Pub Date : 2021-08-10DOI: 10.1108/joe-11-2020-0049
Soumyabrato Bagchi, Bhaskar Chakrabarti
PurposeThe aim of this paper is to develop a theory of organizational forgetting in the context of local governments from the paradigmatic lens of existing research orchestrated in management literature. The paper empirically explores how and why local governments forget and discusses the role of local politics in promoting memory loss in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors do an ethnographic study in a Village Panchayat, the lowest tier of the local government in rural India, in West Bengal, a state in eastern India. Data are collected through participant observation and informal interviews.FindingsThe paper argues that the existing framework on modes of organizational forgetting developed in the management literature is not sufficient in understanding the types of knowledge loss that occur in local governments. It shows that as a consequence of “memory decay” and “failure to capture,” local governments involuntary lose past knowledge and critical sources of expertise. The study also acknowledges the role of politics in deliberately endorsing organizational forgetting in local governments to eliminate failure and ethical lapses of elected representatives.Originality/valueBy exploring the phenomenon of organizational forgetting in local governments in the context of grassroots politics, this paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of organizational forgetting in a hitherto understudied area of how, and under what circumstances, public organizations such as local governments undergo forgetting, unlearning or loss of knowledge.
{"title":"Organizational forgetting in local governments: a study from rural India","authors":"Soumyabrato Bagchi, Bhaskar Chakrabarti","doi":"10.1108/joe-11-2020-0049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-11-2020-0049","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe aim of this paper is to develop a theory of organizational forgetting in the context of local governments from the paradigmatic lens of existing research orchestrated in management literature. The paper empirically explores how and why local governments forget and discusses the role of local politics in promoting memory loss in organizations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors do an ethnographic study in a Village Panchayat, the lowest tier of the local government in rural India, in West Bengal, a state in eastern India. Data are collected through participant observation and informal interviews.FindingsThe paper argues that the existing framework on modes of organizational forgetting developed in the management literature is not sufficient in understanding the types of knowledge loss that occur in local governments. It shows that as a consequence of “memory decay” and “failure to capture,” local governments involuntary lose past knowledge and critical sources of expertise. The study also acknowledges the role of politics in deliberately endorsing organizational forgetting in local governments to eliminate failure and ethical lapses of elected representatives.Originality/valueBy exploring the phenomenon of organizational forgetting in local governments in the context of grassroots politics, this paper contributes to the ongoing discussion of organizational forgetting in a hitherto understudied area of how, and under what circumstances, public organizations such as local governments undergo forgetting, unlearning or loss of knowledge.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44249204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-06DOI: 10.1108/joe-02-2021-0011
Vincenzo Scalia
PurposeThis paper looks at police brutalities in Italy. In particular, the discussion focusses on the case of the death of Riccardo Magherini, who was stopped by the Corpo dei Carabinieri (CC), a branch of the Italian Army operating as a police force, on the 3rd of March 2014. The paper focusses on the way the police agents involved in the Magherini trial, both witnesses and defendants, made sense of the case. Their answers to the questions put to them by case lawyers or judges during the first trial in February 2016 will be closely examined.Design/methodology/approachDiscussion of the case will rely on material drawn from court files. The Carabinieris internal reports on the incident and the court transcription of the agents questioning will form the basis for an ethnographic analysis of the case. The author will then use the case analysis as the starting point for a broader discussion on police culture. While ethnography generally consists of direct on-the-ground participant observation Geertz 1992, the author’s methodology of using legal transcripts and reports can nevertheless be considered ethnographical. .FindingsDiscussion will consider the importance of an ethical element to the internal culture of the Italian police forces which influences their street practice. Italian police have an ethical approach in that they believe their role is to be able separate good from bad and protect society from the bad. Moreover they have operated within a context of impunity which has produced over time a critical threshold according to which specific individuals and groups deemed as dangerous classes are considered outside the realm of normal civilised society and as such can be treated differently in contemporary Italy.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper relates to two distinct elements. The first one concerns the context analysed, as the peculiarities of the Italian police are hardly known to the larger international public. The second aspect relates to the specificity of a case. Magherini was not a marginal person, he was an Italian citizen, but he suffered from a brutality that caused his death. The dynamics of this outcome will be closely analysed.
