Papers by Chahrazad Abdallah
Management learning, Mar 18, 2024
In this provocation, I argue that epistemic decolonizing is an opposition to the Master promulgat... more In this provocation, I argue that epistemic decolonizing is an opposition to the Master promulgator of knowledge, the Western/Eurocentric epistemic subject position. This epistemic refusal of mastery can only happen in the margins of the Business School, and as such, it is always an unfinished project whose incompleteness should be celebrated. To develop my argument, I proceed in three steps. First, I conceptualize the Business School as a postcolony, that is, a realm of extended epistemic domination rooted in the institution's colonial historical role. Second, I suggest an alternative understanding of the margins not only rooted in spatiality, location, or identity but as a specific minoritarian epistemic position against mastery within the postcolony. These margins are not stable and immutable but relational, constantly being made, re-made, transformed, and negotiated. They are the location for an affirmative, generative and imaginative ongoing sabotage of epistemic domination. Finally, I offer that epistemic decolonizing as a minoritarian engagement, is unavoidably incomplete, unfinished, and unfinishable as knowledge always already exists and is always already weaved from a multiplicity of entangled historical, cultural, political, and disciplinary threads.
Management Learning, 2024
In this provocation, I argue that epistemic decolonizing is an opposition to the Master promulgat... more In this provocation, I argue that epistemic decolonizing is an opposition to the Master promulgator of knowledge, the Western/Eurocentric epistemic subject position. This epistemic refusal of mastery can only happen in the margins of the Business School, and as such, it is always an unfinished project whose incompleteness should be celebrated. To develop my argument, I proceed in three steps. First, I conceptualize the Business School as a postcolony, that is, a realm of extended epistemic domination rooted in the institution's colonial historical role. Second, I suggest an alternative understanding of the margins not only rooted in spatiality, location, or identity but as a specific minoritarian epistemic position against mastery within the postcolony. These margins are not stable and immutable but relational, constantly being made, re-made, transformed, and negotiated. They are the location for an affirmative, generative and imaginative ongoing sabotage of epistemic domination. Finally, I offer that epistemic decolonizing as a minoritarian engagement, is unavoidably incomplete, unfinished, and unfinishable as knowledge always already exists and is always already weaved from a multiplicity of entangled historical, cultural, political, and disciplinary threads.
M@n@gement, Dec 15, 2022
The great hunting power, which casts its nets on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity... more The great hunting power, which casts its nets on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity, is that of capital.
Organization, 2022
This special issue aims to inspire scholarship that challenges anti-Black racism and white suprem... more This special issue aims to inspire scholarship that challenges anti-Black racism and white supremacy in our societies and in management and organization studies (MOS). Anti-Black racism refers to "system of beliefs and practices that attack, erode, and limit the humanity of Black people" (Carruthers, 2018, p. 26) that inextricably ties Blackness and its physiological components (e.g., dark skin) to "slaveness" (Wilderson, 2020). By foregrounding anti-Black racism, we seek to draw explicit attention to the widely prevalent and especially virulent kind of racism that is aimed at Black people worldwide, and to acknowledge that privileged non-Black people of color in the global North are often complicit in reproducing anti-Black racism.
M@n@gement, 2022
The great hunting power, which casts its nets on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity... more The great hunting power, which casts its nets on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity, is that of capital.
The Routledge Companion to Anthropology and Business
This paper describes an ethnographic journey in a crisis context. Using ethnographic data gathere... more This paper describes an ethnographic journey in a crisis context. Using ethnographic data gathered at the Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail (UGTT), the biggest union organization in Tunisia during three specific episodes (December 2010, February 2011 and December 2011), it aims to explore the emotional challenges facing anthropologists/ethnographers who study social movements in a crisis context and to reflect upon possible ways of dealing with them. In this chapter, we build upon our reflexion on doing ethnographic work in crisis contexts by addressing the subject of emotions from two different methodological angles: first as a resource, and second, as a critical tool in identity work for the ethnographer.
