Management and Marketing - Research Publications

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    Some dare call it power
    HARDY, C ; Clegg, ; Clegg, SR ; Hardy, C ; Lawrence, TB ; Nord, WR (Sage Publications, 2006)
    Power has typically been seen as the ability to get others to do what you want them to, if necessary, against their will (Weber 1978). This seemingly simple definition, which presents the negative, rather than the positive, aspects of power has been challenged, amended, critiqued, extended and rebuffed over the years but it, nonetheless, remains the statting point for a remarkably diverse body of literature. Behind it lies a series of important struggles, not just concerning different conceptualizations of power, and different traditions of social science, but also in the interplay between critical and managerialist thought as well as betvveen academic and practitioner discourses. There are, then, a multitude of different voices that speak to and of power and a variety of contradictory conceptualizations result. The two dominant voices the functionalist and the critical (to use simple categorizations) - rarely communicate with each other and refer to quite different lineages of earlier work. The former has adopted a managerialist orientation whose underlying assumptions are rarely articulated, much less critiqued. The result has been an apparently pragmatic concept, easy to use but also easy to abuse. The latter has confronted issues of domination and exploitation head on but, some would argue, in ways that appear to be increasingly less relevant. The aim of this chapter is to explore these different voices and to reflect on the changes that have occurred since the last incarnation of this chapter, 10 years ago. The first section explores the historical development of functionalist and critical voices. It discusses the broader heritage of Marx and Weber concerning power, followed by early management work on power. The second section shows how subsequent developments built on these respective approaches, in many respects, pulling them further apart. An analysis of this work shows how the different voices have continued to follow divergent trajectories. The third section focuses on the insights provided by Foucault, and the supposed end of sovereignty, which had such an impact on this field of study in the late 1980s and early 1990s, radically changing our understanding of power. The fourth section revisits power and resistance in the light of Foucault's influence to discuss some of the developments in this area over the last 10 years, as well as to connect with some previously neglected streams around Goffman's ideas concerning 'total institutions', which we believe are particularly relevant for making sense of some of the events that have shaped our lives in recent years.
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    Discourse and institutions
    Phillips, N ; Lawrence, TB ; Hardy, C (ACAD MANAGEMENT, 2004-10)
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    DISCOURSE AND DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION: THE DECLINE OF DDT
    Maguire, S ; Hardy, C (ACAD MANAGEMENT, 2009-02)
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    Introduction: Organizational discourse: Exploring the field
    Grant, D ; Hardy, C ; Oswick, C ; Putnam, LL (SAGE Publications Ltd, 2004-01-01)
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    Institutional effects of interorganizational collaboration: The emergence of proto-institutions
    Lawrence, TB ; Hardy, C ; Phillips, N (ACAD MANAGEMENT, 2002-02)
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    Power and change: A critical reflection
    HARDY, C ; CLEGG, S ; BOONSTRA, JJ (John Wiley & Sons, 2004)
    Power has typically been seen as the ability to get others to do what you want them to, if necessary, against their will (Weber, 1978). In the context of change, the use of power – by management – seems both logical and inevitable given the high risk of failure attributed to employee resistance noted in the opening chapter. If employees do not want to change, then managers must use power – the ability to make them change despite their disinclination – against their resistance. Yet behind this apparently straightforward understanding of the role of power and this ‘no nonsense’ approach to organizational change, lies a series of important struggles, not just about different conceptualizations of power, but also about the interplay between critical and managerial thought; and between academic and practitioner discourses. The aim of this chapter, therefore, is to provide an overview of the different ways in which power has been understood and to relate these different understandings to the literature in organizational change and the practical recommendations it provides for managing change. The first section explores the historical development of two traditions in the study of power: the broader heritage of Marx and Weber and the early management work on power. The second section then elaborates two diverging views and their underlying assumptions: critical theory, which draws and builds on the Marxian/Weberian heritage; and the more recent work in management which, for the most part, has adopted a very different conceptualization. The third section provides an analysis of the traditional organizational change literature to see how it accommodates these divergent assumptions. The fourth section focuses on the insights provided by Foucault, which have radically changed our understanding of power. The fifth section examines some of the more recent ideas in managing organizational change in the light of these insights.
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    Inter-organizational collaboration and the dynamics of institutional fields
    Phillips, N ; Lawrence, TB ; Hardy, C (Wiley, 2000-01-01)
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    Discourse as a strategic resource
    Hardy, C ; Palmer, I ; Phillips, N (SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2000-09)
    In this article, we outline a model of how discourse can be mobilized as a strategic resource. The model consists of three circuits. First, in circuits of activity, individuals attempt to introduce new discursive statements, through the use of symbols, narratives, metaphors, etc. aimed at evoking concepts to create particular objects. These activities must intersect with circuits of performativity. This occurs when, for example, concepts are contextually embedded and have meaning for other actors; when symbols, narratives and metaphors possess receptivity; and when the subject position of the enunciator warrants voice. Third, when these two circuits intersect, connectivity occurs as the new discursive statements `take'. Using an illustrative example of an international NGO operating in Palestine, we show how an individual brought about strategic change by engaging in discursive activity.
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    When 'silence = death', keep talking: Trust, control and the discursive construction of identity in the Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment domain
    Maguire, S ; Phillips, N ; Hardy, C (SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD, 2001)
    When we trust someone, it is because we believe there is something about his or her behaviour that makes it predictable. From a control perspective, it means that their behaviour is subject to some type of control mechanism. Building on this connection, we argue that trust and control are closely related and, in fact, that different forms of trust are associated with different types of control. We present a model explaining the control mechanisms associated with three different forms of trust commonly proposed in the literature. Based on a three-year study of the Canadian HIV/AIDS treatment domain, we then explore in more detail the dynamics of identification-based trust and normative control. Our findings reveal the discursive foundations of generating identification-based trust
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    Researching Organizational Discourse
    Hardy, C (Informa UK Limited, 2001-09)