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The twenty-first century has been witness to a number of corporate scandals and private-sector take-overs that have called into question the shareholder-focused economy and talk of a ‘post-capitalist’ economy. By way of contrast, this paper focuses on the Quakers as a (largely forgotten) exemplar of good organisation and good governance. We begin by briefly introducing the Quakers and the particular context (mid-seventeenth century England) from which they emerged. We then describe the significant impact that Quaker businesses had since the industrial revolution and we outline some of the business innovations they pioneered. In particular, the Quakers were known for their honest and honorable business practices, their enlightened approach to employee welfare, their concern for wider society, and their willingness to innovate. Today, most of these ‘Quaker’ businesses are no longer either owned or controlled by Quakers, and have almost invariably adopted the conventional shareholder model of corporate governance. We trace their demise to the introduction of limited liability and innovations in corporate law in the mid nineteenth century. These changes provided the legal basis for the Quaker family firms to incorporate, which many of them did in the late nineteenth century. We then describe how the unique Quaker ethos was inexorably decanted out of these companies during the twentieth century as the Quakers slowly lost both ownership and control of their businesses. We then inquire into how the Quaker story might help us reimagine the theory and practice of corporate governance and management.

IFIP WG 8.2 Working Conference on Information Systems and Organizations (IS&O 2016), Dublin, Ireland, December 9-10 2016 In what follows, we present the outcome of an imagined dialogue with Tim Ingold on possible future directions for an anthropologically-sensitive approach to studying Information Systems (IS) and Organization Studies (OS). The aim is to try to convey some of the strangeness and freshness that we have found in his thought, with a view to stimulating IS/OS scholars to engage further with his work and ideas. The piece takes the form of an imagined Q&A session with Tim, which we have synthesized from excerpts of previously published interviews and writings.

This paper examines the related but different concepts of the uncanny and the sacred. Drawing on two cases – one fictional and one real – and using Žižek’s Symbolic-Real-Imaginary as an organising frame, the paper analyses how the uncanny and the sacred are connected. It then proceeds to examine the role of theorising in sacralising the uncanny and profaning the sacred. Finally, it briefly discusses how theory might be re-enchanted.

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AD 12/02/2014

This paper examines an industry whose incumbents’ specialised complimentary assets were their operations management and distribution channels. This advantage was seriously undermined by the advent of digital distribution. Radical technological change theories dictate that if incumbents in an industry without specialised complimentary assets will be replaced by entrants. This did not happen, and extant theories of incumbent survival do not explain why the incumbents remained dominant in the industry. We propose that survival is due to the unique industry characteristic of perpetuating sales. This paper will explain what is a perpetuating sales model and why does it enable incumbent survival?

We are interested in the emergence of new markets. While the literature contains various perspectives on how such new markets come to be, the dynamics of the marketization process are less clear. This paper focuses on the development of stent technology and examines the activities characteristic of its emerging market. We identify four market ‘moments’: a mutable marketing moment prior to the point of disruption; two parallel moments at the point of disruption – internecine marketing between emergent competitors, and subversive marketing between those competitors and established actors; and finally, a civilized marketing moment. We conclude that emergent competitors operate two distinct strategies at the point of disruption. Also, legal activities are central to marketization dynamics during this period. In terms of process, while creative destruction may broadly describe the move from disruption to acceptance, there is a period of creative construction prior to disruption, when the new market is coming into being.

Donncha Kavanagh (chapter eight) invites us to think of the university as fool,the idea of fool taken from the mediaeval courts and elsewhere in which the fool had a crucial role to play. The role of the fool, after all, is to present ambiguity to the powerful, wittily engaging his audience but perhaps to disturb a little as well.The fool is an irritant, a provocateur, whose modus operandi is to provoke newwisdom in others. Within the fool's foolishness, then, lies wisdom. Understood as fool, the university has had several masters or 'sovereign institutions' over its near-one thousand years of history, including the crown, the nation, the state, theprofessions and the world of work. The idea of fool, however, implies a certain 'liminality' from the main structures of power and so an issue (for Kavanagh) isthe extent to which this liminal role has been or is being abandoned. If, qua fool, the university is both to institutionalise and to de-institutionalise, the universitycannot become subservient to any authority. 'The fool must . . . be carefulnot to transgress this (liminal) role.' Accordingly, 'there is an . . . onus on the university . . . to actively foster intellectuals that question and play with society's institutions.' AD 31/03/2014

