3,161 research outputs found
We are what we tell: An inquiry into NGOs’ organizational identity and accountability
No full textPurpose – This study offers a critical inquiry into accountability vis-à-vis organizational identity formation. It investigates how accountability evolves in the transformation of an NGO operating in the field of migration management from an informal grassroots group into a fully-fledged organization.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is the outcome of a participatory action research project on Welcome Refugees (WR), a UK based NGO. The project involved documentary analysis, focus group and semi-structured interviews, field notes, and participant observation. The analysis draws from poststructuralist theorization to explain the interplay between organizational identity and different forms of NGO accountability over time.
Findings – The study shows how different forms of accountability became salient over time and were experienced differently by organizational members thus leading to competing collective identity narratives. Organizational members felt accountable to beneficiaries in different ways and this was reflected in their identification with the organization. Some advocated a rights-based approach that partially resonated with the accountability demands of external donors, while others aimed at enacting their feelings of accountability by preserving their closeness with beneficiaries and using a need-based approach. These differences led to an identity struggle that was ultimately solved through the silencing of marginalised narratives and the adoption of an adaptive regime of accountability.
Practical implications – The findings of the case are of practical relevance to quasi-organizations that struggle to form and maintain organizational identity in their first years of operation. Their survival depends not only on their ability to accommodate and/or resist a multiplicity of accountability demands but also on their ability to develop a shared and common understanding of identity accountability.
Originality/value – The paper problematizes rather than takes for granted the process through which organizations acquire a viable identity and the role of accountability within them
Useless bodies? Exploring the ethical potential of art
No full textThis paper examines the ethical value of artistic artefacts in challenging the unequal valuation of working bodies, with a focus on the contemporary art exhibition 'Useless bodies?' by Danish artists Michael Elmgreen and Ingar Dragset. Drawing on Judith Butler's work and posthuman theory, particularly Braidotti's contributions, the paper argues that this exhibition exemplifies how art can foster an ethics of interdependency, one that both critiques dynamics of misrecognition and imagines alternative futures. Furthermore, the paper proposes that this affirmative and critical ethics provides theoretical and methodological foundations for work and organization studies, prompting new questions about the significance of embodiment, aesthetics, and artefacts for conducting (ethical) research
Don’t Call for a Dialogue! This is Not Death of a Salesman. Organizing Communities between Pathos and Logos
No full textIs dialogue still possible? In what forms and under what conditions? In this article, I attempt to answer these questions by reflecting on how dia-logue has lost its logos, that is, how exchanges organised around rational argumentative logic have been unsettled by both the unbridled proliferation of phantasmatic imaginaries and a renewed emphasis on corporeality, and hence on pathos, on embodied sensing as a locus of epistemic and ethico-political insight. I first reconstruct how organizational and feminist scholarship has proposed to centre dialogue on pathos, while also highlighting the limits of this perspective. I then suggest conceiving dialogue in aporetic terms, acknowledging and sustaining the tension between logos and pathos, between the rational signification of language and that which inevitably escapes it. Finally, I offer an example of a dialogue on care drawn from a two-day community study event, illustrating how such an aporetic form of dialogue is both (im)possible and necessary for the building of community. Dialogue thus becomes itself a device of care, unsettling the boundaries between public and private, rational and affective, masculine and feminine, truth and opinion
Corporeal ethics for feminist work
No full textBy drawing upon a wide array of feminist perspectives, the book delves deep into how the attribution of value is shaped by wider organizational processes, governing who and what counts or matters. At the heart of the analysis lies an exploration of how each variant of feminism encompasses specific organizational and work practices, which in turn influence the recognition and value bestowed upon individuals in society. Serving as a catalyst for profound inquiry, the book raises essential questions regarding the significance of different forms of work and the valuation of workers. Through this examination, it disrupts and challenges the enduring dualism between mind and body that permeates our understanding of the world, unveiling its impact as an ontological, epistemological, and moral framework. Moreover, the book reveals the far-reaching consequences of prioritizing certain types of work over others, sparking a critical reflection on the potential for transformative change in our organizational and societal landscapes. In doing so, it fosters a more inclusive and equitable perspective, acknowledging the inherent value present in all forms of work and subjects
Whose grave’s this, sir? An ethico-political critique of organized resting places
