| 1. |
- Butler, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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Beyond measure
- 2020
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Ingår i: Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization. - 2052-1499. ; 20:3, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Numbers reveal, but they also hide; they tell us who we are, but also who we ought to become; they show us how happy and healthy we are, but also urge us to adjust ourselves to the norm. Numbers manage us and we, in turn, manage ourselves through numbers. At the same time, the rationale behind these metrics remains inaccessible to us, stored safely away in a locket, kept secret from all but the few who have access to these systems of enumeration and computation. In our special issue, we open up this locket and explore questions around measurement in relation to management, organization, and politics –namely, how do processes of quantification intervene in our lives, sideline other modes of judgement and decision, and lead us astray with a trail of numbers. The title oft he special issue, ‘Beyond measure’, signals an attempt to denaturalize measurement, to peel back the layers of commensuration to see what lies beneath.
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| 2. |
- Butler, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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Problematizing ‘relevance’ in the business school: the case of leadership studies
- 2015
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Ingår i: British Journal of Management. - : Wiley. - 1467-8551 .- 1045-3172. ; 26:4, s. 731-744
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years, the discourse of ‘relevance’ has risen to prominence in the university-based business school. At the heart of this discourse is the suggestion that management researchers should align their research practices more closely with the needs of practitioners in external organizations. One important but under-researched strand of this debate focuses on the way in which ‘relevance’ is pursued by business scholars via forms of practitioner engagement such as management consulting, corporate presentations, executive education and personal coaching. Drawing on extensive semi-structured interviews, this paper explores the motivations, rewards and tensions experienced by leadership scholars in the process of engaging with practitioners. This study suggests that the pursuit of ‘relevance’ may come into conflict with norms of scholarly conduct, which in turn gives rise to a series of trade-offs and compromises. Ultimately, the authors argue that the prevailing discourse of relevance provides an alibi for scholars to orient themselves towards practitioners in ways that contravene their academic identity and research ethos (whether post-positivist, interpretivist or critical).
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| 3. |
- Butler, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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Risky business : Reflections on critical performativity in practice
- 2018
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Ingår i: Organization. - : SAGE Publications. - 1350-5084 .- 1461-7323. ; 25:3, s. 428-445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Critical scholars in the business school are becoming increasingly concerned about the impact of their research beyond the confines of academia. This has been articulated most prominently around the concept of critical performativity'. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with critical leadership scholars, this article explores how academics engage with practitioners at the same time as they seek to maintain a critical ethos in relation to their external activities. While proponents of critical performativity tend to paint a frictionless picture of practitioner engagementwhich can take the form of consulting, coaching, and leadership developmentwe show how critical scholars may end up compromising their academic values in corporate settings due to practitioner demands and other institutional pressures. Taken together, these pressures mean that critical scholars often need to negotiate a series of (sometimes insoluble) dilemmas in practitioner contexts. We argue that the concept of critical performativity is unable to contend meaningfully with these tensions because it replicates the myth of the heroic-transformational academic' who is single-handedly able to stimulate critical reflection among practitioners and provoke radical change in organizations. We conclude with a call for further reflection on the range of ethical dilemmas that can arise during academic-practitioner engagement.
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| 4. |
- Butler, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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The Gray Zone : Questionable Research Practices in the Business School
- 2017
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Ingår i: Academy of Management Learning & Education. - : Academy of Management. - 1537-260X .- 1944-9585. ; 16:1, s. 94-109
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In recent years, the awareness of academic misconduct has increased due to high-profile scandals involving prominent researchers and a spike in journal retractions. But such examples of fabrication, falsification, and plagiarism (FFP) serve to obscure the less flagrant, more subtle cases of possible misconduct: what some have called “questionable research practices” (QRPs). Where FFP is seen as inherently negative, QRPs fall into an ethical “gray zone” between permissible and impermissible. We draw on semistructured interviews with business school scholars to explore the occurrence of QRPs. Prevalent QRPs include playing with numbers, playing with models, and playing with hypotheses. Scholars explain the existence of QRPs in three ways: the inadequate training of researchers, the pressures and incentives to publish in certain outlets, and the demands and expectations of journal editors and reviewers. We argue that a paradox is at work here: To live up to the positivist image of “pure science” that appears in academic journals, researchers may find themselves—ironically—transgressing this very ideal. Ultimately, this challenges the individualistic account of academic misconduct by drawing attention to the role played by institutional actors, such as academic journals, in encouraging forms of QRPs.
