It’s All Method

Abstract

The chapter introduces Hermann Schmitz’s neo-phenomenology to explore what phenomenology can offer to organization studies. Taking a methodological perspective, the chapter reflects phenomenology as also always about method due to the inherent ontological link, as noted by Heidegger. What we can know is intrinsically linked with how we know. The neo-phenomenological perspective contributes to acknowledging everyday phenomena, like atmospheres, which have become of increased interest in organization studies. Schmitz’s neo-phenomenology seeks to reclaim everyday experience as a valuable source of knowledge forming as an embodied attunement. Within his neo-phenomenological thinking Schmitz calls for phenomenological revision as method—building on exploration and continuous questioning. Further, by understanding phenomena as always seen in relation to something, Schmitz proposes poetic explication to account for fluid phenomena. As such the ontological condition of method is being addressed. Accordingly researching fluid (organizational) phenomena, like atmosphere, offers a way to rethink research accounts in performative ways moving beyond representation. The chapter seeks to illustrate and reflect upon how the neo-phenomenological approach can provide alternative ways to engage with relational phenomena in organization studies through the example of organizational atmospheres.

Organizing Half-Things: Knowing, Theorizing and Studying Atmospheres

“…Attuned writing 'remakes itself in its dialogic relations with the worlds to which it attunes' (Gibbs, 2015, p. 227). In the study of organizational space, atmospheric writing has recently been reflected as an evocative poetics of social inquiry (Beyes & Holt, 2020), echoing encouragements for more performative and creative forms and formats of presenting research (Jørgensen, 2023;Pérezts, 2022;Vannini, 2015). Poetic qualities of composition and rhythm (re)enact a situation's 'chaotic manifold'.…”