Organizing for Individuation: Alternative Organizing, Politics and New Identities
Abstract
Organization theorists have predominantly studied identity and organizing within the managed work organization. This frames organization as a structure within which identity work occurs, often as a means of managerial control. In our paper our contribution is to develop the concept of individuation pursued through prefigurative practices within alternative organizing to reframe this relation. We combine recent scholarship on alternative organizations and new social movements to provide a theoretical grounding for an ethnographic study of the prefigurative organizing practices and related identity work of an alternative group in a UK city. We argue that in such groups, identity, organizing and politics become a purposeful set of integrated processes aimed at the creation of new forms of life in the here and now, thus organizing is politics is identity. Our study presents a number of challenges and possibilities to scholars of organization, enabling them to extend their understanding of organization and identity in the contemporary world.
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Biographies
Patrick Reedy is Reader in Organizational Behaviour at Hull University Business School, UK, where he leads the Organization, Ethics and Society research group. His research explores the philosophical, political and social aspects of organization. He is the author of The Manager’s Tale (Ashgate) which uses existentialist theory and narrative analysis to propose new ideas about the relation between identity and organization. He has recently published in Organization Studies, Management Learning, and Social Science and Medicine and this work reflects his interest in critical approaches to work identities, alternative forms of organizing and new social movements.
Daniel King is Senior Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour at Nottingham Trent University, UK, and research co-ordinator for the HRM division. Dr King’s research focuses on three main, interconnected areas: the contribution critical perspectives of management can make to transforming organizational practice; alternative organizations and alternative ways of organizing; and critical perspectives of managing in the third sector. He has published in Human Relations, Management Learning and Scandinavian Journal of Management and has recently written an undergraduate textbook, Organizational Behaviour 2nd edition, with Scott Lawley (Oxford University Press).
Christine Coupland is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Loughborough University, School of Business and Management, UK. She has held faculty positions at the universities of Hull and Nottingham. Her recent publications include articles in Journal of Vocational Behaviour, Organization Studies, Organization and Human Relations. Her research interests centre on issues of identity and language, drawing upon theoretical perspectives from organization studies and constructionist social psychology. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Organizational and Occupational Psychology. She regularly convenes the identity stream at the BAM conference.
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