Journal articles by Kathryn M Fahy
This article attends to the call for research on the often neglected spatial and temporal dynamic... more This article attends to the call for research on the often neglected spatial and temporal dynamics of organizational life. In particular, we examine the ways in which aspects of space and time facilitate or hinder learning and knowledge sharing in organizations. We draw on conceptual tools derived from work influenced largely by Henri Lefebvre to illustrate how a spatial–temporal lens throws new light on the problem of learning and knowledge sharing across organizational communities. We examine these dynamics in a qualitative study with four high-technology engineering companies in the energy conversion and automation and aerospace sectors. Building on a situated learning perspective, we argue that a spatial and temporal perspective contributes to our understanding of processes of identity construction and the power relations that influence access to forms of participation and learning across organizational communities.
This paper focuses on the dynamics and interplay of meaning, emotions, and power in institutional... more This paper focuses on the dynamics and interplay of meaning, emotions, and power in institutional work. Based on an empirical study, we explore and elaborate on the rhetorical strategies of emotion work that institutional actors employ to mobilize emotions for discursive institutional work. In an empirical context where a powerful institutional actor is tasked with creating support and acceptance for a new political and economic institution, we identify three rhetorical strategies of emotion work: eclipsing, diverting and evoking emotions. These strategies are employed to arouse, regulate, and organize emotions that underpin legitimacy judgments and drive resistance among field constituents. We find that actors exercise influence and engage in overt forms of emotion work by evoking shame and pride to sanction and reward particular expedient ways of thinking and feeling about the new institutional arrangements. More importantly, however, the study shows that they also engage in strategies of discursive institutional work that seek to exert power—force and influence—in more subtle ways by eclipsing and diverting the collective fears, anxieties, and moral indignation that drive resistance and breed negative legitimacy evaluations. Overall, the study suggests that emotions play an important role in institutional work associated with creating institutions, not only via “pathos appeals” but also as tools of discursive, cultural-cognitive meaning work and in the exercise of power in the field.
Situated learning theory posits that learning in organizations arises in the contexts and conditi... more Situated learning theory posits that learning in organizations arises in the contexts and conditions of practical engagement, and time is an important dimension of activity and context of learning. However, time has primarily been conceptualized as an internal property of communities, buffered from social and organizational temporalities that shape rhythms of working and learning. This article examines how external temporalities affect situated learning through case studies of technical after-sales services. A situated learning perspective posits how new understandings are constructed from a broad assemblage of resources and relations. These resources and relationships are to a large extent governed by external temporalities that influence opportunities for learning through everyday work. We highlight temporal structures as an important mechanism guiding or obstructing the development of new understandings, and we conclude that a temporal perspective on situated learning holds important implications for practice and further research.
Book chapters by Kathryn M Fahy
Published in D’Souza, Clare, Mehdi Taghian and Michael J. Polonsky (eds.) Readings and Cases in Sustainable Marketing. Tilde University Press, 200-216.
Ever since the introduction of sustainable development by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, both... more Ever since the introduction of sustainable development by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, both business and public organizations have been expressing their interest and commitment to environmental and social causes— issues usually thought to be opposed to the idea of profit maximization—in new ways. In the practice of organizations, however, the very notion of sustainable development has remained ambiguous. As a strategic goal and set of values, sustainable development seems to take different meanings in different political, socioeconomic and moral contexts. In this paper, we take a multi-stakeholder perspective on sustainable development and propose an action-research -based process model for developing dynamic, proactive strategies for managing the business-natural environment interface in the context of marketing and product development. We offer this model as a strategic tool for engaging stakeholders in the development and deployment of the organizational practices and capabilities needed for building dynamic and proactive environmental strategies. Using an empirical case, we illustrate the use of this tool in the context of sustainable tourism service design, in which a network of rural women small entrepreneurs was engaged in product development to clarify the notion of sustainability in business practice. Overall, it is argued that the development of marketing and business activity towards more sustainable policies and practices requires the deployment of bottom-up multi-stakeholder approaches to strategizing, which help the organization to integrate the perspectives and concerns of its key stakeholders into its strategy process and the day-to-day of business practice.
Papers by Kathryn M Fahy
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018
In this paper, we take a discursive perspective on emotions and institutional work. We study emot... more In this paper, we take a discursive perspective on emotions and institutional work. We study emotion talk as discursive practice and emotions as discursive, cultural-cognitive resources for theoriz...
Journal of Management Studies
This paper offers an understanding of how hybrid models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) ... more This paper offers an understanding of how hybrid models of corporate social responsibility (CSR) – models combining society‐centric mandatory (implicit) and business‐centric voluntary (explicit) approaches to CSR – are communicatively constructed through institutional struggles over the roles and responsibilities of business in society, in the context of a Nordic welfare state. We develop a model of hybridization as a dialectical process of communicative activity, framing and counter‐framing, in which conflict and contestation over normative understandings about CSR drive the process. The model explains the emergence of hybrid models of CSR in terms of gradually evolving issue development and frame changes that are driven by discursive struggles over moral obligations of business in society, appropriate configuration of legitimacy relationships, and appropriate institutional arrangements for CSR governance. In contrast to prevailing accounts, which tend to theorize hybridization as ...