No full textWhat can we learn about organizational ethics from studying cemeteries as organizational/organized manifestations of our mutual, embodied vulnerability? How does, and how should, the ethico-political imperative of death and the deceased materialize in the cemeterial space? With reference to a comparative analysis of two island cemeteries,
Venice’s San Michele and New York’s Hart Island, this paper makes three contributions to the emerging literature on organizational ethics of life and death. First, it makes an empirical contribution based on an organizational study of two ‘resting places’ that highlights the importance of understanding organizational life and death with reference to ethics. Second, it makes a theoretical contribution to scholarship on the organization of death and on grieving as embedded in a politics and ethics of recognition. Third, the paper shows how our desire to be recognized as valid, viable subjects comes to be organized, and situated, in ways that perpetuate precarity and vulnerability, a point that is illustrated with reference to cemeteries as ethically significant organizational settings
Corruption in migration management: a network perspective
No full textThis paper explores the relation between networks as an emerging mode of public governance and corruption. Adopting the theoretical lens of actor-network theory (ANT), the paper investigates an Italian episode of corruption related to the awarding of government contracts for the management of the Mineo’s CARA, the Europe's largest reception centre for migrants. The analysis shows that a governance network may turn corruption itself into a network where abuse of power can proliferate thanks to the opacity resulting from the multiplicity of actors, interactions, and fragmentation characterizing the governance system
Accounting for ignorance: An investigation into corruption, immigration and the State.
No full textThis research aims to investigate the financial and immigration mismanagement in Italy in the context of the recent refugee crisis. The paper contributes to previous accounting studies on corruption and immigration by unveiling the role of accounting as a technology of ignorance serving multiple and contradictory objectives of a fragmented State. We observed that ignorance partially produced through accounting relieved the Italian state of the social, political and economic burden of the refugee crisis. As opposed to a common understanding of corruption as use of public office for private gains, the consequent lack of control and corruption deriving from this ignorance ultimately served ‘public’ gains. The paper proposes retroduction as an approach for conducting critical accounting studies and invites future accounting researchers to expose States’ control over territory, resources, and population through a critical investigation of the strategic and political use of ignorance
Lost in Translation: Exploring Gender Mainstreaming in Japan
No full textThis study explores how discourses of gender equality workers in Japan contribute to the construction of gendered subjectivitiesand how these discourses intersect with the hegemonic neoliberal discourse of gender equality. By employing a thematic andcritical discourse analysis, our study revealed the presence of three distinct discursive regimes: a locally adapted neoliberalregime that positions women as resources for development; a critical approach that problematizes a binary view of gender andemphasizes gender equality as a systemic issue; and an essentialist regime that perceives gender equality as incorporating afemale perspective and advocates for a more conservative subject position for women in Japan. Expanding on Butler's work, weconclude that discursive displacement can arise within the interaction of various discourse levels, all of which are influenced bythe cultural, historical, political, and economic context in which they unfold. We further argue that embracing and recognizingthe localized nuances and meanings of gender equality holds the potential to significantly enhance the formulation of bothcentral and local policy decisions. This perspective also opens avenues to effectively counter the effects of neoliberal feminis
Assessing the validity of accounting for human rights: a pragmatic constructivist perspective
No full textPurpose - This paper aims to focus on accounting for human rights. It explores the validity of conflicting theoretical perspectives on accounting and their ability to reduce the gap between accounting and accountability for human rights. Design/methodology/approach - This study relies on the notion of topos to develop a pragmatic constructivist perspective on conventional accounting and social accounting with respect to human rights. Applying pragmatic constructivism permits a better understanding and assessment of the ethics underpinning the conventional and social accounting approaches. Findings - The ethics underpinning the topos of conventional accounting offer a reductive explanation of the agency of organizational actors, so inhibiting moral and social responsibility. Furthermore, the calculative logic that dominates this topos promotes a monovocal form of communication (to shareholders) and translates values per se into instrumental values. By contrast, the social accounting topos sheds new light on the role that accounting may play in detecting human rights violations, by focusing more on communication and social values. However, for this topos to be valid, alternative management practices that go beyond voluntary social reporting need to be further developed. Originality/value - Human rights accountability is an urgent challenge for companies in today's society. However, scholars have largely disregarded the role of accounting in the process of holding companies accountable for human rights violations. By questioning the relationship between accounting and human rights, this paper takes a first step towards resolving this issue
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