Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars ... more Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars have identified and unpacked the mechanisms and strategies involved in producing and maintaining ignorance. These analyses tend to have in common that strategic ignorance is about avoiding, hiding, or rendering existing knowledge unreliable. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s sociological concept of communication, we supplement these accounts with an analysis of how ignorance can be produced and maintained by means of communicative selection. Taking the emergence of the zoonotic disease LA-MRSA in Denmark as our empirical case, we explore the management of ignorance under conditions of non-knowing. Our analysis demonstrates how ignorance may be not only maintained but also multiplied without hiding knowledge, keeping secrets, or creating doubts. The analysis thus sheds new light on the dynamics through which ignorance is produced, while knowledge is on full display and acknowledged. The analysis furthermore shows how strategic interests are coupled to ignorance by means of communicative selection.
Peer interaction is a standard aspect of most leadership development programmes and is seen to be... more Peer interaction is a standard aspect of most leadership development programmes and is seen to be conducive to learning. Realising deeper and critical reflexivity in peer interaction is, however, challenging. This study employs conversation analysis to empirically explore peer interactions in a leadership development programme for first-line managers in the public sector in Denmark. The analysis shows that a socio-moral order, that is normative expectations inherent in interactions, guide peer discussions and shape the conditions for reflection and deeper reflexivity. The socio-moral order was based on a central principle of treating each other as experts on one’s own practice. This principle allowed for reflection but turned attention away from critical reflexive practices. As a result, peer discussions took a more conservative rather than a transformational orientation. The study extends the theoretical understanding of the conditions for critical reflexivity as it demonstrates how the socio-moral order of interaction regulates engagement in critically reflexive practices.
Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag zeigt, wie die von Niklas Luhmann entwickelte Systemtheorie für eine... more Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag zeigt, wie die von Niklas Luhmann entwickelte Systemtheorie für eine empirische Analyse von Lärm und lärmerzeugenden Mechanismen geöffnet werden kann. Die dem Artikel zugrunde liegende analytische Strategie ist die Beobachtung der Operationen, die ein soziales System konstituieren. Eine entsprechende Analyse macht auf das Fehlen von Anschlusskommunikation und auf die aktive Produktion von Lärm (verstanden als Operationen ohne Anschlüsse) aufmerksam, d. h. sie öffnet die Analyse für systemische Autolysis (Selbstauflösung). Darauf aufbauend wird eine operationale Analyse organisationaler Kommunikation durchgeführt, die die Leitdifferenz Ereignis / Rekursivität benutzt. Der Artikel ist in sechs Abschnitte gegliedert. Nach der Einleitung wird eine operational-analytische Strategie skizziert (I). Danach wird das Konzept der Autolysis vorgestellt (II). Eine Fallstudie über das Entscheidungsverhalten in einer Organisation des Gesundheitswesens liefert dann Beispiele für organisationalen Lärm im Sinne von Entscheidungen ohne Anschlusskommunikationen (III). Die Fallstudie demonstriert eine aktive Produktion von Geräuschen und identifiziert vier Mechanismen, die ein Rauschen erzeugen (IV). Danach wird diskutiert, wie die Organisation den Lärm beobachtet, den sie erzeugt (V). Abschließend werden die Resultate einer Zusammenführung der operational-analytischen Zugangsweise und des Konzepts der Autolysis identifiziert und weiterführende Perspektiven skizziert.
Journal of Health Organisation and Management, Aug 8, 2008
PurposeSince the emergence of new public health in the 1970s, health has not merely been consider... more PurposeSince the emergence of new public health in the 1970s, health has not merely been considered the absence of disease, but physical, mental and social wellbeing. This article seeks to analyzes the implications of this broad concept of health at an organizational level.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a qualitative case study of boundary drawing in a Danish municipal agency in charge of planning and conducting health promoting and disease preventing activities from 1989 to 2005. The theoretical framework draws on Niklas Luhmann's organization theory.FindingsTwo different organizational answers were found to the challenges inherent in the broad concept of new public health. First, the organization tried to increase its size and incorporate as many aspects of the environment as possible. This expansive strategy jeopardised the identity of the organization. Second, the organization tried to keep clear and tight boundaries and from this position irritate entities in the environment. This limitative strategy made the organization spend relatively more energy on organizing and controlling itself than on public health work.Practical implicationsThe case study shows how a broad concept of health makes boundary management topical in organizations dealing with health promotion and disease prevention. Organizations in charge of public health activities need to reflect on how they can create intelligent compensations for the disadvantages involved in an expansive or a limitative strategy.Originality/valueThe broad concept of health inherent in new public health has been widely accepted and yet its challenges to organizational boundary drawing have attracted little attention. This paper provides an analysis of these challenges.
