how translation of algorithms can be managed. We will present findings from an inductive, ethnographic study of how an IT consultancy which implements document management software (DMS) reuses mostly the same algorithmic scripts to design multiple algorithms for multiple contexts. Drawing on our findings, we consider translation as an integral part of all biographical moments. Practices involved are the decom-position of complex algorithms to the level of algorithmic scripts, as part of a standardized scripting approach, the expertise of the programmers to envision and channel how algorithmic scripts will evolve in different contexts, and the search for sameness and similarities between different algorithms. This empirical study contributes to our understanding of traveling algorithmic scripts, organizational phenomena like routine replication, and performativity.

Employee Centrality in Workgroup Social Networks and I-deals: A Test of the Ledger Model

Individually negotiated customized work arrangements or idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) are an increasingly common phenomenon in contemporary organizations. We propose that these deals are created and implemented in the social context of the workgroup, such that one’s location in the social network of relationships within the group plays a key role in encouraging or deterring any i-deals. Drawing on social network theory, we propose that being central in trust network is positively associated with i-deals whereas being central in hindrance network is negatively associated with i-deals. Further, both relationships are stronger for high TMX employees. Additionally, we propose that centrality in hinderance network is more strongly related to focal’s i-deals than centrality in trust network. Finally, we suggest that the relative importance of centrality in hindrance network over centrality in trust network is of greater magnitude for high TMX than for low TMX employees. Results of hierarchical linear modeling and relative importance analyses on data gathered from 488 focal employees, 490 peers, and 32 principals supported our hypotheses. Implication and future directions for social network and i-deals research are discussed.