Papers by Michael G Pratt
My own research, as well as that of many others, suggests that our identity or identities shape h... more My own research, as well as that of many others, suggests that our identity or identities shape how we make sense of the world. Thus, I want to start out by giving a little background about who I am (at least professionally) to explain what may be a nontraditional response. I was trained as an organizational psychologist but work in a business school. I do largely inductive, qualitative research. That is, my goal in research is to understand how the people I study view the world and then translate it back to academics. Some of the areas of research that I try to contribute to are identity, meaning, ambivalence and how people connect to their work, their occupations, and their professions. I have also contributed to and coedited a book on artifacts in organizations. What I am not is a theologian, an English professor, or an expert in modernity. As such, I decided to engage in a very unethnographic exercise of imagining how an organizational scholar might reinterpret the relationship ...
Journal of Management Inquiry, 2019
Organizational crises have often stimulated scholarly theorizing that has been productive for our... more Organizational crises have often stimulated scholarly theorizing that has been productive for our field. Rarely, however, are there opportunities to theorize regarding crises that happen in our own professional associations. A crisis experienced by Professor Anita McGahan when she was the President of the Academy of Management, described in an accompanying article, has presented such an opportunity. In this set of nine brief reflections, several scholars have considered how McGahan’s actions with regard to that crisis can be understood conceptually and how they may stimulate development of previously established conceptual perspectives. These reflections make evident that McGahan’s actions cannot be appreciated without recognition of the complex dilemmas to which she was responding. These dilemmas include issues of trustworthy leadership, gendered power, leader voice, sensemaking and learning, organizational identities, psychological contracts, institutional leadership, and “good bu...
The Academy of Management Journal
Academy of Management Journal, 2017
Though employee identification with customers has received little explicit attention in organizat... more Though employee identification with customers has received little explicit attention in organizational scholarship, and has only recently emerged as an area of focus in marketing, research suggests that customers should play a central role in the identity dynamics of employees. What makes employee-customer identification different from other forms of identification (e.g., employee-organization and customer-organization identification) is that although the organization may be the conduit for identification to occur, it may not be the focus of identification. Indeed, in the organization we explore here, organizational practices lead employees to identify with customers, but to do so in such a way that employees become-at least in part-more like "who they served" than vice versa. Moreover, the bonds we find between employees and customers are multilayered, incorporating non-work identities, as well as identities at different levels of inclusiveness (e.g., collective and role). This paper explores and models the development and consequences of multi-layered employeecustomer identification, argues for its theoretical and practical implications, and suggests avenues for future research.
The crux of this paper is to distinguish meaning from meaningfulness and to show in what ways Cat... more The crux of this paper is to distinguish meaning from meaningfulness and to show in what ways Catholic Colleges and Universities (CCUs) are in a unique position to provide the latter, whereas other educational systems may provide only the former. In short, CCUs are better equipped to help students understand the “why” of working (and living, more generally) and not just the “how.” To set the stage for the argument, the paper reviews some research on what makes work and life meaningful, delineates hedonic (pain and pleasure) from eudemonic motivators, and distinguishes “realization” (i.e., self-fulfillment) perspectives of meaningfulness from “justification” perspectives, the latter of which are better equipped to address existential issues. Within the justification perspective, it argues for at least six distinct cultural accounts for what makes work worth doing, and suggests how CCUs might be more explicit in providing accounts and for advocating for some accounts over others.1
Our chapter examines identity work within and beyond the professions. To lend structure to this e... more Our chapter examines identity work within and beyond the professions. To lend structure to this emerging perspective, we begin by forwarding a general theoretical model of identity work. We then reexamine and extend this model by examining identity work amongst professionals. To do so, we first deepen connections with literature on the professions to highlight salient and unique dynamics facing this occupational group. We then assess these dynamics in light of our model. Specifically, we show how an examination of professionals can advance theories of identity work by highlighting new motives and triggers, and recasting identity work as a relational process.
Academy of Management Annals, 2016
A growing body of research unveils the ubiquity of ambivalence-the simultaneous experience of pos... more A growing body of research unveils the ubiquity of ambivalence-the simultaneous experience of positive and negative emotional or cognitive orientations towards a person, situation, object, task, or goal-in organizations, and argues that its experience may be the norm rather than the exception. While traditionally viewed as something to be avoided, organizational scholars in fields ranging from micro-organizational behavior to strategy have made significant advances in exploring the positive outcomes of ambivalence. However, despite identifying benefits of ambivalence that are critical to organizing (e.g., trust, adaptation, and creativity), research remains fragmented and siloed. The primary purpose of this review is to advance research on ambivalence by reviewing, synthesizing and ultimately reconciling prior work on the negative consequences with promising emerging work on the positive-that is, functional and beneficialoutcomes of or responses to ambivalence. We significantly extend prior work by demonstrating that the myriad negative and positive outcomes of ambivalence may be organized around two key dimensions that underlie most research on the effects of ambivalence: (1) a flexibility dimension: inflexibility to flexibility, and an (2) engagement dimension: disengagement to engagement. We further discuss the mechanisms and moderators that can lead to the more positive sides of these dimensions, and suggest avenues for future research.