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| 5. |
- Butler, Nick, et al.
(författare)
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The labour of academia
- 2017
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Ingår i: Ephemera. - 2052-1499 .- 1473-2866. ; 17:3, s. 467-480
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Tidskriftsartikel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 6. |
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| 7. |
- Pälike, Heiko, et al.
(författare)
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A Cenozoic record of the equatorial Pacific carbonate compensation depth
- 2012
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 488:7413, s. 609-614
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and climate are regulated on geological timescales by the balance between carbon input from volcanic and metamorphic outgassing and its removal by weathering feedbacks; these feedbacks involve the erosion of silicate rocks and organic-carbon-bearing rocks. The integrated effect of these processes is reflected in the calcium carbonate compensation depth, which is the oceanic depth at which calcium carbonate is dissolved. Here we present a carbonate accumulation record that covers the past 53 million years from a depth transect in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The carbonate compensation depth tracks long-term ocean cooling, deepening from 3.0-3.5 kilometres during the early Cenozoic (approximately 55 million years ago) to 4.6 kilometres at present, consistent with an overall Cenozoic increase in weathering. We find large superimposed fluctuations in carbonate compensation depth during the middle and late Eocene. Using Earth system models, we identify changes in weathering and the mode of organic-carbon delivery as two key processes to explain these large-scale Eocene fluctuations of the carbonate compensation depth.
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| 8. |
- Spoelstra, Sverre, et al.
(författare)
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Measures of Faith : Science and Belief in Leadership Studies
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Management Inquiry. - : SAGE Publications. - 1056-4926 .- 1552-6542. ; 30:3, s. 300-311
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- From its inception, leadership studies has embraced the positivist tradition of hypothesis testing. In this tradition, psychometric instruments are meant to ward off belief from scientific practice by testing theories against empirical facts. While leadership scholars purport to conform to the standards of value-neutral science, this paper tells a different story. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 39 positivist leadership researchers, we argue that leadership studies is heavily invested with faith in two main ways: (a) faith in leadership concepts, even when their accompanying measures fall short of methodological standards and (b) faith in leadership studies as a science, even when it is tainted by commercial interests and professional rewards. Ultimately, we suggest that positivist epistemology is accepted in leadership studies as an article of faith. By exploring the interconnection between science and belief in the business school, we draw attention to the secular religion of scientism in leadership studies.
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| 9. |
- Spoelstra, Sverre, et al.
(författare)
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Never let an academic crisis go to waste : Leadership Studies in the wake of journal retractions
- 2016
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Ingår i: Leadership. - : SAGE Publications. - 1742-7150 .- 1742-7169. ; 12:4, s. 383-397
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In 2014, leadership studies saw the retraction of a number of journal articles written by prominent researchers who are closely associated with popular concepts such as transformational leadership, authentic leadership, ethical leadership and spiritual leadership. In response, The Leadership Quarterly published a lengthy editorial that presented these retractions as a sign of health in a mature scientific field. For the editors of The Leadership Quarterly, there is no crisis in leadership studies. In this paper, we suggest that the editorial is a missed opportunity to reflect on positivist leadership studies. In our view, leadership ought to be in crisis because this would stimulate the community to question its guiding assumptions and reconsider its methods and objectives. We therefore hope to open up a critical discussion about the means and ends of mainstream leadership studies - not least of all its scientific pretensions.
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| 10. |
- Sullivan, Katie, et al.
(författare)
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A femininity that ‘giveth and taketh away’ : The prosperity gospel and postfeminism in the neoliberal economy
- 2017
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Ingår i: Human Relations. - : SAGE Publications. - 0018-7267 .- 1741-282X. ; 70:7, s. 836-859
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article explores how postfeminist and prosperity gospel discourses intersect in an organizational context to produce a particular ideal of feminine subjectivity that reproduces a neoliberal agenda. We focus on narratives written by female national vice presidents in a multi-national network marketing organization headquartered in America. Network marketing tends to attract a vast number of women who are enticed by grand messages of material and spiritual riches; however, such messages are often at odds with the precarious and uncertain working conditions. We contribute to gender and organization scholarship by introducing the concept of evangelical entrepreneurial femininity to explore the tensions and demands that are placed on women in an organizational context where postfeminism and prosperity gospel discourses intersect. In doing so, we question the expectations and constraints that many working women negotiate in this neoliberal age of alleged ‘freedom’ and ‘equality’, and raise a number of concerns for feminist critique.
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