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Within nonprofit organizational studies, there has been a long-standing interest in democratic governance as ways of building political participation, civic skills and fostering inclusion. While established approaches to democratic governance have many benefits, existing research points to numerous challenges, including apathy and oligarchization. This paper explores an alternative form of democratic governance, sociocracy. Sociocracy, sometimes called dynamic governance, is organized around four key elements: circular hierarchy, consent-based decision-making, double linking, and practices to foster inclusivity and voice, a unique blend which distinguishes it from other forms of democratic governance. This article explores the implications on workplace democracy that a nonprofit organization experienced when limiting it. We find that sociocracy offers many benefits, including empowering members and reducing the risk of domination, and also highlights the many challenges that can accompany the implementation of sociocracy, particularly how four forms of inequality contribute to those challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research highlights the imperative nature of addressing inherent tensions when implementing organizational openness, necessitating actors to navigate explicit or implicit emergent closure mechanisms. However, certain literature warns against the absolute conception of openness prevalent in academic and practical spheres. This article thus explores what occurs in organizations that eschew closure mechanisms in favor of openness. I draw on the ethnographic inquiry of Managers du 21e siècle, a non-profit organization championing openness as a pivotal organization tenet, whose existence has come under threat amidst escalating crises. The metaphor of organizational necrosis serves to highlight that an extremist pursuit of open principles can hamper action by fostering depersonalization, to align with extremist open values, and triggering disempowerment, through strategies that deflect conflicts of value. My first contribution emphasizes the detrimental repercussions of an extremist openness paradigm on organization sustainability. The second explores how medical metaphors can assist in grasping organizational decline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study reveals the tactic of purification as a form of neo-colonial marginalisation present in contemporary development strategies on Indigenous lands. The research is based on my fieldwork study of exclusive tactics in a contemporary development conflict on Indigenous lands: the Arctic Railway project in Sápmi, in Northern Europe. The tactic of purification works through the selective use of opposites in excluding Indigeneity. On the one hand, 'pure' Indigeneity is an excuse for proponents of extractive development projects to exclude Indigenous knowledge and identities as 'too Indigenous' according to modern standards, denouncing them as 'backward', 'only culture', 'not profitable', or 'without knowledge'. Yet, simultaneously, a resemblance to profitable livelihood practices, beyond culture, the use of several knowledge systems, and multi-ethnicity in communities, is deemed 'too modern', therefore 'not pure enough', thus invalidating Indigeneity. Building on classification systems introduced during colonialism, settler societies employ purification as a tactic to deny Indigenous peoples their right to decolonisation projects, and strengthen their control of Indigenous lands. The purification tactic thereby enables the expansion of the modern-colonial capitalist world order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can meaningful connections between academics, consultants, and practitioners of workplace democracy be created to bring about critically inspired change? This article presents an exploration of our experiment in producing a practical and engaged form of Critical Management Studies (CMS) through a case study of a 2-day event. The event brought together academics, consultants, and practitioners of workplace democracy to examine the possibilities and challenges of creating meaningful connections between these groups. It served as a platform for investigating and reflecting on the efforts made to bridge the gap between academia and practice in CMS. Drawing on pre-event documents, recordings of the event and interviews with participants after the event, we provide an account of academics out of their comfort zone struggling to feel authentic and useful; suspicion and uneasiness between groups leading to inter and intra group struggles; and lingering difficulties around power and control. Our event suggests that CMS scholars seeking more practical engagement should pursue a: (i) deliberative research perspective of co-production alongside multiple stakeholders (academics, consultants, and practitioners) to practically seek to bring about change; (ii) democratization of the research process so that the democratic intentions of the research outcomes are built into the research process; (iii) fluid research position breaking down and blurring of boundaries between academics and practitioners to increase the possibilities for creating meaningful connections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the dismantling of professional autonomy during a change management programme at a business school in the United Kingdom. The change programme proposed the disinvestment from research in Critical Management Studies (CMS) and Political Economy and resulted in compulsory redundancies. The study reconstructs the managerial processing of this 'case for change' with a particular focus on the mechanisms behind the dismantling of professional autonomy. Specifically, three mechanisms of degradation are highlighted: first, a managerial attitude of censorship and anti-intellectualism that serves to demean academic scholarship, second, the regulation of time, space and information that deprives academics of the means to defend themselves and, finally, the isolation of professionals and the creation of docile academic subjects. By focussing on the micro-physics of power and understanding the mundane processes through which it takes effect and circulates, the ways in which it routinely undermines the autonomy of those it wants out, the article offers further avenues to discuss ways to resist the dismantling of professional autonomy in the managerial university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing research highlights the imperative nature of addressing inherent tensions when implementing organizational openness, necessitating actors to navigate explicit or implicit emergent closure mechanisms. However, certain literature warns against the absolute conception of openness prevalent in academic and practical spheres. This article thus explores what occurs in organizations that eschew closure mechanisms in favor of openness. I draw on the ethnographic inquiry of Managers du 21e siècle, a non-profit organization championing openness as a pivotal organization tenet, whose existence has come under threat amidst escalating crises. The metaphor of organizational necrosis serves to highlight that an extremist pursuit of open principles can hamper action by fostering depersonalization, to align with extremist open values, and triggering disempowerment, through strategies that deflect conflicts of value. My first contribution emphasizes the detrimental repercussions of an extremist openness paradigm on organization sustainability. The second explores how medical metaphors can assist in grasping organizational decline.