Journal of International Business Studies, 2017
This paper marks a departure from the focus on external stakeholders in much research on legitima... more This paper marks a departure from the focus on external stakeholders in much research on legitimacy and Multinational Corporations, adopting a social psychological approach to study how MNCs build internal legitimacy for controversial decisions with their subsidiaries. We explore this through a longitudinal, real-time qualitative case study of a regional office relocation, since office relocations represent rare yet significant strategic decisions. We analyze the interplay between the legitimation strategies of senior managers and subsidiary legitimacy judgments, based in instrumental, relational, and moral considerations, and how the relationship between the two develops over time. From this analysis we derive inductively a process model that reveals the dynamics of building internal legitimacy with subsidiaries, and how an MNC moves on even in the absence of full legitimacy, when dealing with controversial MNC decisions. The model highlights two important dynamics. The first is a dynamic between legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments and how this is influenced by local subsidiary contexts. The second is a temporal dynamic in how both the legitimation strategies and legitimacy judgments evolve over time. Our model contributes to research on legitimacy in MNCs, what we know about tensions that characterize MNC sub-unit relationships, and research on headquarters relocation.
Climate Change Management, 2016
Whilst awareness of the importance and urgency of acting to mitigate anthropogenic environmental ... more Whilst awareness of the importance and urgency of acting to mitigate anthropogenic environmental change is generally high, adaptive responses have matched neither the scale nor the complex nature of the challenge. Inertia at individual and organisational levels is a troubling conundrum. In this paper, we analyse the psychosocial factors at work for individuals attempting to influence their organisations' pro-environmental actions. Our study focuses on six individuals with pro-environmental values who have formal roles in their organisation with regard to environmental policy, strategy and practice. This in-depth qualitative study enquires into the experience of research participants as they act to influence their organisations in this regard. Our analysis draws from, and develops, understanding of psychological threat coping strategies, basic psychological needs and cognitive frames in relation to pro-environmental behaviour. We identify and model key dynamics and interactions in psychosocial forces and reveal tensions that impact individuals' motivation, resilience and effectiveness in influencing pro-environmental decisions. In particular, our analysis highlights tensions in competency, autonomy and relatedness need satisfaction; and in coping strategies such as suppressing 'deep green' identity, suppressing negative emotion about the ecological situation, and in going into natural places to gain restorative benefit and renew motivation. These findings contribute important insight to our understanding of human cognition, motivation and behaviour in relation to (mal)adaptive responses such as inertia to ecological crisis. Our results also offer the potential for practical implications: bringing these dynamics to conscious awareness has the potential to enable the identification of points of intervention and, ultimately, the ability to enhance rather than undermine authentic and effective action.
Ever since the introduction of sustainable development by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, both... more Ever since the introduction of sustainable development by the Brundtland Commission in 1987, both business and public organizations have been expressing their interest and commitment to environmental and social causes— issues usually thought to be opposed to the idea of profit maximization—in new ways. In the practice of organizations, however, the very notion of sustainable development has remained ambiguous. As a strategic goal and set of values, sustainable development seems to take different meanings in different political, socioeconomic and moral contexts. In this paper, we take a multi-stakeholder perspective on sustainable development and propose an action-research -based process model for developing dynamic, proactive strategies for managing the business-natural environment interface in the context of marketing and product development. We offer this model as a strategic tool for engaging stakeholders in the development and deployment of the organizational practices and capabilities needed for building dynamic and proactive environmental strategies. Using an empirical case, we illustrate the use of this tool in the context of sustainable tourism service design, in which a network of rural women small entrepreneurs was engaged in product development to clarify the notion of sustainability in business practice. Overall, it is argued that the development of marketing and business activity towards more sustainable policies and practices requires the deployment of bottom-up multi-stakeholder approaches to strategizing, which help the organization to integrate the perspectives and concerns of its key stakeholders into its strategy process and the day-to-day of business practice.
Management Learning, 2013
This article attends to the call for research on the often neglected spatial and temporal dynamic... more This article attends to the call for research on the often neglected spatial and temporal dynamics of organizational life. In particular, we examine the ways in which aspects of space and time facilitate or hinder learning and knowledge sharing in organizations. We draw on conceptual tools derived from work influenced largely by Henri Lefebvre to illustrate how a spatial–temporal lens throws new light on the problem of learning and knowledge sharing across organizational communities. We examine these dynamics in a qualitative study with four high-technology engineering companies in the energy conversion and automation and aerospace sectors. Building on a situated learning perspective, we argue that a spatial and temporal perspective contributes to our understanding of processes of identity construction and the power relations that influence access to forms of participation and learning across organizational communities.