{"title":"Deadly dialogues: The Magherini case and police brutalities in Italy","authors":"Vincenzo Scalia","doi":"10.1108/joe-02-2021-0011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-02-2021-0011","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThis paper looks at police brutalities in Italy. In particular, the discussion focusses on the case of the death of Riccardo Magherini, who was stopped by the Corpo dei Carabinieri (CC), a branch of the Italian Army operating as a police force, on the 3rd of March 2014. The paper focusses on the way the police agents involved in the Magherini trial, both witnesses and defendants, made sense of the case. Their answers to the questions put to them by case lawyers or judges during the first trial in February 2016 will be closely examined.Design/methodology/approachDiscussion of the case will rely on material drawn from court files. The Carabinieris internal reports on the incident and the court transcription of the agents questioning will form the basis for an ethnographic analysis of the case. The author will then use the case analysis as the starting point for a broader discussion on police culture. While ethnography generally consists of direct on-the-ground participant observation Geertz 1992, the author’s methodology of using legal transcripts and reports can nevertheless be considered ethnographical. .FindingsDiscussion will consider the importance of an ethical element to the internal culture of the Italian police forces which influences their street practice. Italian police have an ethical approach in that they believe their role is to be able separate good from bad and protect society from the bad. Moreover they have operated within a context of impunity which has produced over time a critical threshold according to which specific individuals and groups deemed as dangerous classes are considered outside the realm of normal civilised society and as such can be treated differently in contemporary Italy.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper relates to two distinct elements. The first one concerns the context analysed, as the peculiarities of the Italian police are hardly known to the larger international public. The second aspect relates to the specificity of a case. Magherini was not a marginal person, he was an Italian citizen, but he suffered from a brutality that caused his death. The dynamics of this outcome will be closely analysed.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-08-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47437902","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In our inaugural editorial for the Journal of Organizational Ethnography: Time for a new journal, a journal for new times, we set out with the ambition to support an emerging community of ethnographers gathered around the Annual Ethnography Symposium and to reflect the symposium in textual form. As editors, we have not been prolific in our editorial comments, preferring a supporting rather than starring role, but aswe approach themilestone, it is perhaps long since time that we thanked a few people who have been instrumental in the journal’s first decade. First, we thank our authors and guest editors. Many of you have understood what we are trying to do and have shared and supported the endeavour. We hope you have experienced our editorial approach as one intended to encourage and develop ideas, papers and ethnographic practice and that through these pages, digital or paper, you have succeeded in connecting with a supportive and knowledgeable audience. Second, of course, we should thank our reviewers. They have enthusiastically taken our lead in respecting submissions on their own terms and been overwhelmingly helpful and constructive in their approach to this nonremunerated, undervalued bedrock upon which academic publishing is built. One of the absolute joys of working through the Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) is the sheer variety and multi-disciplinarity of the work we have attracted. This has posed a very particular challenge in having a wide enough network to secure reviewers with relevant expertise; therefore, wewould particularly note a few stalwarts who have stepped up when we have struggled. Without such reviewers, we would be lost. Third, there is a special category of those who have contributed. We are thinking of some colleagueswho have offered advice to authors of papers that were not appropriate to JOE, but that merited some attention and encouragement. This has fallen largely on editors, but occasionally others have offered their advice where their expertise was required. A particular word of thanks in that regard goes to Rebecca Wood