power

Becoming and staying talented: A figurational analysis of organization, power and control

Introduction

Although organizations have long traditions of management and leadership development (Cappelli and Keller, 2017), it is only in the past 25 years that they have become attracted to the specific idea of ‘talent’, to talent’s presumed impact on organizational performance, and to the best ways of finding and deploying talent (Swailes, 2016).

Standby: Organizing modes of in|activity

Introduction

In the technical sense, standby refers to an operating state in which energy continues to flow despite an apparent shutdown, thus allowing for sudden reactivation. However, the term ‘standby’ extends to realms beyond electronic devices, and it has long since shaped the work environments of people such as medical practitioners, military troops, or airplane staff. Following up on this observation, this special issue of ephemera explores how standby acts as an ordinary mode of organizing sociomaterial lifeworlds.

Oracles, ignorance and expertise: The struggle over what not to know

The unknowers certainly addresses a heated contemporary discussion around the rise of populist politics and the state of democratic capitalism. The review of such a book presents a certain challenge; The unknowers attempts a comprehensive interpretation of contemporary social relations all the while oscillating between historical analysis and political intervention. It is this balancing act that makes the book both captivating and provoking.

Wikileaks: Truth or power?

Introduction

With the recent arrest of Julian Assange – on charges related to a computer hacking conspiracy, and not the charges of sexual assault and rape that fuelled the original Swedish international arrest warrant – the insights of Women, whistleblowing, Wikileaks are more relevant now than ever.

Powerful writing as writing ‘with’

Towards powerful queer-feminist academic writing

Whether physical, political, or intellectual, power is usually seen as a male[1], or masculine attribute. Although – unsurprisingly – hardly present in the canon of writers (and clearly less represented in the list of Nobel prize winners), great female writers have left their footprint on generations of readers. Some of these authors are labeled as feminists, whether in fiction or nonfiction, starting as far back as Christine de Pisan in medieval times.

Landscapes of political action

It is increasingly evident that organizations and different processes of organizing are not neutral, inevitable or even necessary, but inherently political. As a discipline, Organization Studies is slowly becoming aware of that organizations are not entities that exist separately from material ecosystems or outside chains of exploitation of cheap labour and raw material. Instead, organizations are intimately entangled to, dependent upon and contributing to global forces such as the destruction of eco-systems, climate change, inequality and (neo-) colonialism.

Intersectionality

The continued interest in intersectionality can be seen as a positive sign that feminist-inspired scholarship still has something significant to offer, and that its political dimension lives on. In management and organization studies, Intersectionality has been seized either as a theoretical lens or methodological approach in a number of literature strands, in both conceptual and empirical work. Yet, it would be too hasty to conclude that intersectionality is the answer to all ills, or the panacea that can replace the use of the ‘f-word’ altogether.

The exposure of Kataryna: How Polish journalists and bloggers debate online anonymity

Kataryna

The events which led to the most heated debate about online anonymity in Poland begun in 2002, when a blogger using the nickname Kataryna started commenting on sport events on one of the online forums, which belonged to Gazeta Wyborcza, a leading daily quality Polish newspaper. Soon she became active on political forums, especially those related to one of the biggest corruption scandals in post-communist Poland, the so-called ‘Rywin Affair’[1].

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