Unpacking the Transparency-Secrecy Nexus: Frontstage and backstage behaviour in a political party

Abstract

While the majority of research promotes the idea of transparency and puts all efforts into refining existing concepts, critical studies emphasize the performativity of measures to increase visibility. The article theorizes the nexus of transparency and secrecy by drawing on Erving Goffman’s frontstage/backstage theory, according to which actors vie to maintain boundaries of visibility by alternating these two types of situations. Using this approach, the article interprets the emergence of new forms of secrecy in reaction to transparency measures as efforts to maintain or create boundaries of visibility between front- and backstage. This perspective is empirically applied to a study on parliamentarian representatives of the Pirate Party of Germany, a political party that tries to be as transparent as possible and vows to live up to this ambition when elected. The study demonstrates that an organization which deprives itself of boundaries of visibility between frontstage and backstage faces obstacles which lead it to eventually introduce such boundaries. This study, therefore, offers an in-depth examination of the limitations of transparency and its unintended consequences.

When Many Davids Collaborate with One Goliath: How Inter‐organizational Networks (Fail to) Manage Size Differentials

“…Paying special attention to network agency, we trace how Apprenticeship Network strategically front and back‐staged (see Goffman, ) agreed‐upon rules and norms in order to facilitate the formation, maintenance and deletion of the new tie to EnergyCorp. By this we mean, in line with previous management and organization research using this Goffmanian approach (Mair and Hehenberger, ; Manning, ; Ringel, ), that the other partner firms emphasized and directly referred to existing rules at the network level at certain times, while ignoring and downplaying the relevance of the same rules at other times. Engaging in these coordinative practices, Apprenticeship Network managed the partnership in light of significant conflicts and tensions related to the size differentials, albeit at the cost of EnergyCorp's network exit.…”

The art of stage-craft: A dramaturgical perspective on strategic change

“…In addition to the more well-known scenario where frontstage compliance acts as a mask for backstage resistance, recent studies have also shown that frontstage resistance can be coupled with backstage compliance (Ybema and Horvers, 2017). The 'darker side' of the backstage/frontstage relationship has also been revealed by research that has shown how the backstage is used to conceal misconduct (Laguecir and Leca, 2019) and keep secrets from being exposed (Ringel, 2019). Studies have also shown how backstage activity is strategically concealed in the myths and fabrications presented on the frontstage, for example, in environmental reporting and CSR reporting (Bansal and Kistruck, 2006;Solomon et al, 2013), management accounting (Goretzki and Messner, 2019) and auditing (Parker et al, 2019;Pentland and Carlile, 1996;Roussy and Rodrigue, 2018).…”

Introduktion: Politiske partier på tværs af perspektiver

“…Samme tendens kan jeg bekraefte inden for mit eget felt, organisationsstudier, hvor en gruppe af saerligt yngre forskere har givet sig i kast med at formulere en eksplicit organisatorisk tilgang til studiet af politiske partier (f.eks. Moufahim et al 2015;Husted 2018;Ringel 2019). Som jeg selv og andre har argumenteret for, kan denne tilgang beskrives som 'immersiv', da den netop retter sig mod en dybdegående og kvalitativ forståelse af partiernes interne dynamikker (Husted 2019).…”