of the University of East London. Fourth, and finally, thanks to our readers. The regular updates we see from the publishers indicate a global reach but with particular nodes at Copenhagen Business School, Aarhus University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Thank you. And so to an announcement. After ten years, it is perhaps time for a new direction. We have begun talking about handing over the editorial duties to new colleagues. Dr Bagga Bjerge from Aarhus University and Dr Hugo Valenzuela from Universitat Aut onoma de Barcelona joined recently as associate editors. However, we would like to extend an open invitation to anyone interested in taking on editorial duties with JOE and who would like to have a conversation about what that might entail to please contact us as the editors. May, 2021
在我们为《组织民族志杂志》撰写的首篇社论中:是时候创办一本新杂志了，一本新时代的杂志。我们的目标是支持一个聚集在年度民族志研讨会周围的新兴民族志学者群体，并以文本的形式反映研讨会。作为编辑，我们的编辑评论并不多，我们更愿意充当配角而不是主角，但随着我们接近里程碑，我们可能很久没有感谢过在期刊的第一个十年中发挥重要作用的一些人。首先，我们感谢我们的作者和特邀编辑。你们中的许多人都理解我们正在努力做的事情，并分享和支持我们的努力。我们希望你能体验到我们的编辑方法，作为一种旨在鼓励和发展思想、论文和民族志实践的方法，通过这些页面，无论是数字页面还是纸质页面，你已经成功地与支持你的知识渊博的读者建立了联系。其次，当然，我们应该感谢我们的评论者。他们以自己的方式热情地引领我们尊重投稿，并在这种无偿、被低估的学术出版基础上提供了压倒性的帮助和建设性的方法。通过《组织民族志杂志》(JOE)工作的绝对乐趣之一是我们所吸引的工作的多样性和多学科性。这对拥有足够广泛的网络以确保具有相关专业知识的审稿人构成了非常特殊的挑战;因此，我们要特别指出，在我们挣扎的时候，有几个坚定的人站了出来。没有这样的评论家，我们就会迷失方向。第三，有一类特殊的人做出了贡献。我们想到了一些同事，他们向论文的作者提供了一些建议，这些建议不适合JOE，但值得一些关注和鼓励。这在很大程度上落在了编辑的肩上，但偶尔也会有人在需要他们专业知识的地方提供建议。在这方面，我要特别感谢东伦敦大学的丽贝卡·伍德。第四，也是最后，感谢我们的读者。我们从出版商那里看到的定期更新表明，它的影响力遍及全球，但在哥本哈根商学院(Copenhagen Business School)、奥胡斯大学(Aarhus University)和阿姆斯特丹自由大学(Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)尤为突出。谢谢你！下面是一则公告。十年过去了，也许是时候换个方向了。我们已经开始讨论把编辑职责交给新同事。来自奥胡斯大学的Bagga Bjerge博士和来自巴塞罗那奥诺玛大学的Hugo Valenzuela博士最近作为副编辑加入。然而，我们想向任何有兴趣与JOE一起承担编辑职责的人发出公开邀请，并希望就可能需要的内容进行对话，请与我们作为编辑联系。2021年5月
{"title":"Editorial: Time for a fresh approach, for a (not so) new journal, a journal for new times","authors":"Matthew Brannan, Manuela Nocker, M. Rowe","doi":"10.1108/joe-07-2021-082","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/joe-07-2021-082","url":null,"abstract":"In our inaugural editorial for the Journal of Organizational Ethnography: Time for a new journal, a journal for new times, we set out with the ambition to support an emerging community of ethnographers gathered around the Annual Ethnography Symposium and to reflect the symposium in textual form. As editors, we have not been prolific in our editorial comments, preferring a supporting rather than starring role, but aswe approach themilestone, it is perhaps long since time that we thanked a few people who have been instrumental in the journal’s first decade. First, we thank our authors and guest editors. Many of you have understood what we are trying to do and have shared and supported the endeavour. We hope you have experienced our editorial approach as one intended to encourage and develop ideas, papers and ethnographic practice and that through these pages, digital or paper, you have succeeded in connecting with a supportive and knowledgeable audience. Second, of course, we should thank our reviewers. They have enthusiastically taken our lead in respecting submissions on their own terms and been overwhelmingly helpful and constructive in their approach to this nonremunerated, undervalued bedrock upon which academic publishing is built. One of the absolute joys of working through the Journal of Organizational Ethnography (JOE) is the sheer variety and multi-disciplinarity of the work we have attracted. This has posed a very particular challenge in having a wide enough network to secure reviewers with relevant expertise; therefore, wewould particularly note a few stalwarts who have stepped up when we have struggled. Without such reviewers, we would be lost. Third, there is a special category of those who have contributed. We are thinking of some colleagueswho have offered advice to authors of papers that were not appropriate to JOE, but that merited some attention and encouragement. This has fallen largely on editors, but occasionally others have offered their advice where their expertise was required. A particular word of thanks in that regard goes to Rebecca Wood of the University of East London. Fourth, and finally, thanks to our readers. The regular updates we see from the publishers indicate a global reach but with particular nodes at Copenhagen Business School, Aarhus University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Thank you. And so to an announcement. After ten years, it is perhaps time for a new direction. We have begun talking about handing over the editorial duties to new colleagues. Dr Bagga Bjerge from Aarhus University and Dr Hugo Valenzuela from Universitat Aut onoma de Barcelona joined recently as associate editors. However, we would like to extend an open invitation to anyone interested in taking on editorial duties with JOE and who would like to have a conversation about what that might entail to please contact us as the editors. May, 2021","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41864879","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-05DOI: 10.1108/JOE-12-2020-0056
