Abstract
It is said that all the world is a stage. But how do organizations physically stage performances such as sales pitches and research presentations? Drawing on a 14-month-long ethnographic study at a Fortune 500 strategic research company, this article explains how. Emphasizing the active role of human and non-human actors, it uncovers three staging practices that organizations use to transform spaces into stages. Organizations theme stages by populating them with certain objects. They produce a style of performance by arranging relationships between performers and audiences. Finally, they order movements from one stage to others so that plots emerge. Theorizing these staging practices through a materialist dramaturgy, the article challenges existing organizational theory that tends to focus on the ways organizations control and script performances. The article shows that organizational performances in service and knowledge organizations can be improvisational. They are not preordained but they are organized.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1802-1826 |
Number of pages | 25 |
Journal | Human Relations |
Volume | 76 |
Issue number | 11 |
Early online date | 18 Jul 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Nov 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding:The author disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: the author received financial support for the research reported in this article (British Academy SG161403).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.
Keywords
- ethnography
- materiality
- organizational dramaturgy
- performance
- space
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- General Social Sciences
- Strategy and Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation