Shadow organizing: a metaphor to explore organizing as intra-relating

Abstract

The present paper conceives 'organizing' as an indeterminate process taking place in the interstices of intra-acting elements, beyond visible/rational/intentional organizing. The term intraactivity refers to relationships between multiple elements (human and more-than-human) that are understood not to have clear or distinct boundaries. The paper aims at reframing organizing, as the effect of multiple intra-acting elements, by introducing the metaphor of shadow organizing. It offers examples as diverse as knowledge spillover, evidence-based medicine and improvisation, and the mafia's organizational rules. Design/methodology: The frame of reference is metaphorical theorization, based on the metaphor of shadow organizing, and is explored through three metonymies: the forest and its sheltered spaces in penumbra; the shadow as a grey zone between canonical and non-canonical practices; and secret societies, hidden in the shadow. The shadow is the symbol of what is 'betwixt and between.' Findings: Shadow organizing focuses on the way that situated elements (people, technologies, knowledges, infrastructures, society) intra-relate and acquire agency. Whilst organizing as the effect of intentional coordination, planning, and strategizing represents a well-established theorization, shadow organizing sheds light on what happen in the interstices of intentional and structured processes. The paper identifies the dimensions of shadow organizing as performativity, liminality, and secrecy. Value: The passage from elements in interaction to intra-acting relations that form elements is a challenge both for theory and methodology. To face this challenge, metaphorical thinking proves useful since it enhances scholars' imaginations and emotional participation. http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/qrom

Shadow organizing and imitation: new foci for research

“…A Tardean approach can advance the promising idea of shadow organizing, following Gherardi et al (2017) in approaching the phenomenon in terms of its becoming. This upholds a central symbolic notion of shadow as betwixt and between, but does not follow an analysis governed by possible metaphorical meanings of shadow.…”

“…In this vein, Benozzo and Gherardi (under review) explain relationality as an invitation to see the world as the movement of relationships between things rather than the things in themselves, putting this 'interspace' between things in the spotlight, what they call the 'betwixt and between', including with reference to data that are 'not yet' or whose meanings are ambiguous or unsettling. Gherardi et al (2017) offer three metaphorical meanings of shadow organizing as methodological tools. The dimension of performativity draws on metaphors of sheltered penumbra in the forest, a place where there are opportunities for growth as dark and light intra-act.…”

“…The processes through which shadow organizing is accomplished are not well understood: there is a need to go beyond traditional notions of mimicry and recent metaphorical accounts. The conceptualization of shadow organizing offered in this paper takes as a point of departure the processes and practices of organizing (Gherardi et al, 2017). The introduction of the term organizing has been part of a movement away from a functional emphasis on organization as a discrete structural entity and towards the study of processes and practices of organizing; i.e how an organized state is achieved (Czarniawska, 2010).…”

“…What flows from this is a focus on studying what people do when they act together to achieve something (Czarniawska, 2013). This stance has gained significant momentum, and by referring to shadow organizing we signal a widely shared interest in situated doing, through a set of practices, approached as a question of understanding how organizing is performed or enacted (Alcadipani and Hassard, 2010;Czarniawska 2014;Gherardi et al, 2017;Helin et al, 2014;Nicolini, 2009). A process perspective (Hernes, 2004) entails a focus on the practices of shadow organizing.…”

Tracking the sociomaterial traces of affect at the crossroads of affect and practice theories

“…We aim to insert other embodimentsand our own embodiment as researchersinto our theorizing on affect and practice as empirical phenomena. Affect, beyond embodiment, intercorporality, intersubjectivity and transcorporeality operates as a 'shadow organizing' force (Gherardi, Jensen and Nerland, 2017) showing the intensity of its transmission within and in-between bodies that affect and are affected. In what follows we shall pose the methodological problem of how to attend to such a pervasive and slippery concept as the transmission of affect in a situated practice and for producing a situated knowing of it.…”