Ross E Hendy
PurposeThis article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.Design/methodology/approachThe research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.FindingsIt reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.Originality/valueThe findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.
{"title":"Suspicious minds and suspicioning: constructing suspicion during policework","authors":"Ross E Hendy","doi":"10.1108/JOE-12-2020-0056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-12-2020-0056","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThis article explores officer use of suspicion before informal police-citizen encounters as a method to further understand police officer decision-making. There is a body of research focused on officer decision-making before formal “stop and search” encounters, yet, while the more informal “stop and chat” encounters are ubiquitous, they are a comparatively under-researched part of policework.Design/methodology/approachThe research takes an ethnographic approach to explore police decision-making. It used participant observation (800 h over 93 patrol shifts) of front-line first response officers from New Zealand (n = 45) and South Australia (n = 48). Field observations were complemented with informal discussion in the field and 27 semi-structured interviews.FindingsIt reveals that officers applied three situational “tests” to assess the circumstances or actions observed before initiating an informal encounter. Officers then weighed up whether the circumstances were harmful, contrary to law, or socially acceptable to determine the necessity of initiating a police-citizen encounter. This process is conceived as suspicioning: deciding whether circumstances appear prima facie suspicious, how an officer goes about collecting more information to corroborate suspicion to ultimately inform a course of action.Originality/valueThe findings present a new perspective to understanding how and why police officers decide to initiate encounters with members of the public. Moreover, as the first ethnographic cross-national research of officers from New Zealand and South Australia, it provides a rare comparative glimpse of Antipodean policing.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-07-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44826938","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-09DOI: 10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0039
W. Cook, E. Turnhout, S. van Bommel
PurposeThe Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) intends to promote responsible forestry through its certification scheme. The primary engine that drives this promotion is auditing. Audits serve a dual purpose: they make forest managers accountable for their claim of meeting the FSC standard, and they make the actions of auditors and auditee account-able, or able to be put into an account. The latter of these is rarely investigated, despite it being crucial to understanding how FSC audits are done.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines FSC forest certification audits as practices where the FSC standards gain meaning. In-depth analysis of these practices enables insight into how different values related to forest certification and auditing are articulated and negotiated in practice, characterizing particular modes of auditing. In this paper, the authors examine the practices of FSC forest management auditors in multi-day audits in Africa and in Spain. Their materials were analyzed and coded using Goffman’s elements of dramaturgy.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that auditing practices entail a series of nested performances in which the auditors and auditees interact together and in which front stage and back stage performances constantly alternate as auditors and auditees perform for each other and simultaneously for an absent audience.Originality/valueThe authors’ analysis demonstrates how in these performances, professional values related to following auditing rules and ensuring that audits are rendered account-able in a particular way take a prominent position. This risks overshadowing the accountability of the FSC system which is ultimately grounded in its ambition to improve forest conservation and management.
