AND WHO ARE YOU?: A PERFORMATIVE PERSPECTIVE ON AUTHORITY IN ORGANIZATIONS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bourgoin, Alaric; Bencherki, Nicolas; Faraj, Samer
• 署名单位: Universite de Montreal; HEC Montreal; University of Quebec; Universite TELUQ; McGill University
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2017.1335
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 1134-1165
• 关键词: DISCOURSE ANALYSIS; POWER; work; expertise; COMMUNICATION; COORDINATION; CONSTRUCTION; LEGITIMATION; credibility; MATERIALITY

摘要

As work and organizational realities become increasingly post-bureaucratic, the conventional and stable bases of a person's authority-their position, their expertise, or the acquiescence of a subordinate-are eroding. This evolution calls us to revise our understanding of authority, and to consider more deeply how it is achieved in contexts that are both fluid and fragmented. Building on a six-month autoethnography of a consulting assignment, we show that authority is a practical, relational, and situated performance. It exists in a tension between two mirroring processes-activation and passivation-through which relations are either leveraged or downplayed to shape the situation and steer collective action. Our study also reveals that the performance of authority involves not just people, but also a broader range of actants, including artifacts and abstract entities. In line with current research on performativity in organizations, our findings contribute to the relational program on authority and the revelation of its sociomaterial dimension. Thus, we provide an action-based understanding of authority that is better suited for the study of post-bureaucratic organizing.