Abstract
John Weeks, IMD
Galit Ailon, Bar-Ilan University
Mary Yoko Brannen, University of Victoria and INSEAD
Gary Alan Fine, Northwestern University
TBA
The Organization Studies Workshop is an annual activity, originally launched in June 2005, to facilitate high-quality scholarship in organization studies. Its primary aim is to advance cutting-edge research on important topics in the field by bringing together a small and competitively selected group of scholars, who will have the opportunity to interact in depth and share insights in a stimulating and scenic environment. Since 2010 the OS Workshop has been sponsored by Sage.
Overview
To think of organizations as cultures and communities implies a focus on the knowledge forms and social meanings of day-to-day organizational life. Moreover, it implies looking at how structures, networks, institutions, power, innovation and routine—the building blocks of organization theory—play out in everyday life. Close study and thick description of day-to-day life in organizations give us a live view of the high-level processes of organization; they enrich and complicate our theories of organizational behavior. Observing the dynamic, quotidian attempts of people in organizations to explore, shape, contest, and negotiate new cultural possibilities and new community forms, helps us to unravel the microprocesses through which multinational corporations, institutions and networks are created, maintained and disrupted. Understanding how people make sense of themselves and their organizations—and the ways in which broader cultures and communities both shape and are shaped by those meanings—deepens our understanding of what concepts such as power, innovation, and routine mean and how they work.
Possible but not exhaustive topic list
This call for papers invites submissions that explore the everyday life of organizations. These could be of many kinds.
How understanding aspects of day-to-day life in organizations, and the systems of meaning that guide everyday life, can inform our high-level concepts and theories of organizational behavior.
The value of close observation of everyday life to our understanding of phenomena not normally seen as cultural, such as corporate finance, corporate social responsibility, creativity, entrepreneurial ventures, and sustainability.
The ways in which the meaning of everyday life is never monolithic and may be contested, negotiated and diverse. Studies that draw attention to a variety of perspectives and work-life experiences and show how they matter to organizations and organization theory.
Studies at different levels of analysis: organizational sub-groups, counter-cultures, multiple team perspectives. Studies that look at the relationships that organizations have with each other and diverse stakeholder groups, the relationship of organization and culture, the politics of organization and community.
How the “subjects” of our studies are themselves becoming more reflexive and using forms of ethnography to learn about the day-to-day goings-on in organizations in order to shape their organizational worlds and communities.
The impact of the new workplace demographic on patterns of everyday life and sense-making.
Multiculturalism in today’s complex global communities, how it patterns day-to-day life in diverse organizations and the high-level impact that has on organizations.
Ethnography is the natural method of studying the seemingly mundane life in organizations and the making of meaning there, and we anticipate that ethnographic studies will be an ideal fit for the workshop. We also welcome, however, theoretical papers that fit the theme and metastudies that examine the contributions of ethnography and the study of the everyday life to theory, thought and practice.
Administrative support&queries
Sophia Tzagaraki,
Managing Editor
Organization Studies
Location
The 8th OS Workshop will take place at the St John Hotelon the island of Mykonos, Greece, on
Dates
Starting on Thursday 23 May 2013 at 09:00
Ending on Saturday 25 May 2013 at 18:00
Submission
Interested participants must submit to
Following the workshop, a Special Issue will be announced in Organization Studies. To be considered for publication, papers must be electronically received by November 30th2013. The latest guidelines for submission and information on the review procedures can be found on the SAGE OS web page (http://oss.sagepub.com/). Participation in the Workshop is not a prerequisite to submit a paper for the special issue.