The idea of planning has reappeared as an object of interest for critical research on post-capitalist organizational futures. This article offers a critical review of the emerging scholarship on planning, with reference to historical and contemporary precursors to democratic planning. Building on this review, the article develops a critical political ecology of planning that situates planning thought and practice within the matrix of the oikos. This encompasses not only the sphere of production and commodity exchange, but also the household of reproductive labor and the planetary household of the natural world. In this way, it is argued that democratic planning is indispensable for generating the forms of collective intelligibility and power needed to heal the metabolic relations of society and nature. By reimagining and reframing planning, the article aims to expand "the archive" of social imaginaries, as part of broader efforts to envision and develop more desirable organizational futures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author uses the lens of leadership-as-practice (L-A-P) to analyze the concerns of the worker in the contemporary workplace and proposes both new insights and potential remediations through a post-humanistic leadership centered on practice. L-A-P is designed to probe underneath the accepted or "natural" human resource practices to uncover the power dynamics in the workplace that have led to challenges to the worker in the form of burnout, lack of autonomy, and detachment. After introducing the practice approach to the workplace, the paper interrogates the potential value of leadership being viewed as a collaborative agency constituting changes in the trajectory of prefigured work practices that can have affirmative consequences via its ethical and critical approach to human resource development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stupidity is generally thought of as a hindrance to learning: an epistemic vice that stands in the way of knowledge and understanding. In this article, I challenge this idea by exploring some of the meanings of stupidity that place it in a positive relation to learning. In this light, the article discusses two notions of stupidity: stupidity as unfinished thought and stupefaction through study. I show how these forms of stupidity, rather than indicating a lack of learning, can be considered as a crucial part of the learning process. These types of desirable stupidity have come under increasing threat in academic cultures that are dominated by performance criteria. On the basis of this analysis, the article argues for the importance of academic practices that make room for these positive forms of stupidity and thereby facilitate what it means to be a student. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is a personal reflection on the double-bind that we as critical management studies academics feel we face in our pedagogic practice. We want to bring about more ethical and responsible management through teaching our students critiques of the excesses of capitalism, but we are all too aware of capitalism's extraordinary resilience as a mode of social, political and economic organization. We know how its tendencies readily co-opt even the most ardent criticism into its own ever-mutating paradigm. We thus feel torn between wanting our students to think and act critically, and the fear that critique is simply a part of the process itself. Rather than calling for raising awareness, relationality and the creation of difference, we present an accelerationist provocation. We invite critical management studies educators to struggle with us through upsetting considerations – that perhaps the most effective tactics for resistance might be to encourage and exacerbate capitalism's excesses. We conclude with a note on melancholy pedagogy and the powers of hopelessness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Social Research / Turkiye Sosyal Arastirmalar Dergisi is the property of Turkish Journal of Social Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Farol - Revista de Estudos Organizacionais e Sociedade is the property of Farol - Revista de Estudos Organizacionais e Sociedade and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