In this chapter I outline the main argument for a defense of ethnography as writing by discussing... more In this chapter I outline the main argument for a defense of ethnography as writing by discussing its underlying articulations. I introduce creative nonfiction as a literary movement that can provide a useful source of inspiration to aspiring or established organizational ethnographers in search of tools that can help them concretely improve their ethnographic writing. I conclude the chapter with a discussion on the nature and impact of a renewed approach to ethnographic writing in the field of organization studies. * I would like to thank Viviane Sergi for her insightful comments and continuous support during the writing of this chapter
Research Methodology in Strategy and Management, 2019
This chapter examines existing approaches to conducting qualitative process research (i.e., studi... more This chapter examines existing approaches to conducting qualitative process research (i.e., studies that view phenomena as becoming or evolving over time) by analyzing published process research in six premier organizational journals from 2010 to 2017. We identify four modes of performing process research that we label evolutionary process stories, performative process stories, narrative process stories and toolkit-driven process stories, and explore the particular ways in which they formulate and link empirical and theoretical elements. We also identify some of their specific challenges and suggest directions for the future.
Journal of Management Studies
While the communications and strategy literatures have suggested that ambiguity embedded in texts... more While the communications and strategy literatures have suggested that ambiguity embedded in texts such as strategic plans many enable the accommodation of divergent perspectives and contribute to building consensus and commitment, little is known about the consequences of such ambiguity for the consumption of strategy discourse or for the enactment of planned strategy. In a case study of strategic planning in a cultural organization, we identify three forms of ambiguity embedded in the strategy text, and show how these features generate different forms of consumption among organization members. We find that strategic ambiguity initially plays an enabling role as participants engage in enacting their respective interpretations of strategy. However, over time, the mobilizing effects of strategic ambiguity lead to internal contradiction and overextension. The study contributes by exploring empirically the double-edged nature of strategic ambiguity, and by identifying the underlying mechanisms by which its paradoxical consequences emerge. We show that while ambiguous strategy discourse enables strategic development and change, it may contain the seeds of its own dissolution contributing to cyclical patterns of strategy development and reorientation.
The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Business and Management Research Methods: History and Traditions, 2017
Purpose-This chapter presents four different approaches to doing and writing qualitative research... more Purpose-This chapter presents four different approaches to doing and writing qualitative research in strategy and management based on different epistemological foundations. It describes two well-established ''templates'' for doing such work, and introduces two more recent ''turns'' that merit greater attention. Design/Methodology/Approach-The chapter draws on methodological texts and a detailed analysis of successful empirical exemplars from the strategy and organization literature to show how qualitative research on strategy processes can be effectively carried out and written up. Findings-The two ''templates'' are based on different logics and modes of writing. The first is based on a positivist epistemology and aims to develop nomothetic theoretical propositions, while the second is interpretive and more concerned to capture and gain insight from the meanings given to organizational phenomena. The two ''turns'' (the practice turn and the discursive turn) are not as well defined but are generating innovative contributions based on new ways of considering the social world.
Purpose -This chapter presents four different approaches to doing and writing qualitative researc... more Purpose -This chapter presents four different approaches to doing and writing qualitative research in strategy and management based on different epistemological foundations. It describes two well-established ''templates'' for doing such work, and introduces two more recent ''turns'' that merit greater attention.