{"title":"Performing an FSC audit","authors":"W. Cook, E. Turnhout, S. van Bommel","doi":"10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0039","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) intends to promote responsible forestry through its certification scheme. The primary engine that drives this promotion is auditing. Audits serve a dual purpose: they make forest managers accountable for their claim of meeting the FSC standard, and they make the actions of auditors and auditee account-able, or able to be put into an account. The latter of these is rarely investigated, despite it being crucial to understanding how FSC audits are done.Design/methodology/approachThis article examines FSC forest certification audits as practices where the FSC standards gain meaning. In-depth analysis of these practices enables insight into how different values related to forest certification and auditing are articulated and negotiated in practice, characterizing particular modes of auditing. In this paper, the authors examine the practices of FSC forest management auditors in multi-day audits in Africa and in Spain. Their materials were analyzed and coded using Goffman’s elements of dramaturgy.FindingsThe authors’ findings show that auditing practices entail a series of nested performances in which the auditors and auditees interact together and in which front stage and back stage performances constantly alternate as auditors and auditees perform for each other and simultaneously for an absent audience.Originality/valueThe authors’ analysis demonstrates how in these performances, professional values related to following auditing rules and ensuring that audits are rendered account-able in a particular way take a prominent position. This risks overshadowing the accountability of the FSC system which is ultimately grounded in its ambition to improve forest conservation and management.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42346819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-21DOI: 10.1108/JOE-02-2021-0010
Michael M. Prentice
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how document protection has become a key object of concern for organizations, how the threat of leaks has led to an increase in security technologies and policies and how these developments present new and emergent ethnographic challenges for researchers. Through a study of a South Korean organization, the paper aims to demonstrate the ways workplace documents are figured into wider legal, regulatory and cyber security concerns.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on 12 months of intensive embedded fieldwork in a South Korean firm from 2014 to 2015 and follow-up interviews in 2018. The author followed an immersive and inductive approach to collecting ethnographic data in situ. The author was hired as an intern in a Korean conglomerate known as the Sangdo Group where he worked alongside Human Resources managers to understand their work practices. The present article reflects difficulties in his original research design and an attempt to analyze the barriers themselves. His analysis combines ideas from theories of securitization and document studies to understand how the idea of protection is reshaping workplaces in South Korea and elsewhere.FindingsThe paper highlights three findings first that South Korean workplaces have robust socio-material infrastructures around document protection and security, reflecting that security around document leaks is becoming integrated into normal organizational life. Second, the securitization of document leaks is shifting from treating document leaks as a threat to organizational existence, to a crime by individual actors that organizations track. Third, that even potential document leaks can have transitive effects on teams and managers.Originality/valueOrganizational security practices and their integration into workplace life have rarely been examined together. This paper connects Weber's insights on bureaucratization with the concept of securitization to examine the rise of document security practices and policies in a South Korean organization. The evidence from South Korea is valuable because technological developments around security coupled with organizational complexities portend issues for other organizational environments around the world.