AbstractThis study examined the relationships between core self-evaluation, psychological empowerment, and proactive work behaviour. Oriented by situation strength theory, the study also examined the moderation role of psychological empowerment in core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour relationships. This study relates personal characteristics of core self-evaluation, the situational variable of psychological empowerment, to organisationally desirable employee outcomes of proactive work behaviour. While core self-evaluation and psychological empowerment were analysed as one-dimensional variables, proactive work behaviour has four dimensions: problem prevention behaviour, individual innovation behaviour, voice behaviour, and taking charge behaviour. Two hundred and fifty-five employees sampled from public and private organisations were used for data analysis. Data were analysed with the PROCESS tool hosted in SPSS regression. The results showed that psychological empowerment was positively associated with proactive work behaviour and moderated the relationship between core self-evaluation and proactive work behaviour. The study contributes to the body of knowledge with the potential for a middle-range theory on psychological empowerment and proactive work behaviour relationship, substantially supports situation strength theory, and provides knowledge on the best combination of core self-evaluation and psychological empowerment for proactive work behaviour.

AbstractIt is well known that there is little interest in Nietzschean thought in the management sciences. This observation is supported by the low number of articles published in management science journals that use what could be called the Nietzschean conceptual framework or even part of it. This observation of a weak mobilization of the Nietzschean corpus can be explained, on the one hand, by the non-univocal character of the Nietzschean style and, on the other hand, by the critical radicality of Nietzschean thought. Given this situation, one might expect Critical Management Studies to make significant use of Nietzschean concepts, especially Nietzschean genealogy. But this is not the case. Nietzsche’s work is hardly used by Critical Management Studies (CMS). Yet CMS, because it seeks to question and challenge existing managerial practices by analysing the power dynamics, processes of domination and inequalities that are expressed in organisations, could benefit from the Nietzschean genealogy. Indeed, Nietzschean genealogy, which aims to shed light on the history and origins of values, can provide useful insights into the critical work carried out by CMS and broaden their scope of investigation. In this essay, I argue that CMS should incorporate Nietzschean genealogy into their research in order to strengthen the critical scope of their work when questioning the axiological foundations of managerial practices and exploring the power relations that run through organisations.

Copyright of Revue Française de Gestion is the property of John Libbey Eurotext Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Transfer: European Review of Labour & Research is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Orientation: The argument rethinks current managerial practices in higher education. Research purpose: Satire beckons when normal science cannot reproduce itself or shift to account for different ways of doing things. When reality mimics satire, satire becomes an appropriate methodology. Such literary approaches can reveal what normal science cannot. Motivation for the study: To add to critical management studies and the combatting of academentia as an institutional condition. Research design, approach and method: The general methodology derives from both literary and business principles read through critical management studies and cultural studies. Autoethnography is shown here to be useful within accounting and management studies. The Semler and the Kalahari management practices explicitly specify the need to rethink ‘operational models’. Main findings: No findings are offered in the conventional sense. Rather, relations are analysed and conclusions result from my own internal dialogue as a central player in the case study. The ‘transformation’ objectives of governance were disconnected from educational purposes. The resulting dramatic narrative hopefully appeals to readers in terms of their own lived conditions: can readers insert themselves into the narrative in terms of their own experiences? Practical and/or managerial implications: Institutions to be managed as adhocracies. What has been learned after 20 years of transformation and restructuring, if anything? Contribution and/or value-add: An engagement with critical management studies from the perspective of cultural studies identifies some solutions. Like the former, the latter examines issues of power relations, in this case, relations subsisting within administrative systems rather than the more usual framing as being between classes, races, ethnicities and genders.

This research critically examines corporate human rights violations (CHRVs) regarding exploitation and inequalities within the international business system. From the context of the emancipatory agenda of critical cross-cultural management, we present a novel framework for evaluating CHRVs based on a comprehensive analysis of reported cases between 2007 and 2017. Delving into the power dynamics and privileges that cast global workers, suppliers, and communities as the "other," our research sheds light on how this conceptualization fuels decisions that put the rights of these "others" at risk. Our findings highlight violations related to all dimensions (abuse, labor, development, environment, and health) across industries and geographies. Notably, our findings align with the critical cross-cultural management literature on structural oppression that North American and Western European companies account for a significant number of violations in developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]