Decision Theory as Practice: Crafting Rationality in Organizations

Cabantous, Laure; Gond, Jean‐Pascal; Johnson‐Cramer, Michael E.

doi:10.1177/0170840610380804

Cited by 104 publications

(80 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…While Barnesian performativity is the "most interesting" (Healy, 2015: 178) type of performativity, it is also "empirically rare" (Cabantous, Gond, & Johnson-Cramer, 2010: 1552 and conceptually underexplored. We argue that Barnesian performativity involves changes in practices.…”

Section: Barnesian Performativity and Practice Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Theories Become Self-Fulfilling? Exploring the Boundary Conditions of Performativity

Marti

Gond

2018

AMR

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129

146

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Management researchers increasingly realize that some theories do not merely describe, but also shape social reality; a phenomenon known as "performativity." However, when theories become performative or even self-fulfilling is still poorly understood. Taking this gap in current research as our starting point, we develop a process model to show that new theories will only become self-fulfilling (1) if they motivate experimentation, (2) if experimentation produces anomalies, and (3) if these anomalies lead to a practice shift. On that basis, we identify six boundary conditions that determine whether theories will come to shape social reality. To illustrate our argument, we explore the conditions under which theories that postulate a positive link between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance may become self-fulfilling. KEYWORDS:Anomalies, boundary conditions, corporate social performance (CSP), experimentation, performativity, socially responsible investing (SRI) 3/53In the course of the last decade, management scholars and other researchers in the social sciences increasingly realized that some theories do not merely describe, but also shape the patterns of social interaction that constitute social reality (Callon, 1998;. They dubbed this phenomenon "performativity." The most "intriguing" cases of performativity arise when theories become self-fulfilling; that is, when using theories increases the "conformity" between theories and social reality (MacKenzie, 2006: 18-19). A well-known example thereof is the Black-Scholes theory, where using that theory pushed option prices toward the prices that the theory predicted (MacKenzie & Millo, 2003). In such cases, theories can become self-fulfilling by reshaping the language, social norms, and institutional designs of traders, managers, policy-makers, or other actors (Ferraro, Pfeffer, & Sutton, 2005a).Further studies in this tradition examined, for example, how rational choice theory makes decision-making within organizations more rational (Cabantous & Gond, 2011) or how mainstream financial theories reinforce the currently widespread technocratic approach to financial regulation (Marti & Scherer, 2016).Most studies on performativity to date focus on theories that have successfully transformed social reality. However, because of this "success bias," the literature lacks a clear understanding of the conditions that determine whether theories become performative or not. This lack of understanding becomes particularly apparent where the "strongest" forms of performativity (MacKenzie, 2006: 19) are concerned; that is, when theories become self-fulfilling (Healy, 2015: 176). Current research thereby neglects the insight of Felin and Foss (2009b) that social reality is not invariably malleable. Keeping in mind these shortcomings of previous research on performativity, we set out to explore how boundary conditions determine whether a theory will become self-fulfilling or not. 4/53To analyze these boundary conditions, we start by developin...

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Section: Barnesian Performativity and Practice Shiftsmentioning

confidence: 99%

When Do Theories Become Self-Fulfilling? Exploring the Boundary Conditions of Performativity

Marti

Gond

2018

AMR

Self Cite

129

146

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“…We encourage future researchers to dedicate greater attention to practitioners' understandings. For example, it would be interesting to study the notion of sustainability (and the closely related concept of corporate social responsibility) from a performativity perspective (e.g., Ferraro et al, 2005;Cabantous et al, 2010) in an attempt to understand how academic discourse influences practitioners' conceptions.…”

Section: Limitations and Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Supplier Development for Sustainability: Contextual Barriers in Global Supply Chains

Busse¹,

Niu²,

Schleper

et al. 2016

AMPROC

107

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Acknowledgments:An earlier version of this paper was the recipient of the 2015 Chris Voss Best Paper Award granted at the 22 nd European Operations Management Association conference. We are most grateful to the EurOMA Scientific Committee for choosing our paper and encouraging us to consider IJPDLM as a publication outlet for our research. We also acknowledge the helpful feedback received at the conference. Moreover, we would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers at IJPDLM who have provided extremely insightful and constructive suggestions which helped us to improve this paper substantially. Finally, we express our gratitude to the Editor, Alexander E. Ellinger, for facilitating a speedy review process. Design/methodology/approach -A dyadic case study design was adopted with a Western European buyer and six of its Chinese suppliers. The database consists of 41 interviews and 81 documents.Findings -Contextual barriers to SDS in global supply chains derive from complexities in the sustainability concept, socio-economic differences, spatial and linguistic distance, as well as cultural differences between buyers and suppliers. Partial remedies include effective joint communications, an open organizational culture, and the fostering of cross-contextual understanding.Research implications -The findings contribute to theory development at the intersection of sustainable and global supply chain management research. They help to explain why scarce sustainability-related progress in global supply chains has occurred in recent years.Practical implications -The identified barriers facilitate managerial decision making that will expedite SDS progress in global contexts.Social implications -By diffusing knowledge regarding available remedies, the study contributes to improving SDS effectiveness, thereby fostering sustainability capabilities and performance of suppliers.Originality/value -This research highlights the criticality of contextual barriers to SDS. The barrier effects that stem from differing real-world conceptions of sustainability may inform future sustainable supply chain management research within and beyond SDS.

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“…Our case thus documents a neglected and important dimension of the performativity of organizational models: 'bringing a theory into being' may involve coproducing a new organizational reality (e.g., actual WREs as experienced by the workers) in tandem with new academic knowledge and method of representation of this phenomenon (e.g., definition and counting of WREs). Here our analysis hence suggests moving beyond a 'ballistic' model of performativity (Muniesa, 2004) that investigates how pre-existing theories became embodied through organizing (Cabantous, Gond and Johnson-Cramer, 2010;d'Adderio and Pollock, 2014) to consider critical performativity as the act of producing both a new organizational reality and a form of codified knowledge about this new organization.…”

Section: Contributions and Implications For Critical Performativity Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Supporting alternative organizations? Exploring scholars’ involvement in the performativity of worker-recuperated enterprises

et al. 2017

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This is the accepted version of the paper.This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. performativity' concept that we define as scholars' subversive interventions that can involve the production of new subjectivities, the constitution of new organizational models and/or the bridging of these models to current social movements. Our results uncover the multiple roles of academics in relation to these three facets and highlight the key interactions of these roles. Permanent repository linkIn so doing, our analysis advances prior studies of WREs by clarifying how academics can support alternative organizations while offering a renewed conceptualization of critical performativity as a multifaceted process through which academics and workers interact.

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Decision Theory as Practice: Crafting Rationality in Organizations

Cited by 104 publications

References 80 publications

When Do Theories Become Self-Fulfilling? Exploring the Boundary Conditions of Performativity

When Do Theories Become Self-Fulfilling? Exploring the Boundary Conditions of Performativity

Supplier Development for Sustainability: Contextual Barriers in Global Supply Chains

Supporting alternative organizations? Exploring scholars’ involvement in the performativity of worker-recuperated enterprises

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