Analyzing organization through disagreements: the concept of managerial controversy
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop the concept of managerial controversy. This concept focusses on organizational disagreements in order to understand the emergence of organization, and also postulates that researchers can better understand organizational phenomena through the ruptures that occur in an organization's everyday activities.
Design/methodology/approach
While the concept of controversy was initially developed to understand the emergence of outputs, this paper develops the concept of managerial controversy in order to understand the emergence of ways of working.
Findings
The concept of managerial controversy demonstrates that the authors can improve the understanding of organization by focussing on the disagreements, the associations of heterogeneous elements, the mediators, and the traces left by actors, as well as by considering the viewpoints of these actors.
Research limitations/implications
The concept of managerial controversy can be used as a framework for describing the development of organization over time. This concept is suitable for management and organization scholars interested by issues related to organization and organizing.
Originality/value
This paper offers an analytical framework for analyzing the emergence of organizational features from ruptures. Furthermore, the concept of managerial controversy extends to not only the literature of actor-network theory, but also to the literature related to organizing.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
An early version of this paper was presented in PROS workshop in 2009 in Cyprus as well as during a research seminar at the Université Paris-Dauphine in 2011. The author very much thanks the participants of these two events for their helpful comments. The author also sincerely appreciates having had the opportunity to discuss this paper and the ideas presented herein with Lionel Garreau, Marc Kohlbry, Stéphanie Missonier, Jean-Pierre Ségal, Catherine Thomas, Hela Yousfi, and François-Xavier de Vaujany. The author would also like to extend a very special thanks to the Senior Editor and the Associate Editor of the Journal of Organizational Change Management, as well as to the anonymous reviewers, for helping to shape this paper.
Citation
Hussenot, A. (2014), "Analyzing organization through disagreements: the concept of managerial controversy", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 373-390. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-01-2012-0006
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited