CARE AND POSSIBILITY: ENACTING AN ETHIC OF CARE THROUGH NARRATIVE PRACTICE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lawrence, Thomas B.; Maitlis, Sally
• 署名单位: Simon Fraser University; University of British Columbia
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0363-7425
• DOI: 10.5465/amr.2010.0466
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 641-663
• 关键词: GROUP POTENCY; STORYTELLING ORGANIZATION; resilience; compassion; performance; work; team; CONSEQUENCES; KNOWLEDGE; hope

摘要

The feminist notion of an ethic of care provides a powerful alternative to justice as a central orienting value for the development of moral theory, but it has been largely overlooked in the literature on care in organizations. We explore how an ethic of care could be enacted in organizations, arguing that it would involve narrative practices embedded in enduring relationships, such as work teams. We articulate three domains of discursive practice-how members construct their experiences, how they construct their struggles, and how they construct future-oriented stories-and from them identify three specific caring narrative practices: constructing histories of sparkling moments, contextualizing struggles, and constructing polyphonic future-oriented stories. We argue that, together, these practices foster an ontology of possibility-a belief system that emphasizes the socially constructed nature of both past and present and, thus, facilitates action and an appreciation of its limits. We conclude by considering the organizational conditions under which an ethic of care is more likely to flourish and the impact of an ontology of possibility on the resilience of organizational teams who adopt it.