Organization Studies, 2016
This article focuses on the dynamics and interplay of meaning, emotions, and power in institution... more This article focuses on the dynamics and interplay of meaning, emotions, and power in institutional work. Based on an empirical study, we explore and elaborate on the rhetorical strategies of emotion work that institutional actors employ to mobilize emotions for discursive institutional work. In an empirical context where a powerful institutional actor is tasked with creating support and acceptance for a new political and economic institution, we identify three rhetorical strategies of emotion work: eclipsing, diverting and evoking emotions. These strategies are employed to arouse, regulate, and organize emotions that underpin legitimacy judgments and drive resistance among field constituents. We find that actors exercise influence and engage in overt forms of emotion work by evoking shame and pride to sanction and reward particular expedient ways of thinking and feeling about the new institutional arrangements. More importantly, however, the study shows that they also engage in str...
Research in corporate responsibility and sustainability has been challenged for its lack of criti... more Research in corporate responsibility and sustainability has been challenged for its lack of critical thinking (Kallio & Nordberg, 2006; Newton, 2002; Welford, 1998) and even for its “uninteresting, and insignificant”questions (Starik, 2006: 433, citing Sharma). Rather than focus directly on the ‘hijacking’ or dumbing-down of research agendas (Welford, 1997), my approach to a critique of ‘mainstreaming’ in corporate responsibility and sustainability research targets the oversimplification and positivism in conceptualizations of key organizational phenomena,and processes. ,In this paper I argue that the academic rigorand practitioner relevance of much research in this field is compromised by the adoption ofconventional,and misleading conceptualizations of, amongst others, organizational context, theories of change, concepts of corporate culture, the nature of strategy-making, and the often missing dimensions of power and politics in
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In this paper we examine the distributed nature of knowledge in multi-disciplinary engineering wo... more In this paper we examine the distributed nature of knowledge in multi-disciplinary engineering work. We examine the ways in which a 'practice-based approach' to knowledge in organisations helps to illuminate the nature of this collaborative knowledge work and the challenges therein. We report on our empirical research with multi-disciplinary problemsolving teams of engineers at the UK operations of aircraft manufacturer Airbus. Drawing on the concept of engineers as bricoleurs we highlight the challenges in their efforts to mobilise and align the necessary people, documents and materials, from variously connecting words, in seeing projects to completion. The case articulates in a very explicit manner the ways in which situated knowing and doing are socially and materially distributed, and demonstrates the ways in which practitioners manage these challenges.
Book chapter by Kathryn M Fahy
Whilst global awareness of the importance and urgency of acting to mitigate climate change and it... more Whilst global awareness of the importance and urgency of acting to mitigate climate change and its impacts is generally high, actual behaviour has matched neither the scale nor the complex nature of the challenge. Understanding why despite good intentions appropriate action is not forthcoming is critical if we wish to avoid catastrophic consequences for social justice and the wellbeing of humans and other species. Research gaining insight into underlying psychosocial processes has an important contribution to make in this regard, yet it tends to be overlooked.
This paper draws on an empirical interdisciplinary study enquiring into the experience of individuals acting to influence the organisation with regard to envi- ronmental decision-making. The study investigated psychosocial factors that may influence motivation, resilience and effectiveness, specifically psychological threat coping strategies, innate psychological needs, identity salience and ways of conceptualising experience.
Our study illuminates the complex nonlinear dynamics between these psycho- social forces, and reveals tensions in satisfying needs, and in the effectiveness of coping strategies such as suppressing ‘deep green’ identity, suppressing negative emotion about climate change, and in going into nature places.
The findings contribute nuanced insight to the body of knowledge about the dynamics of underlying psychosocial forces that influence approaches to climate change and other pro-environmental behaviours.
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Journal articles by Kathryn M Fahy
Book chapters by Kathryn M Fahy
Papers by Kathryn M Fahy
Book chapter by Kathryn M Fahy
This paper draws on an empirical interdisciplinary study enquiring into the experience of individuals acting to influence the organisation with regard to envi- ronmental decision-making. The study investigated psychosocial factors that may influence motivation, resilience and effectiveness, specifically psychological threat coping strategies, innate psychological needs, identity salience and ways of conceptualising experience.
Our study illuminates the complex nonlinear dynamics between these psycho- social forces, and reveals tensions in satisfying needs, and in the effectiveness of coping strategies such as suppressing ‘deep green’ identity, suppressing negative emotion about climate change, and in going into nature places.
The findings contribute nuanced insight to the body of knowledge about the dynamics of underlying psychosocial forces that influence approaches to climate change and other pro-environmental behaviours.
This paper draws on an empirical interdisciplinary study enquiring into the experience of individuals acting to influence the organisation with regard to envi- ronmental decision-making. The study investigated psychosocial factors that may influence motivation, resilience and effectiveness, specifically psychological threat coping strategies, innate psychological needs, identity salience and ways of conceptualising experience.
Our study illuminates the complex nonlinear dynamics between these psycho- social forces, and reveals tensions in satisfying needs, and in the effectiveness of coping strategies such as suppressing ‘deep green’ identity, suppressing negative emotion about climate change, and in going into nature places.
The findings contribute nuanced insight to the body of knowledge about the dynamics of underlying psychosocial forces that influence approaches to climate change and other pro-environmental behaviours.