This paper takes some of Melanie Klein s ideas, which Bion (1961/1998) previously used to understand group dynamics, to analyse the discipline of management studies since its birth in the United States in the late 19th century. Specifically, it focuses on the idealisation of work and play, and argues that at its inception, for idiosyncratic historical reasons, the discipline was rooted in a paranoid-schizoid position in which work was idealised as good and play as bad. The paper maps out the peculiar set of factors and influences that brought this about. It then examines how and if, again following Klein, the discipline has evolved to the depressive position, where the idealisations are replaced by a more ambiguous, holistic semantic frame. Seven different relationships between work and play are then described. The paper contends that the originary splitting and idealisation is foundational to the discipline, and provides an enduring basis for analysing management theory and practice. It concludes by using this splitting to map out five potential future trajectories for the discipline. DM, 29/11/2013

This paper examines the international diffusion of one business practice, project management, through the prism of prior literature and data on the diffusion of ISO 9000. The study took an inductive approach, building theory through the iterative collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data. The findings problematise the central position accorded to the S-curve model and neo-institutional theory in explaining technology diffusion. The research posits three distinct processes driving the diffusion process: utility, institutional isomorphism, and competitive isomorphism, with the latter consisting of three primary mechanisms: competitive imitation, trendslators and fashion retailers. Contrary to prior literature, national, quasi-professional associations are found to be central to the diffusion process and play a key role in advocating and containing management technologies.

This paper reviews a remarkable experiment in organisation. At the centre of the story is James G. (Jim) March, one of the most influential scholars in management and organisation studies over the last half century. From 1954 to 1964, March was a leading member of the Graduate School of Administration (GSIA) at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, which was an extraordinary hotbed of ideas and research at that time. The group was led by Herbert Simon, a true polymath who is now recognised as a founding father of many scientific domains.

This research inquires into the value of two common ‘management technologies’, namely ISO 9001 and project management. To avoid certain methodological problems, we study the value of these micro-level practices by inductively analysing macro-level data, specifically the intensity of project management and ISO 9001 certification (termed project management score and ISO 9001 score) in different countries against national measures of wealth and innovation. There is no correlation between ISO 9001 score and innovation, while high ISO 9001 scores are correlated with decreasing levels of wealth. The project management score is positively correlated with wealth and with innovation, though very high project management scores are negatively correlated with innovation. The study includes a cluster analysis which finds that, with one exception, countries tend to adopt either project management or ISO 9001 but not both. The analysis indicates that project management is more likely to be associated with high innovation and high wealth than ISO 9001.

This chapter discusses humour as it is deliberately produced by organizations through advertising. Using beer advertisements as an example, our aim is to explain the increasing prevalence of advertising-based organizational humour during the period that has come to be known as late capitalism. Drawing on the literature on humour in advertising, the chapter explores the irony of how such advertisements provide a comedic critique of the code that acts to control and construct consumers, while also being a constitutive part of that process. Publisher when granting permission required that page numbers be put in - MEL 08/09/2014

An important aspect of globalisation/Americanisation is, prima facia, the global export of televisual products such as Sesame Street, Barney, etc. that are explicitly concerned with cultivating elementary forms of organisational life. Thus, it is surprising that organization studies has been virtually silent on childhood and pedagogy. This lacuna needs filling especially because the development of a post-national, cosmopolitan society problematises existing pedagogical models. In this paper we argue that cosmopolitanism requires a pedagogy that is centred on the Lack and the mythic figure of the Trickster. We explore this through an analysis of children’s stories, including Benjamin’s radio broadcasts for children, Sesame Street and Dr Seuss.

