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The aim of this special issue is to explore organizing processes in ways which do not assume an a priori existence of space and time. Rather than providing a summary of the papers collected here, this introduction illustrates how Spacing and Timing relate to issues of knowing, organizing, mediation, engagement, alterity and absence/presence. We examine how various actions and practices may be seen as seeking to achieve order but also concomitantly create further openings and orderings. Finally, while this introduction attempts to highlight a range of issues relating to this process, the development of alternative vocabularies, approaches, and insights are required to develop this work further.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to discuss how "the visual" might be conceptualised more broadly as a useful development of qualitative methodologies for organizational research. The paper introduces the articles that form the basis of this special issue of QROM, including a review of related studies that discuss the analysis of organizational visuals, as well as extant literature that develops a methodological agenda for visual organizational researchers. Design/methodology/approach -The Guest Editors' conceptual arguments are advanced through a literature review approach. Findings -The Guest Editors conclude that studying "the visual" holds great potential for qualitative organizational researchers and show how this field is fast developing around a number of interesting image-based issues in organizational life. Research limitations/implications -A future research agenda is articulated and the special issue that this paper introduces is intended to serve as a "showcase" and inspiration for qualitative researchers in organizations and management studies. Originality/value -This issue of QROM is the first collection of visual research articles addressing business and management research. The Guest Editors' introduction to it seeks to frame its contents in contemporary interdisciplinary debates drawn from the wider social sciences and the arts.

Organizational life consists of an ever-changing world of encounters, experiences and complex sociomaterial relations. Within this context, standard routines can be seen as a solution to problems of inefficiency within organizations, especially when associated with images of stability, repeatability and standardization. This can bring a sense of order where there is disorder; and stability in the face of change. However, while standard routines may be seen as providing solutions within complex and everchanging organizational worlds, they can also be viewed as sources of organizational problems. Through an ethnographic examination of two routines within a newspaper-printing factory, our paper seeks to build on and add to contributions within Routine Dynamics (RD) by highlighting the emergence and coexistence of change and stability and the enactment of standard routines through a performative process of difference and repetition. In particular, our paper examines how organizational stability and change emerge through the dynamic relations underlying the enactment of difference and repetition and how these relations involve various-sometimes hidden-micro processes that include the simplification and amplification of facts, scripts, and concerns. By drawing together the findings from our ethnographic research, studies within the area of RD and concepts relating to the work of Deleuze and Latour, our paper therefore contributes to the work on the repetition of routines by further unpacking the generative socio-material dynamics, creative forces and micro-processes that underlie the emergence of stability and change through difference and repetition.

This paper examines the effects upon management control in schools following the assumption of responsibility for delegated budgets required by the Education Reform Act (ERA) 1988. The paper examines the process of construction, approval and amendment of school budgets drawing on a neo‐institutionalist framework. Our investigation has drawn upon extensive interviews in 17 schools in three North West local authorities, supplemented by a postal questionnaire and inspection of relevant documents. We develop two main arguments. First, in order to satisfy their statutory duties LEAs supervised the introduction of internal systems of budgetary control and school development planning in schools. Thus, control procedures were largely designed by internal auditors, who sought to provide an audit trail and to ensure financial probity mainly to satisfy external legitimacy, rather than to influence internal decision‐making. Second, the specific nature of the relationship between budgeting and strategy varies between schools as the extent of formalised planning differs, but in general there is a very loose coupling between strategic objectives and budget expenditures.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the development of visual qualitative research in organizations and management over the past ten years, the experience of editing a special issue of Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management entitled “Exploring the visual in organizations and management”, and the potential contributions this journal could make to the advancement of this significant area of research. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides an overview and critical reflections on visual qualitative research in the study of organizations and management. Findings – The authors note that organization studies have been slow to develop visual research compared to other disciplines, especially the humanities and branches of the social sciences. However, development has been rapid over the past decade, and the authors comment on the diverse visual empirical material and the range of conceptual approaches. Research limitations/implications – The paper is a condensed reflection. It predicts a “mainstreaming” of visual research in future years and an increased integration of the visual into the study of management processes and organizations. Practical implications – This piece provides useful directions and references for researchers new to the field and different ways of thinking the visual and visual methodologies. Originality/value – The paper provides a rapid overview of the state of visual research in organizations and management studies.

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This paper investigates the form, as a modern and unprecedented textual device, which embodies a certain combination of writing and space, poses certain imperative questions, and generates `information' from the answers given. It offers a theoretical reflection on what kind of text the form is, and a possible history of how the form has been invented. It also offers an analysis of how one particular form, a Needs Assessment Schedule used in mental health care, embodies the complexities of this history, and poses ambiguities and opacities for professionals and clients using the form, or interacting with it. It also attempts an understanding at this micro-level of analysis of how larger entities, such as organizations, are constituted out of particular practices.