Journal of Organizational Change Management, May 23, 2011
Purpose-Previous work on paradox and contradiction has argued for management approaches that tran... more Purpose-Previous work on paradox and contradiction has argued for management approaches that transcend dilemmas through a kind of creative synthesis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate empirically how change leaders' efforts to transcend contradictions emerge, evolve and contribute to organizational change. Design/methodology/approach-The paper analyses three case studies in different sectors drawing on interviews, documents and observations. Findings-It is found that discourses of transcendence emerge as leaders bring new elements to the debate and supply a rationale that creatively bridges opposite poles of a dilemma. The credibility of the discourse is enhanced when it is embedded in extant institutional ideas, when stakeholders' interests and values appear to be accommodated and when leaders are viewed as legitimate. However, inherent contradictions tend to resurface over time, suggesting that while transcendence offers a powerful stimulus for change, its range and lifetime may be transitory. Three mechanisms associated with the acceptance of transcendent ideas (quasi-resolution of conflict, strategic ambiguity and groupthink) may sow the seeds of their eventual re-evaluation and dissolution. Originality/value-By examining the antecedents and consequences of transcendent discourses over time, the paper provides a nuanced view of their potential and limitations.
Leader to Leader, 2005
W e have business and we have government. For too many intents and purposes, we have nothing in b... more W e have business and we have government. For too many intents and purposes, we have nothing in between. This distinction has framed the great social debate for more than a century: capitalism versus socialism, markets versus controls, individualism versus collectivism, privatization versus nationalization, "free enterprise" versus "democracy of the proletariat." The debate features no cooperatives, no NGOs, no not-for-profits, no volunteer organizations, not because they don't exist-clearly they are present in large numbers-but because they have been forced aside by this simplistic divide. In a sense, this is a problem of labeling.The sector that is neither business nor government is invisible because it is not clearly labeled. It is instead confounded by a plethora of inadequate labels.The two most common, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and not-for-profits, are negative, about what these organizations are not. And these labels are ambiguous as well, since government is also not-for-profit, while business is also nongovernmental.We need to understand this sector by what it is. Another label is the voluntary sector, but in many of these organizations, the only volunteers are the members of the Board of Directors. We have, of course, the label "third sector." But that sounds third rate. We can instead call this the social sector, in contrast to the political and economic sectors, which helps somewhat, but only as a starting point. And now, of course, "civil society" is gaining currency, perhaps because, as a label, it has no serious competitors.The term has some historical significance, but is hardly enlightening. What does it mean to the general population? Why civil? In contrast to uncivil? If this sector is to come into greater prominence, as it must, then it will require a label that engages rather than excludes the population at large.
Revue française de gestion
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
Mintzberg, H., Molz, R., Raufflet, E., Sloan, P., Abdallah, C., Bercuvitz, R., Cheng, C. (2005) The Invisible World of Associations, Leader to Leader, Spring 2005, Number 36, 37-45. W e have business and we have government. For too many intents and purposes, we have nothing in b... more W e have business and we have government. For too many intents and purposes, we have nothing in between. This distinction has framed the great social debate for more than a century: capitalism versus socialism, markets versus controls, individualism versus collectivism, privatization versus nationalization, "free enterprise" versus "democracy of the proletariat." The debate features no cooperatives, no NGO s, no not-for-profits, no volunteer organizations, not because they don't exist-clearly they are present in large numbers-but because they have been forced aside by this simplistic divide. In a sense, this is a problem of labeling. The sector that is neither business nor government is invisible because it is not clearly labeled. It is instead confounded by a plethora of inadequate labels. The two most common, nongovernmental organiz ations (N GOs) and not-for-profits, are negative, about what these organizations are not. And these labels are ambiguous as well, since government is also not-for-profit, while business is also nongovernmental. We need to understand this sector by what it is. Another label is the voluntary sector, but in many of these organizations, the only volunteers are the members of the Board of Directors. We have, of course, the label "third sector." But that sounds third rate. We can instead call this the social sector, in contrast to the political and economic sectors, which helps somewhat, but only as a starting point. And now, of course, "civil society" is gaining currency, perhaps because, as a label, it has no serious competitors. The term has some historical significance, but is hardly enlightening. What does it mean to the general population? Why civil? In contrast to uncivil? If this sector is to come into greater prominence, as it must, then it will require a label that engages rather than excludes the population at large.
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Papers by Chahrazad Abdallah