In this paper we advocate and demonstrate the value of science fiction as a potent way of ‘practicalising philosophy.’ Science fiction narratives provide an ideal-typical setting through which theory can be represented, clarified and developed. They also help us link the abstraction of theory and the messiness of practice, while partly side-stepping the enigma whereby any study of the empirical world may merely reflect back the particular ontologies and epistemologies that constitute that world. In particular, we claim that the television series Star Trek provides a powerful metaphor for understanding and teaching certain themes regarding modernity, including the possibility of universal progress through economic expansion (capitalism, colonialism), technological development (industrialism, positivism), and the possibilities for universal emancipation (democracy). We especially focus on the Borg Collective, a form of life that has become one of the most enduring and critical mirrors that Star Trek has held up to contemporary society, and which can be usefully understood as a metaphor for the dark side of instrumental rationality. The paper draws on the various encounters between the Enterprise and the Borg to illustrate and engage with the diverse writings of Weber, the Frankfurt School, Habermas, Foucault, and Haraway on modernity’s continuing and ambivalent struggle with instrumental rationality.

This paper considers the desire for unity, reconciliation and consensus underpinning three models of talking – namely, 'the meeting', 'the dyadic love relationship', and 'the psychoanalytic session'. We highlight the three domains’ shared intellectual and historical heritage wherein talk is seen as a mode of achieving unity (of the group, of the dyad, or of the self) and conversely 'silence' is seen as pathology. Through looking at the role of silence in the works of Lacan, Joyce, and Beckett, we then examine how conversations with a collective, an Other, the self, etc. can all be enriched by ambivalence, antagonism and, in particular, silence. In contrast to the conventional understanding, silence is not the 'end' of understanding, but rather a new beginning. From this perspective, silence can be the basis upon which we can begin to imagine a principled relationship with the Other. Author has checked copyright

The managerial behaviour approach to understanding managerial work has developed from research over the course of fifty years. The approach represents a marked departure from mainstream (and still prevalent) management approaches that depict management as a set of general composite functions. The managerial behaviour approach is distinctive in its empirical research background, object, focus and methodology. Its objective is to provide the simple answer to the complex question: what do managers do? However, the emphasis in the studies on managerial behaviour represents a limitation in so far as a context for locating and judging that behaviour is largely absent (Hales, 1986). This paper presents the results of initial research into managers operating in a different and largely neglected context - city councils. The research uses Mintzberg’s (1973) concept of behavioural roles as an analytical tool to explain and understand what city managers do. This study assesses whether these roles adequately capture the important features of managerial work in the city council. It is argued that while Mintzberg’s role framework is useful, structured observation alone does not adequately address the complexities of environments and styles of managers or the cognitive processes of managers. However, by integrating this approach with an appreciation of context and cognitive processes and how they can influence or affect managerial behaviour, we develop a more realistic description of what managers actually do and why they do it.

In line with many other disciplines, organisation theory has taken the ‘narrative turn’ in recent years–an almost inevitable move after the sustained assault on positivistic research, with researchers increasingly using story-telling and folklore to understand organisational politics, culture, and change. Concurrently, folklorists have become interested in work and organisational lore and have begun to engage with the literature on organisation theory. These two movements suggest that organisation theory and folklore might fruitfully engage with one another more intensively and extensively, especially since a number of research themes are shared by and overlap both disciplines. This seminar and paper focuses on one of these themes, namely the subaltern.