{"title":"The securitized workplace: document protection, insider threats and emerging ethnographic barriers in a South Korean organization","authors":"Michael M. Prentice","doi":"10.1108/JOE-02-2021-0010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-02-2021-0010","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how document protection has become a key object of concern for organizations, how the threat of leaks has led to an increase in security technologies and policies and how these developments present new and emergent ethnographic challenges for researchers. Through a study of a South Korean organization, the paper aims to demonstrate the ways workplace documents are figured into wider legal, regulatory and cyber security concerns.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on 12 months of intensive embedded fieldwork in a South Korean firm from 2014 to 2015 and follow-up interviews in 2018. The author followed an immersive and inductive approach to collecting ethnographic data in situ. The author was hired as an intern in a Korean conglomerate known as the Sangdo Group where he worked alongside Human Resources managers to understand their work practices. The present article reflects difficulties in his original research design and an attempt to analyze the barriers themselves. His analysis combines ideas from theories of securitization and document studies to understand how the idea of protection is reshaping workplaces in South Korea and elsewhere.FindingsThe paper highlights three findings first that South Korean workplaces have robust socio-material infrastructures around document protection and security, reflecting that security around document leaks is becoming integrated into normal organizational life. Second, the securitization of document leaks is shifting from treating document leaks as a threat to organizational existence, to a crime by individual actors that organizations track. Third, that even potential document leaks can have transitive effects on teams and managers.Originality/valueOrganizational security practices and their integration into workplace life have rarely been examined together. This paper connects Weber's insights on bureaucratization with the concept of securitization to examine the rise of document security practices and policies in a South Korean organization. The evidence from South Korea is valuable because technological developments around security coupled with organizational complexities portend issues for other organizational environments around the world.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":"ahead-of-print 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49142391","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-05DOI: 10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0038
Uri Ansenberg
PurposeThe increasing financialization of urban organization has been well-documented over the last couple of decades. Nevertheless, the planning process has been seen as distinct from the financial. By questioning this assumption and examining where the two spheres interact, this paper argues that the enmeshment of finance and planning produces an overlapping of the two, which refuses any attempt of demarcation.Design/methodology/approachBy focussing on a specific type of document, the Standard-21, around which a large proportion of the Israeli construction is planned, assembled and committed, this article proposes a view of urban organization which highlights the centrality of real-estate valuation, as a practice of prediction and estimation, in the creation of the urban landscape.FindingsThe rationale of city planning is reframed as a financial process, a representation informed by an ethnographic study of the valuation practice.Originality/valueThe literature on urban financialization is rarely based on ethnographies. Answering the growing calls for an ethnographic perspective, this paper offers a novel account of the city and as a result produces a view of the interplay between finance and planning that was previously unnoticed.
{"title":"Real-estate valuation and the organization of the city: a document-centred ethnography of Tel Aviv's planning in action","authors":"Uri Ansenberg","doi":"10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-10-2020-0038","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeThe increasing financialization of urban organization has been well-documented over the last couple of decades. Nevertheless, the planning process has been seen as distinct from the financial. By questioning this assumption and examining where the two spheres interact, this paper argues that the enmeshment of finance and planning produces an overlapping of the two, which refuses any attempt of demarcation.Design/methodology/approachBy focussing on a specific type of document, the Standard-21, around which a large proportion of the Israeli construction is planned, assembled and committed, this article proposes a view of urban organization which highlights the centrality of real-estate valuation, as a practice of prediction and estimation, in the creation of the urban landscape.FindingsThe rationale of city planning is reframed as a financial process, a representation informed by an ethnographic study of the valuation practice.Originality/valueThe literature on urban financialization is rarely based on ethnographies. Answering the growing calls for an ethnographic perspective, this paper offers a novel account of the city and as a result produces a view of the interplay between finance and planning that was previously unnoticed.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45591989","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-03DOI: 10.1108/JOE-08-2020-0029
F. Augusto
PurposeDrawing on an ethnographic research study, developed in three different food assistance initiatives (FAIs) operating in Portugal, this article seeks to explore the elements that characterize them and the main organizational challenges they face.Design/methodology/approachParticipant observation was carried out in a surplus food redistribution charity, a soup kitchen and a social supermarket, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with supervisors of these FAIs. The study followed an inductive coding strategy, and a thematic analysis was developed.FindingsThe main results point to an appreciation of the initiatives and the role they play, but they also highlight the existence of several challenges, mainly related to: 1) difficulties in accessing sources of funding, 2) the absence of an intervening state and 3) a scarcity of resources that allow a thorough assessment of their activities and services provided, which weakens the public image of these responses.Originality/valueThe development of food assistance in Europe has a long history. Over the past few years, this sector has grown significantly. Nowadays, it is possible to identify several realities around emergency food provision. However, this heterogeneity has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. In addition, there are few studies that report on the variety of initiatives that coexist in Portugal and establish a comparison between them. The current paper intends to overcome this gap by seeking to understand the main models of food assistance operating in the country.