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2016
Since its formal entry to organization studies in 1985, the concept of organizational identity (O... more Since its formal entry to organization studies in 1985, the concept of organizational identity (OI) has had a long and fruitful development. We suggest OI is particularly appealing because it: 1) addresses fundamental questions of social existence about how we are both similar to and different from others; 2) is fundamentally a relational construct connecting apparent oppositions, such as “us” and “them”; 3) is a nexus concept forging relations with other theoretical constructs; and 4) is inherently useful to organizations. In the seven sections of this handbook, we trace conceptual, methodological, and practical challenges of theorizing and utilizing OI in organizations, including issues of the construct’s nomological net, its multi-level dynamics, the role time in OI (e.g., OI change), as well as its pluralistic manifestations (e.g., hybrid and multiple organizational identities).
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015
The literature on organizational identity has made great strides in recent decades in understandi... more The literature on organizational identity has made great strides in recent decades in understanding what identity is, what it does, and how it affects individual and organizational outcomes. And wh...
Purpose and meaning in the workplace.
Academy of Management Review, 2007
We review and reconceptualize "intuition," defining intuitions as affectively charged judgments t... more We review and reconceptualize "intuition," defining intuitions as affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations. In doing so, we delineate intuition from other decision-making approaches (e.g., insight, rational). We also develop a model and propositions that incorporate the role of domain knowledge, implicit and explicit learning, and task characteristics on intuition effectiveness. We close by suggesting directions for future research on intuition and its applications to managerial decision making.
Organization Science, 2014
The experience of simultaneously positive and negative orientations toward a person, goal, task, ... more The experience of simultaneously positive and negative orientations toward a person, goal, task, idea, and such appears to be quite common in organizations, but it is poorly understood. We develop a multilevel perspective on ambivalence in organizations that demonstrates how this phenomenon is integral to certain cognitive and emotional processes and important outcomes. Specifically, we discuss the organizational triggers of ambivalence and the cognitive and emotional mechanisms through which ambivalence diffuses between the individual and collective levels of analysis. We offer an integrative framework of major responses to highly intense ambivalence (avoidance, domination, compromise, and holism) that is applicable to actors at the individual and collective levels. The positive and negative outcomes associated with each response, and the conditions under which each is most effective, are explored. Although ambivalence is uncomfortable for actors, it has the potential to foster gro...
Academy of Management Journal
Administrative Science Quarterly
Management journals are currently responding to challenges raised by the “replication crisis” in ... more Management journals are currently responding to challenges raised by the “replication crisis” in experimental social psychology, leading to new standards for transparency. These approaches are spilling over to qualitative research in unhelpful and potentially even dangerous ways. Advocates for transparency in qualitative research mistakenly couple it with replication. Tying transparency tightly to replication is deeply troublesome for qualitative research, where replication misses the point of what the work seeks to accomplish. We suggest that transparency advocates conflate replication with trustworthiness. We challenge this conflation on both ontological and methodological grounds, and we offer alternatives for how to (and how not to) think about trustworthiness in qualitative research. Management journals need to tackle the core issues raised by this tumult over transparency by identifying solutions for enhanced trustworthiness that recognize the unique strengths and consideratio...
Academy of Management Proceedings
Academy of Management Proceedings
... Erik Dane, Michael G Pratt in Academy of Management Review (2007). Save reference to library ... more ... Erik Dane, Michael G Pratt in Academy of Management Review (2007). Save reference to library · Related research 18 readers. ... Claire Peugeot Petitmengin in Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Information Systems (1996). Save reference to library · Related ...
Organizational Research Methods
Video has become a methodological tool of choice for many researchers in social science, but vide... more Video has become a methodological tool of choice for many researchers in social science, but video methods are relatively new to the field of organization studies. This article is an introduction to video methods. First, we situate video methods relative to other kinds of research, suggesting that video recordings and analyses can be used to replace or supplement other approaches, not only observational studies but also retrospective methods such as interviews and surveys. Second, we describe and discuss various features of video data in relation to ontological assumptions that researchers may bring to their research design. Video involves both opportunities and pitfalls for researchers, who ought to use video methods in ways that are consistent with their assumptions about the world and human activity. Third, we take a critical look at video methods by reporting progress that has been made while acknowledging gaps and work that remains to be done. Our critical considerations point ...
Academy of Management Proceedings
Academy of Management Proceedings
Academy of Management Proceedings
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Papers by Michael G Pratt