Escaping (into) the night… : Organizations and work at night

Abstract

Despite the increasing normalization of nightwork, organizational researchers typically study organizations and work as daytime phenomena. A nocturnal lens, nevertheless, can provide a different picture of what is going on in organizations. In this paper, I introduce nightwork into organization studies with a qualitative case study of two research sites (a factory and a hospital laboratory), and analyse employee experiences at night and responses to differences between night- and dayshifts. This study contributes to literature on agency and escape, highlighting that night enables and encourages escape in ways that differ from those during the day. Moreover, the study shows that while employees can ‘escape into the night’ to avoid daytime rules and pressures, many also need to ‘escape from the night’ and the physical and mental exhaustion nightwork entails. The paper concludes by pointing to further research on night in organizations, nightwork and escape.

Night and Organization Studies

“…An empirical study (Müller, 2019) illustrates that ‘nocturnal mindsets’, a form of reasoning that justifies looser interpretations of daytime rules, can lead to behavioural changes at night. The study highlights our entanglement with the spatial/social and temporal/material dimensions of night by showing how nocturnal mindsets can result from organizational changes, such as the absence of management or colleagues, and the bodily experiences of exhaustion and fatigue.…”

“…Feelings of freedom from managerial or peer scrutiny (due to a shift from direct to indirect supervision) together with physiological reactions of circadian rhythm disturbances can lead to behaviours of resisting and escaping that would not otherwise occur during days. These behaviours can then become part of regularly exhibited social or group norms during nightshifts (Müller, 2019). Additionally, these more relaxed interpretations and potentially improvised fashions of following rules at night might heighten the motivation for nightworkers to change their behaviour or resist in the first place.…”

“…Williams, 2008) points to differences in how organizations manage, control and survey nightwork; in addition, it highlights differences in how nightworkers interpret daytime rules, engage in deviant behaviour and resist. The essay illustrated, for example, that attempts to manage the circadian rhythms of nightworkers might not work very well: trying to tell nightworkers that night is just like day might jar their bodily experiences, which tell them that night actually is different; exhaustion, fatigue and disorientation remind people that at night things are ‘upside down’, including interpretations of rules and judgements about what is acceptable and what is not (Müller, 2019). One potentially fruitful avenue for future research could thus be the topic of resistance: bodily and mental exhaustion might lead to acts of resistance such as falling asleep or might remind people of the connotations of night which allow them to interpret rules differently.…”

“…tiredness, exhaustion, fatigue, etc.) (Müller, 2019). As organizational researchers, we thus need to advance our knowledge on work at night.…”

“…Williams, 2008). These attempts and related insights point to substantial differences between night and day, for example in the form of ‘nocturnal mindsets’ – a mode of reasoning whereby differences between night and day justify looser interpretations of daytime rules (Müller, 2019).…”