{"title":"Food assistance in Portugal: organizational challenges in three different contexts","authors":"F. Augusto","doi":"10.1108/JOE-08-2020-0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-08-2020-0029","url":null,"abstract":"PurposeDrawing on an ethnographic research study, developed in three different food assistance initiatives (FAIs) operating in Portugal, this article seeks to explore the elements that characterize them and the main organizational challenges they face.Design/methodology/approachParticipant observation was carried out in a surplus food redistribution charity, a soup kitchen and a social supermarket, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with supervisors of these FAIs. The study followed an inductive coding strategy, and a thematic analysis was developed.FindingsThe main results point to an appreciation of the initiatives and the role they play, but they also highlight the existence of several challenges, mainly related to: 1) difficulties in accessing sources of funding, 2) the absence of an intervening state and 3) a scarcity of resources that allow a thorough assessment of their activities and services provided, which weakens the public image of these responses.Originality/valueThe development of food assistance in Europe has a long history. Over the past few years, this sector has grown significantly. Nowadays, it is possible to identify several realities around emergency food provision. However, this heterogeneity has not been sufficiently explored in the literature. In addition, there are few studies that report on the variety of initiatives that coexist in Portugal and establish a comparison between them. The current paper intends to overcome this gap by seeking to understand the main models of food assistance operating in the country.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-05-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41752570","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-04-12DOI: 10.1108/JOE-05-2020-0021
Malin Arvidson, Stig Linde
For non-profit organizations (NPOs) external funding is an essential resource. Studies highlight how control is attributed to funders and so external funding threatens the autonomy of the recipient organization. The purpose of this study is to investigate how external control can be structured and exercised, and to explore how control interacts with organizational autonomy.,The research is based on interviews and participant observations with NPOs and their funders over a period of time. It reports from four different funding-relations: contract-based, social investment, gift-funded and civil society–public partnership. The concept of organizational discretion is used to analyse how control and autonomy are interconnected in these relationship.,The analysis illustrates the value in exposing the different discretionary boundaries related to external control and how control can become a sparring partner in the organization's striving for autonomy. A concluding argument is that control and autonomy are each other's companions rather than antagonists. The study leads us to question a general assumption that NPOs strive to avoid resource dependence and external control but instead may use such control to develop strategies for independence and self-realization.,The empirical material is unique as it includes voices of recipient organizations and funders, and offers a comparison of different controlling-relations. The study presents an innovative analytical framework based on the concepts of discretionary space and reasoning, which supports a critical discussion regarding the idea of external control as detrimental to the autonomy of NPOs.
{"title":"Control and autonomy: resource dependence relations and non-profit organizations","authors":"Malin Arvidson, Stig Linde","doi":"10.1108/JOE-05-2020-0021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-05-2020-0021","url":null,"abstract":"For non-profit organizations (NPOs) external funding is an essential resource. Studies highlight how control is attributed to funders and so external funding threatens the autonomy of the recipient organization. The purpose of this study is to investigate how external control can be structured and exercised, and to explore how control interacts with organizational autonomy.,The research is based on interviews and participant observations with NPOs and their funders over a period of time. It reports from four different funding-relations: contract-based, social investment, gift-funded and civil society–public partnership. The concept of organizational discretion is used to analyse how control and autonomy are interconnected in these relationship.,The analysis illustrates the value in exposing the different discretionary boundaries related to external control and how control can become a sparring partner in the organization's striving for autonomy. A concluding argument is that control and autonomy are each other's companions rather than antagonists. The study leads us to question a general assumption that NPOs strive to avoid resource dependence and external control but instead may use such control to develop strategies for independence and self-realization.,The empirical material is unique as it includes voices of recipient organizations and funders, and offers a comparison of different controlling-relations. The study presents an innovative analytical framework based on the concepts of discretionary space and reasoning, which supports a critical discussion regarding the idea of external control as detrimental to the autonomy of NPOs.","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-04-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43851922","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A. M. Hauge, Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen, A. Pedersen, A. Pors
{"title":"Guest editorial","authors":"A. M. Hauge, Elisabeth Naima Mikkelsen, A. Pedersen, A. Pors","doi":"10.1108/JOE-04-2021-080","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-04-2021-080","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":44924,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Organizational Ethnography","volume":"10 1","pages":"1-6"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2021-04-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43112204","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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