Reflexivity in Organization and Management Theory: A Study of the Production of the Research `Subject'

Abstract

In this paper, we draw on actor-network theory to reflexively investigate the role of the researcher and the research community in the production of a research subject. We review our earlier work, which explores how the dynamics of refugee systems help to produce the research subject-in this case, the refugee. We then use ideas from actor network theory (ANT) to move beyond the more conventional institutional and discursive analyses that are used in these articles. We include not just the activities of actors in the refugee system in our analysis, but also our own activities as researchers, as well as those of the broader research community. We use the concept of translation to explore the role of these actors in the processes of social construction that produce refugees as a subject of academic study, which is related to, but distinct from, the "social" subject produced in the social setting under study. Generalizing from our own research experience, we argue for a reconceptualization of reflexivity in organization and management theory, which moves beyond the common view of heroic individuals struggling to understand and manage their role in their research towards an understanding of reflexivity as involving the research community as a whole.

Work-worlds colliding: Self-reflexivity, power and emotion in organizational ethnography

“…This has lead to an implicit denial of the influence of others including the community of academics in which one is embedded (Hardy et al, 2001) as well the people in the organization being researched, whose presence and influence is often ignored (Cunliffe, 2003;Linstead, 1994).…”

“…Overall, these developments have led to researcher self-reflexivity now taking centre stage and becoming a requirement in this kind of research (Alvesson, 2003;Hardy et al, 2001;Holland, 1999;Thomson and Hassencamp, 2008) -as it is in qualitative management research more generally (Johnson and Duberly, 2003) -with significant space being given to making these issues clear (see also Watson, 1997: 4). …”

Conducting and Evaluating Critical Interpretive Research: Examining Criteria as a Key Component in Building a Research Tradition

“…Recalling Table 1, the level of interpretation (interpretation, critical interpretation, reflexive interpretation) each work of empirical research achieves depends, essentially, on each researcher's assumptions and purposes. As outlined by Hardy et al (2001), work on reflexivity is well developed in areas like sociology of science but has attracted less attention in organization and management theory. I think the same could be said about IS research.…”

“…Reflexive research often includes researchers in the subject matter they are trying to understand. Hardy et al (2001) complement this notion: "we cannot confine our attention to the relationship between researchers and the research subject, but must also examine the relationship between researchers and the research network of which they are part" (p. 533). …”

Ethnographic Field Notes and Reflexivity

“…Individualistic reflexivity is typically used to produce confessional tales from the field (Van Maanen 1988) whereas collective reflexivity analyses how research communities and members within these communities produce collective meaning (Hardy et al 2001, Maton 2003. Individualistic reflexivity has faced some critique according to which there is a thin line between epistemologically productive reflection, e.g.…”