Object and objective lost?

Lopdrup-Hjorth, Thomas

doi:10.1080/17530350.2014.989883

Cited by 15 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…As has been highlighted by a number of scholars, organizational theorizing has become a ‘theory without a protagonist’ (King et al, 2010, p. 290; Engwall, 1982; Lopdrup-Hjorth, 2015). What used to hold organization theory together and give it legitimacy as a distinct field – i.e.…”

Section: Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent decades have witnessed a number of discussions pertaining to foundational issues within organizational theorizing, including its proper scope (Donaldson, 1995; Pfeffer, 1993; Lounsbury & Beckman, 2015), its conceptualization (du Gay & Lopdrup-Hjorth, 2016; Johnsen, 2018; King et al, 2010; Lopdrup-Hjorth, 2015) and the practical implications that follow from particular kinds of theorizing (e.g. Dobbin & Jung, 2010; Ghoshal, 2005).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Organizing States: The continuing relevance of formal organization within political administration

du Gay,

Lopdrup Hjorth

2024

Organization Theory

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In this paper, we argue for the continuing relevance of formal organization. We do so by examining contemporary challenges to ‘formality’ in one particular sphere of organizational existence: that of political administration. We deploy the latter term to refer to those formal organizational activities involving the constitution, maintenance, projection and regulation of governmental authority. Political administration, we argue, maintains its distinctive character because of the singularity of its purpose or ‘core task’ – namely, the activity of governing in an official capacity through and on behalf of a state. We begin by outlining how formality has regularly been opposed to substance in the social sciences, and how this has led to a series of unfortunate misunderstandings concerning the status of ‘formal organization’. We then turn to show what it means to serve a state in a formal capacity. Here the concept of office is of crucial import and we seek to indicate its key components and their relation to classical organizational theorizing concerning formal organization. Having established the centrality of office to the organizational conduct of the work of the state, we proceed to examine two different but linked developments in politics and public management that have compromised or undermined formal official conduct in political administration and highlight the organizational, political and ethical problems they raise. These problems are not inconsequential but rather go to the heart of debates concerning intense political partisanship and radical scepticism towards public institutions. In taking this route, the paper makes two overall contributions. First, against the ongoing problematization of formality within organizational theorizing, we seek to revive the relevance of classical conceptions of formal organization for organization theory as a practical science. Second, we argue that formal organization within state, government and political administration remains practically crucial to navigating the ‘extreme circumstances’ that confront us in the here and now in what has been termed the ‘New Era of Tragedy’.

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Section: Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Organizing States: The continuing relevance of formal organization within political administration

du Gay,

Lopdrup Hjorth

2024

Organization Theory

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“…To do so, I will show how we can engage with the concept of the organization by making use of Adorno's negative dialectics. The dominant approach has been to analyze organization as a specific empirical 'object' (Lopdrup-Hjorth, 2015) or circumscribed 'social entity' (King et al, 2010) with distinct properties that can be theoretically identified. However, I…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who’s Afraid of Organization? Concepts, Process and Identity Thinking

Johnsen

2017

Philosophy of Management

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This paper argues that we should not abandon the noun 'organization' in favour of the verb 'organizing' in order to capture processes of change, flow and movement, but instead explore how such processes reveal themselves when the concept of organization diverges from the objects it is supposed to encapsulate. Here I make use of Adorno's negative dialectics in order to show how the experience of organizational phenomena remains trapped within a contradiction: we need to use concepts to describe objects even though concepts can never fully exhaust the objects they describe. However, I maintain that it is precisely this discrepancy between concepts and objects that provides us the opportunity to experience the elusive state of organizations and their processual nature. Consequently, this paper presents a 'negative dialectics of organization', showing how organizational phenomena are always more complex, temporal and dynamic than what the concept of organization permits us to grasp.

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“…Rather than an inexorable process, the paper suggests that processes of datafication are open to diverse configurations, calling for greater attentiveness to the mundane forms of organisational work that shape them. Hjorth, 2015). In a 'Schumpeterian world' of competition and relentless change, formal organisation and bureaucracy continue to be cast as anachronisms and the source of dysfunctions (Du Gay and Lopdrup-Hjorth, 2016, p. 6-7).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intersections Between Fintech Imaginaries and Traditional Banking: A Study of Disciplinary, Implementary, and Parasitic Work in the Danish Financial Sector

Kværnø-Jones¹

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This PhD project studies intersections between the financial technology sector (FinTech) and traditional banking, approached as sites in which imaginaries, such as those pointing to ‘disrupted’ futures of banking, intersect with established organisational contexts of traditional banking. The focus on intersections departs from a curious puzzle presented by the FinTech sector, in which activity in the sector is characterised by both imaginative visions of transformed financial services and connections to traditional banking. The thesis suggests the concept imaginative intersections, which hones in on intersections between imagination and established organisation. In studying imaginative intersections, the thesis is guided by the question: ‘How do FinTech imaginaries intersect with established contexts of traditional banking?’ This research question is motivated by a broader interest in how imagined possibilities are delimited within established organisational contexts. The thesis engages with discussions across science and technology studies (STS), anthropology, and cultural economy concerned with finance, technology, and imagination, thinking about the kinds of worlds instituted through actors grappling with financial technological developments. A burgeoning research agenda on imagination in organisation studies is then fleshed out, drawing together different works that point to a growing interest in the significance of imagination in organisational activities. Within the emerging research agenda on imagination in organisational research, the thesis hones in on a particular tension between imagination and established organisational contexts, arguing that we should be attentive to the organisational work involved in making certain imagined futures performative.

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Object and objective lost?

Cited by 15 publications

References 52 publications

Organizing States: The continuing relevance of formal organization within political administration

Organizing States: The continuing relevance of formal organization within political administration

Who’s Afraid of Organization? Concepts, Process and Identity Thinking

Intersections Between Fintech Imaginaries and Traditional Banking: A Study of Disciplinary, Implementary, and Parasitic Work in the Danish Financial Sector

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