Decoding secrecy as multiple temporal processes: Co-constitution of concealment and revelation in archival stories

Abstract

How can we understand secrecy as temporal processes in organization? How can we address the inherent dynamics between concealment and revelation over time? In this paper, we build on an inherent and yet overlooked character of secrecy as temporal and explores temporalization processes of secrecy. We suggest that secrecy should be reconceptualized as processes of simultaneous concealment and revelation in multiple temporalities. Drawing on such temporal sensitivity, we apply a history-laden analysis of four examples of archival stories as ongoingly completing processes of secrecy. The analysis sheds light on the paradoxical dynamics of secrecy in three interconnected ways: first, writing archival stories offer opportunities to mask and attack the concealed. Therefore, second, archival stories as the site and process that sustain secrecy can become the site where secrecy is revealed. In this sense, as the third way, secrecy is ongoingly and fragmentally formed, producing multiple and subjective experiences of time. This paper also contributes to the methodological potential for using archival stories in organizational studies.

The dialogic performativity of secrecy and transparency

“…The performativity of secrecy and transparency has been noted in previous works, describing how transparency measures and rituals produce new types of opacity (Albu and Flyverbom, 2019;Christensen and Cornelissen, 2015;Fenster, 2006;Ringel, 2019), how secrecy involves revelation (Fan and Grey, 2021;Fan and Liu, 2022) and keeps reappearing in new guises (Owetschkin and Berger, 2019), and how both secrecy and transparency are needed to compensate for each other's deficiencies (Bok, 1982). Yet, the performative dynamics of the secrecy-transparency relationship remains unspecified.…”

Battered South‐Asian diasporic women: Culture, secrets and work

“…Secrecy is an attitude that enables battered women to conceal their DV experiences (Emery et al., 2020). Secrets have been conceptualized in and through multiple temporalities, where secrets exist not only in concealment but also in disclosure (Fan & Liu, 2021). Krasmann (2019) observed that secrets are fugitives, coming into being in the very moment they get disclosed.…”

“…Krasmann (2019) observed that secrets are fugitives, coming into being in the very moment they get disclosed. Once disclosed, the secret does not disappear, but rather continues and takes on a different form, growing in a way that continues to be cloaked in secrecy, giving secrets characteristics of continuity and simultaneity (Fan & Liu, 2021; Krasmann, 2019). Simon‐Kumar et al.…”

“…Finally, workplaces may be useful and perhaps one of the few places of support for women victims of DV, extending similar views expressed by other scholars (e.g., Murray & Powell, 2007; Rayner‐Thomas et al., 2016; Swanberg et al., 2007). By conceptualizing secrets through multiple temporalities (Fan & Liu, 2021), workplaces can be places where secrets are simultaneously concealed and disclosed. Workplaces may provide a haven, where women (not only SAD) feel insulated from reactions of and lack of support from family or community members, stigma, and shame.…”

“…Workplaces in this research includes all places of work, such as businesses, social enterprises, volunteer organizations, for profits, not for profits, and government agencies. Workplaces may be sites that enable the concealment and disclosure of secrets, because secrets can be simultaneously, and continually, disclosed and concealed (Fan & Liu, 2021; Krasmann, 2019).…”