From Interpretation to Representation in Organizational Analysis: Postmodernism, Ethnography and Organizational Symbolism

Jeffcutt, Paul

doi:10.1177/017084069401500204

Cited by 75 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 62 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…We suggest that business models can be thought of as a performative representation. A business model is a representation in that it is a text that re-describes and re-constructs reality -whether actual or imagined -in a way that is always partial, interested and intent on persuading (De Cock, 2000;Jeffcutt, 1994). Texts are more durable and intransitive than mere actions and therefore play an important role in infusing change (Phillips et al, 2004).…”

Section: Towards Theory Of Business Models As Performative Representamentioning

confidence: 99%

What are business models? Developing a theory of performative representations

Perkmann

Spicer

2010

Research in the Sociology of Organizations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite a rich extant literature, it is unclear what business models are. We argue that rather than an actual feature of firms, business models are performative representations. We begin by noting the importance of business models for the development of new technology. We then assess three dominant conceptions of business models in the academic literature: as transactional structures, value extracting devices and mechanisms for structuring the organization. To overcome the shortcomings of these approaches, we advance an alternative conception of business models as performative representations. We argue that they work as narratives that convince, typifications that legitimate, and recipes that guide social action.

show abstract

Section: Towards Theory Of Business Models As Performative Representamentioning

confidence: 99%

What are business models? Developing a theory of performative representations

Perkmann

Spicer

2010

Research in the Sociology of Organizations

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Clegg et al, 2005;Chia, 1996;Jeffcutt, 1994;Law, 1994), this traditional view of organization has dominated organizational studies and practices, permeating many subfields such as organizational learning (e.g. March and Olsen, 1975; Argyris and Schon, 1978), organizational change (e.g.…”

Section: Developments On (Dis)ordering In Organization Studies: Wherementioning

confidence: 99%

Project Organizing as Negotiation of (Dis)Ordering

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper proposes to study the constitution of organization at the interstice of order and disorder. By putting forward the processual, heterogeneous, and fragmented nature of organization, it explores the mediating role of communication in organizational becoming (Tsoukas and Chia, 2002). More specifically, the paper focuses on how organizations overcome the inherently precarious, contingent, and disorderly character of their existence in and through language use. Taking a communicative centered approach, the paper argues for considering language-in-use as intrinsically embedding both order and disorder. To do so it relies on the empirical material of three extensive qualitative case studies in three distinct project-based organizations: a science and technology diffusion program, a software development company, and a management consulting firm. The transversal analysis of these studies shows that efforts of ordering are continuously haunted by disordering, that is, the plurality of many potential orders, which are at work in communication. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the key and yet paradoxical role of ordering devices (in the three cases studied inscribed in texts), which are designed to create and maintain order, and because of their language-based nature, generate contingency and undecidability. Language is indeed a source of ambivalence (Weick, 1990). As such, the call for order can (usually does) trigger disorder and the other way around. Organizational agents must then beware of the spirits they call. As Goethe's (1797) sorcerer apprentice rapidly learns, what we animate, especially when associated to language, does always at some moment escape our command. Hence, we can never pretend to completely master it. Goethe's renowned poem Der Zauberlehrling -translated as the Sorcerer's Apprentice or the Pupil of Science -reveals a dramatic situation where the laws of nature are disrupted and thrown into chaos by the well-intentioned but inexpert apprentice's use of magic. In Walt Disney's popularized version of this poem, Fantasia (Walt Disney Picture, 1940), the apprentice (impersonated by Mickey Mouse) is nearly drowned by proliferating brooms -who were first useful tools in cleaning the sorcerer's laboratory -fetching buckets of water that become a torrential flood. The lines in which the apprentice implores his master to help him get things back to order, transcribed in the opening quote of this introduction, especially Die ich rief, die Geister, werd ich nun nicht los (literally, "The spirits that I've called, I cannot get rid of them anymore"), have been reinterpreted in various contexts (c.f. PROJECT ORGANIZING AS NEGOTIATION OF (DIS)ORDERINGInternet and technology, Gregory, 2000; politics, Hossenfelder, 2008 ; law, Biermeyer, 2011) to describe a situation where a person summons allies that once set in motion, become independent and get out of control. In analogy to Goethe's poem, this paper addresses the (dis)organizing nature of organizations by exploring the spirits and brooms ...

show abstract

“…In Europe, the radical tradition was associated with sociological approaches, with poststructural and postmodern ideas assimilated into the social and organizational sciences by this route; in the United States, it was anthropology that radically influenced ideas of writing, representation, and power in relation to culture (Clifford & Marcus, 1986;Marcus & Fischer , 1986;Tyler 1987) Culture from these perspectives was seen as a construction of its mode of representation, which required reflexivity and self-reflexivity from those authoring its various representations (Linstead, 1993(Linstead, , 1994Jeffcutt, 1994). Representation was seen to be in crisis, and with it, the concept of culture became destabilized.…”

Section: The Emergence Of Postculturementioning

confidence: 99%

Organizational Culture in a Wider Field: Is There a Post Post-Culture?

Linstead¹

2010

The Handbook of Organizational Culture and Climate

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

From Interpretation to Representation in Organizational Analysis: Postmodernism, Ethnography and Organizational Symbolism

Cited by 75 publications

References 62 publications

What are business models? Developing a theory of performative representations

What are business models? Developing a theory of performative representations

Project Organizing as Negotiation of (Dis)Ordering

Organizational Culture in a Wider Field: Is There a Post Post-Culture?

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About