Ethics from Below: Secrecy and the Maintenance of Ethics

Younès, Dima; Courpasson, David; Jacob, Marie-Rachel

doi:10.1007/s10551-018-4029-5

Cited by 6 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For the most part, these initiatives stay underground and infra-political (Scott, 1990). Secrecy was found to be a crucial ingredient of resistance in the studies described in the previous section, both as a way to enhance collective creativity and to cement social solidarity (Courpasson & Younes, 2018; Younes et al, 2018). These studies show how workers mobilized secrecy in order to work according to their own moral principles, forming what Simmel would call secret groups; that is, groups that function as ‘an interactional unit characterized (.…”

Section: Evidence Of Infra-political Solidarity To Resist Neoliberal Measuresmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Some authors use the term ‘ethics of resistance’ (Alakavuklar & Alamgir, 2017) to describe such situations, in which individuals, rather than acting in their own interest, resist in order to sustain core values that have come under threat from new ways of doing business (see also Rhodes et al, 2010). One study conducted by the authors analysed how teams resist attempts to transform journalistic work into publicity work for media sponsors (Younes, Courpasson, & Jacob, 2018). Another, also by the authors, examined how research and development teams in the pharmaceutical industry sought to combat the authoritarian reorientation of their work goals toward more profitable activities when they perceived this came at the expense of exploring new ways to save lives (Courpasson & Younes, 2018).…”

Section: Evidence Of Infra-political Solidarity To Resist Neoliberal Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Durkheim in the Neoliberal Organization: Taking Resistance and Solidarity Seriously

Courpasson

Younès

Reed

2021

Organization Theory

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Durkheim’s contributions to organization studies have so far been decidedly marginal, and largely concentrated on culture. In this paper, we draw upon his theory of anomie and solidarity to show how a Durkheimian view of contemporary organizations and work has special relevance today for debates about how workers, particularly middle managers, can reshuffle a capacity to resist neoliberal efforts to profoundly disrupt their working conditions, in particular their autonomy to define what is a job well done. We show how Durkheim’s insights can account for the unexpected rekindling of forms of social solidarity in highly competitive and individualistic organizational settings, through dissident efforts that convey a renewal of a certain work ethos severed by neoliberal managerial policies and practices. Recent studies on resistance confirm Durkheim’s view that forms of collective activity, resembling supposedly ‘old’ mechanisms of former days, continue to exist and develop in contemporary societies and organizations, in response to pressure to put people in situations of inter-individual competition that disrupts social relationships.

show abstract

Section: Evidence Of Infra-political Solidarity To Resist Neoliberal Measuresmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Evidence Of Infra-political Solidarity To Resist Neoliberal Measuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Durkheim in the Neoliberal Organization: Taking Resistance and Solidarity Seriously

Courpasson

Younès

Reed

2021

Organization Theory

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For the most part, these initiatives stay underground and infra-political (Scott, 1990). Secrecy was found to be a crucial ingredient of resistance in the studies described in the previous section, both as a way to enhance collective creativity and to cement social solidarity Younes et al, 2018). These studies show how workers mobilized secrecy in order to work according to their own moral principles, forming what Simmel would call secret groups; that is, groups that function as 'an interactional unit characterized (.…”

Section: The Resisting Manager As a Promoter Of Solidaritymentioning

confidence: 85%

“…journalistic work into publicity work for media sponsors (Younes, Courpasson, & Jacob, 2018). Another, also by the authors, examined how research and development teams in the pharmaceutical industry sought to combat the authoritarian reorientation of their work goals toward more profitable activities when they perceived this came at the expense of exploring new ways to save lives .…”

Section: Previous Versionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The literature on creativity, for example, has extensively documented instances of managers protecting their teams so they are able to work on innovations and ideas that the neoliberal logic would prefer to dismiss from the corporate agenda Dooley, Tsoukas, Garud, Gehman, & Kumaraswamy, 2011;Mainemelis, 2010). Leveraging resources to allow teams to work differently to achieve organizational goals is a phenomenon that may also be observed in the academic world (Gjerde & Alvesson, 2019), and even in corporations (Younes et al, 2018). Although it is not the central goal of orchestrating this kind of collective action, it helps draw people out of isolation , fostering collective achievements within organizations at a time when top managers tend to push for unrestrained competition among individuals and units.…”

Section: Previous Versionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Corrigendum

2021

Organization Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Durkheim's contributions to organization studies have so far been decidedly marginal, and largely concentrated on culture. In this paper, we draw upon his theory of anomie and solidarity to show how a Durkheimian view of contemporary organizations and work has special relevance today for debates about how workers, particularly middle managers, can reshuffle a capacity to resist neoliberal efforts to profoundly disrupt their working conditions, in particular their autonomy to define what is a job well done. We show how Durkheim's insights can account for the unexpected rekindling of forms of social solidarity in highly competitive and individualistic organizational settings, through dissident efforts that convey a renewal of a certain work ethos severed by neoliberal managerial policies and practices. Recent studies on resistance confirm Durkheim's view that forms of collective activity, resembling supposedly 'old' mechanisms of former days, continue to exist and develop in contemporary societies and organizations, in response to pressure to put people in situations of inter-individual competition that disrupts social relationships.

show abstract

The Politics and Ethics of Resistance, Feminism and Gender Equality in Saudi Arabian Organizations

Aldossari

Calvard

2021

J Bus Ethics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Greater numbers of women are entering workplaces in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. Structural features of patriarchy are changing in Middle Eastern societies and workplaces, but women's experiences of gendered segregation, under-representation and exclusion raise questions around the feminist politics and ethics mobilized to respond to them.Building on and extending emerging research on feminism, gender, resistance, feminist ethics and the Middle East, we use data from an interview study with 58 Saudi Arabian women to explore their attitudes toward gender-segregated and mixed workplaces. We develop a novel conceptualization of how gender is experienced through patternings of resistance and conformity shaped by the ethicopolitical, religiopolitical and sociocultural webs of meaning in Saudi society that permeate workplaces. Saudi women's attitudes and actions in the workplace are neither entirely individual and private nor entirely collective and public, but made up of nuanced commitments and resistances to context-relevant identity issues. We discuss implications of our findings for the feminist ethics and politics of gendered resistance and conformity to working practices and norms in Islamic and Middle Eastern settings.

show abstract

Ethics from Below: Secrecy and the Maintenance of Ethics

Cited by 6 publications

References 56 publications

Durkheim in the Neoliberal Organization: Taking Resistance and Solidarity Seriously

Durkheim in the Neoliberal Organization: Taking Resistance and Solidarity Seriously

Corrigendum

The Politics and Ethics of Resistance, Feminism and Gender Equality in Saudi Arabian Organizations

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About