This paper considers the parallels and intersections between Star Trek and contemporary management discourse. We show that the central issues of complex organisations and management are represented in fictional scenarios in Star Trek and that these find their 'real world' correspondences in the management literature. Tracing this theme over the thirty-year lifespan of the product, we outline both the central axial problems of organisations as well as contextual transformations, and, by focusing on particular episodes, we identify and analyse germane micro-sociological and micro-organisational processes. Thus, we consider Star Trek an 'expressive good' - that is, a material product of the culture industry that gives expression to the prevailing cultural processes through which its production and circulation takes place. Moreover, Star Trek, as an exemplary science fiction utopia/dystopia, facilitates a critical imaginary enabling us to envision a variety of organisational alternatives through which we can assess and reflect on our own management practices and organisational contexts. Publisher when granting permission required that page numbers be noted - MEL 08/09/2014

Marketing, in its bid to be a serious discipline, has largely avoided theorising about humour in the marketplace. This is especially surprising given the increase in humorous ads over the last two decades or so. This paper seeks to address this omission by analysing humour in advertising with particular reference to Budweiser’s series of Lizards' advertisements. The paper considers the phenomenon at different levels of analysis. We argue that humorous advertisements are suited to contemporary media and advertising environments, and that such advertisements are a natural offshoot of the prevailing postmodernist mood. Humour possesses many traits of postmodernity–fun, irony and parody, and is therefore in step with this mood. Finally, humour is considered as an alternative to postmodernity, in so far as it reaches parts that other discourses, such as the discourse of postmodernity, cannot reach.

James March’s highly influential article on organisational learning underpins the studies of exploration and exploitation collected in this issue. What is less well known is that March’s article, which is based on a computer simulation of collective and individual learning, reflects a reallife experiment in exploration and exploitation that he, in large part, designed and conducted when he was the new ‘boy Dean’ of the School of Social Sciences in the University of California at Irvine between 1964 and 1969. This paper tells this story and then uses it to critique March’s AU :1 original model. It argues that March’s model, which was probably the first simulation of an organisation learning, worked to constitute rather than AU :2 model the phenomenon of organisational learning. The Irvine story is also important because it provides the context for what constitutes knowledge in organisation theory, and because it highlights the personal trauma and distress that can accompany the creative play of exploration. AD 20/01/2014

This paper argues that the philosophical debate in marketing, led by Shelby Hunt and Paul Anderson, is no longer providing new insights and is symptomatic of the anthropocentrism of the social sciences. This anthropocentrism has had consequent implications for metatheoretical frameworks that describe the field and has limited the breadth of philosophical discussion in marketing. The paper argues that this discussion should now move beyond the subject-object debate and it identifies writers who have variously tried to transcend the paradigm. It argues that the debate should move from epistemological to ontological and metaphysical issues and that marketing's philosophical discussion should also be broadened to include debate on aesthetics, theology and technology. Also published in Marketing Theory (2007) Pauline Maclaran, Mike Saren, and Mark Tadajewski (eds), Sage: London. Has also been submitted as a book chapter, see attached paper for details - Mary Ellen

This is a selection of papers presented at the 28th SCOS conference in Lille, France.

Much debate has encircled studies of information systems, technology and organizations with regards to ideas of process, stability and change, performance and materiality. This encapsulates different ways of viewing dualities (e.g. subjective/objective, social/technical, local/global, macro/micro, structure/agency, reality/construction, being/becoming, etc.) as well as alternative ontological and epistemological commitments underlying particular approaches and research perspectives. This paper seeks to explore two specific approaches by focusing on a comparison of Critical Realism (CR) and ANT/Deleuze-inspired forms of inquiry. In particular, we focus on the notion of morphogenesis in order to explore in greater detail how this concept conjures up rather different images in relation to approaches centred around CR and ANT/Deleuze.

Part 5: Examining Knowledge and Practice; International audience; Drawing on interventionist activity theoretical approaches, this paper describes a method of self-confrontation as a way in which to study objects in technology-mediated practices. In addition to research interests, the aim of examining the objects is to develop the capacity of professionals and organizations to work and learn better in complex technology-mediated work. The method was applied in robotic surgery, in which instruments are tele-operated by a surgeon. The robot offers better, collective visualization of the area under surgical operation than previous techniques. In particular, the paper shows how objects were revealed and new objects emerged during the intervention. We suggest that activity theoretical developmental interventions such as self-confrontations may help understand the complexity and evolution of objects, and thus contribute to studies of technology and organizations.