Lawrence T. Corrigan

Men on board: Actor-network theory, feminism and gendering the past

Abstract In this paper we explore the relationship between current gendered practices and past conditions through the lens of actor-network theory (ANT). In particular we are interested in the viability of ANT as a lens for studying the past and in ways that can be reconciled with feminist thought. We argue that although there is some non-resonance between ANT and feminist theorizing, using ANT in a critically historicist way allows some of the barriers between ANT and feminism to be broken down. We synthesize an approach to study gendered organizational processes that exist in and over time, identifying and surfacing some of the actants (i.e. human and material factors that encourage people to act) that work together within networks to produce gendered effects such as ongoing discriminatory practices. We trace these effects using the history of Air Canada as an exemplar, in the process noting the conceptual and ontological differences between the past and history. Finally, the advantages of a critically historical ANT are discussed as a way to achieve a level of fusion between ANT and feminist thought.

Sense-making and actor networks: the non-corporeal actant and the making of an Air Canada history

This paper contributes to critical organizational historiography and the development of ANTi-History through analysis of the history of a major event in the development of Air Canada. We contend that an important gap in ANTi-History is the explanation of the point where decisions occur (i.e. understandings of the micro-processes involved in enrollment, network establishment and the production of knowledges of the past). To deal with the lacuna, we draw on insights from Critical Sense-making in the performance of our historical analysis – undertaken through a seven-step process of moves. We identify not only the need to understand the role of sense-making in network formation and the production of knowledges of the past, but also the role of actants that transcend human and nonhuman actors in influencing behavior (i.e. non-corporeal actants).

Dramaturgy in the internet era

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop and apply Goffmans dramaturgical perspective to the study of organizations in the context of their internet presence(s), or as Goffman might have called it, internet play-acting. The paper responds to recent criticism of dramaturgy, and advocates its continuing relevance for organizational studies on the contemporary stage – the internet. Design/methodology/approach – The paper studies the proposed merger of three accounting bodies in Canada using data obtained from publically available sources and employing dramaturgical techniques. Data includes documents (such as position papers, PowerPoint slides and practitioner journal articles). Particular attention was paid to sources of data from the internet such as YouTube videos, web sites, on-line media stories and chat from discussion boards. Findings – The paper concludes that the criticisms of dramaturgy are overstated, and that dramaturgy enables robust recovery of complex organizational stories providing...

Accounting practice and the historic turn: performing budget histories

Abstract The central project of this paper is to reveal alternative performances of history in municipal budget-making practices, and to theorize historiography as a dramatic actor in those practices. The historic turn, a decade after its introduction, is in need of a variety of empirical illustrations of its theoretical concepts. This includes investigating how ANTi-History, with its amodern orientation, informs debates around actor-network theory and historiography. ANTi-History is demonstrated within what is typically a positivist environment (municipal budgeting). The accountant persona has been theorized as ‘boring bean counter’ or ‘trustworthy custodian’ of assets. This paper avoids both of these generalizations, instead constituting the accountant as dramatic and historically situated. This notion is brought to life by considering ongoing budget disputes between the municipality of Halifax and the historic community of Africville. The physical infrastructure of Africville was destroyed by the municipality, and the people of Africville relocated in the name of urban revitalization. This sets the stage for stories of historical neglect, historical aggression, and historical romance. These serve as exemplar dramas of heterogeneity and history-as-an-actor. The Africville budget stories may be seen as milieus performing as histories that are nested in one another. When we see that milieus pass into each other it is easier to articulate that ontological politics is at play, providing a space for critique. By positing that accounting is dramatic, this paper problematizes competition for budget resources. Municipal managers should recognize that they (whether they realize it or not) use history and traces of the past to develop durable images to unify actor-networks. Such unified images are necessarily fictions. Budget managers are encouraged to question their histories and see accounting practice as dramatic historical performance rather than uncritically seeing it as mundane administrative practice.

ANTi-History and the entrepreneurial work of privateers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to theorize the social role of management systems and their political connections using ANTi-History. In so doing, it engages with academic conversations around the writing of business history. The paper focuses on subjective experience in the context of colonial privateers and the vice-admiralty court in the Napoleonic Wars era. Design/methodology/approach ANTi-History is proposed as a theoretical lens to examine the entrepreneurial work of privateers. ANTi-History destabilizes the idea of history as a dominant account of the past and is interested in controversies as to how history is produced. This paper also brings-in Bourdieu’s notion of officialization because historical knowledge is situated in official practices that conceal translations and political strategies that enable actor-networks to act as one. Findings The controls of the vice-admiralty court not only perpetuated the inherited British class system, but also created versions of reality that came to be accepted as recorded history. This shows that the rules and regulations of the court were not neutral accounting activities. The systems constituted the identity of actors and produced privateer history as a modernist knowledge of the past and officialized by western, white, male, elites. Originality/value The “historic turn” in management and organization studies has not been fully realized more than a decade after its introduction. This paper engages with the historic turn by providing a specific exemplar of history as applied to officialized accounts of colonial privateers. Using ANTi-History as a methodological approach also makes a contribution by promoting it beyond a prolonged descriptive phase.

A dramaturgical accounting of cooperative performance indicators

Purpose - Electric cooperatives may be seen as an alternative form of organizing in the shadow of investor-owned utilities. They are presumed able to meet financial challenges while simultaneously honoring cooperative principles of member-owners. This paper aims to investigate such a balancing act and conceptualize “key performance indicators” (KPIs) as a dramatic accounting discourse. Design/methodology/approach - This paper uses a dramaturgical approach to cooperative performance accounting, and claims that KPIs are a simplification of a complex and shifting reality which they also socially construct. Data were gathered from annual financial reports and websites of rural electric cooperatives along with semi-structured interviews conducted with senior cooperative officials. Findings - The cooperatives in this case study reported a huge number of KPIs. However, this paper reveals that the performance indicators serve impression management goals and operational demands rather than reporting on fulfillment of the “Seven Cooperative Principles” that are fundamental to the cooperative movement. Research limitations/implications - Extant inquiry regarding electric cooperatives tends toward a positivist research approach and a realist worldview. This overlooks dramatic and critical possibilities of KPIs as a management construction project. Expanding beyond mainstream research, this paper calls attention to artistic production of knowledge and applies a qualitative framework to problematize accounting disclosures. Originality/value - Prior KPI research has often been instrumental, looking for predictive evidence that KPIs have strategic value as a “tool” for organizations to attain competitive advantage. This paper introduces the notion that performance measures are theatrical, and applies this to rural electric cooperatives, an industry mostly ignored in the academic literature.