Call for Papers

Abstract

Organizations as Worlds of Work

Guest Editors:

Rick Delbridge, Cardiff Business School

Jeff Sallaz, University of Arizona, Department of Sociology

Deadline: December 31^st 2012

Overview

Organizations remain, at their core, spaces in which women and men engage in various forms of work. Much scholarly attention has been focused upon recent, major changes in the structure of organizations and organizational fields. The firm of the twenty-first century is supposed to be less bureaucratic, more reliant upon network structures of organization, and more globally integrated. This call for papers invites submissions that seek to advance our understanding of how these epochal shifts have affected or transformed the worlds of work inside organizations. Our primary interest is in the relationship between such shifts and the microprocesses of work content which inform what organizations are and may become. We are thus interested in both (1) papers that embody the classic sociological spirit of fine-grained analysis of individual workplaces (for example, the studies of Donald Roy, Alvin Gouldner, Michel Crozier, Rosabeth Kanter, etc.), and (2) papers exploring new organizational spaces within which work occurs (such as temporary agencies, collaborative network structures, informal labour markets, and so on). Papers written from empirical and/or theoretical perspectives are welcome.

Linking fields and traditions

The goal of this Special Issue is to promote scholarship and debate among researchers across different disciplines, all of whom share a common interest in understanding the contours of contemporary work-worlds. Papers are welcome from the fields of sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, industrial relations, management, public policy, and others. We are also interested in receiving papers which adopt a global and/or comparative approach (though this is not a requirement). What is especially important to us is that fine-grained empirical insights lead to the development of new theories about how the worlds of work interact with social, cultural and institutional changes. These include visions of individual and collective experiences in today’s working contexts, as well new perspectives on how particular features of working spaces, like solidarity, cooperation, hierarchies, and occupational identities, are modified by these changes.

Possible topics

What follows is a list of topics that could be addressed. The list is not in any way exhaustive, but rather is meant to give a flavour of the range of possibilities:

Labour processes: For example, the concrete organization of work practices within modern organizations; interpersonal relations at the point of production; interactions between humans and material artifacts.

Resistance and subversion in the workplace: For example, how structures of power are constituted and resisted by organizational workers today; the relationship between the nature of the resistance and the organization of work; the conditions under which resistance contributes to change or to the reproduction of power and inequality.

Increasing diversity at work: For example, in contexts where diversity and civil rights are ascendant as regimes of regulation, how are various employee rights policies implemented and/or subverted; the impact of employer efforts at increasing diversity and reducing disadvantage within organizations.

Expert and knowledge work within organizations: For example, how work is organized when the raw materials are immaterial forms of expertise and thought; how knowledge workers coordinate their work across organizational and occupational boundaries.

Work in ‘informal’ organized spaces: For example, how is work structured in organizational contexts that lie beyond the official purview of state regulation? How are value and order produced in such contexts.

Gender and occupations: What are the mechanisms of gender segregation across occupations? How do organizational structures and cultures create frameworks within which workers reproduce or transform traditional gendered divisions at work?

Occupations/Professions and Organizations: How are occupational jurisdictions over particular areas of work challenged and defended inside organizations? How do organizations endeavour to align occupational work practices with organizational ones and how and when do occupational workers accept or resist these attempts?

We emphasize that the above list is not meant to be exhaustive but to provide examples of possible paper topics that explore the intersection of work, occupations and organizations.

Administrative support & queries

Sophia Tzagaraki,

Managing Editor

Organization Studies

osofficer@gmail.com

Submission

Please submit papers through the journal’s online submission system, SAGE track.

Please visit SAGE track http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/orgstudies, create your user account (if you have not done so already), and on “Manuscript Type” choose the following:

SI: Organizations as Worlds of WorkTo be considered for publication, papers must be electronically received by 31^st December 2012.