This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development and leadersh... more This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development and leadership practice. Critical studies of management and leadership development programmes have mainly focused on such programmes as spaces for identity work and/or identity regulation. This article extends the literature by investigating the notion of organisation, the organisational view, in a large management and leadership development programme and how it works as a source of authority for the participating managers. Our inquiry is based on ethnographic studies of both an in-house management and leadership development programme in a large Danish public organisation and of the managerial practice of six participating managers. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organisations perspective, we analyse how the management and leadership development programme (re)produces a unitarist organisational text, an organisational view that assumes the members of the organisation have the same goals and perspectives. We further analyse how this organisational text shapes the authority relationships that managers engage in in their leadership practice. The article demonstrates how the unitarist organisational text fails in authorising participating managers as it clashes with the plurality of perspectives and interests in the organisation and is not recognised as a source of authority by employees and collaborators.
Research has demonstrated how ignorance is made, manipulated and called upon; how it is the resul... more Research has demonstrated how ignorance is made, manipulated and called upon; how it is the result of strategies, activities and structures. This article extends the literature on ignorance by exploring actors’ own explanations of their self-inflicted ignorance following acts of ignoring. By means of a case analysis, we explore how actors explain and justify ignoring data they themselves produced. We provide a multifaceted model of how ignoring actors’ own rationales, facilitated by contextual conditions, enables persistent acts of ignoring the content and dysfunction of collectively upheld systems. We contribute to the understanding of ignorance by demonstrating how self-inflicted ignorance is made possible by the combination of ignoring rationales and their facilitators, which configures buffers against knowledge-seeking efforts.
This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development (MLD) and le... more This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development (MLD) and leadership practice. Critical studies of MLD programmes have mainly focused on such programmes as spaces for identity work and/or identity regulation. This article extends the literature by investigating the notion of organisation, the organisational view, in a large MLD programme and how it works as a source of authority for the participating managers. Our inquiry is based on ethnographic studies of both an in-house MLD programme in a large Danish public organisation and of the managerial practice of six participating managers. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organisations (CCO) perspective, we analyse how the MLD programme (re)produces a unitarist organisational text, an organisational view that assumes the members of the organisation have the same goals and perspectives. We further analyse how this organisational text shapes the authority relationships that managers engage in in their leadership practice. The article demonstrates how the unitarist organisational text fails in authorising participating managers as it clashes with the plurality of perspectives and interests in the organisation and is not recognised as a source of authority by employees and collaborators.
This special issue explores the role of ignorance in contemporary organisations. 1 In recent year... more This special issue explores the role of ignorance in contemporary organisations. 1 In recent years, ignorance has received growing attention in sociology, organisation studies and cultural studies (Gross and McGoey, 2015). Scholars have taken an interest in how corporations invest time and resources in producing and maintaining ignorance (Proctor, 2008). Organisations' ability to marginalise potentially uncomfortable knowledge
Covid-19-pandemien har tydeliggjort, at nye zoonoser indebærer usikkerheder og mangel på viden. D... more Covid-19-pandemien har tydeliggjort, at nye zoonoser indebærer usikkerheder og mangel på viden. Dermed bliver det relevant at undersøge, hvordan organisationer og andre aktører håndterer distinktionen mellem viden og ikke-viden. Sidstnævnte er denne artikels fokus. Inspireret af, hvad der er blevet kaldt agnotology (Proctor & Schiebinger 2008) og the sociology of ignorance (Gross & Mcgoey 2015; McGoey 2012, 2019), analyserer vi produktionen og fastholdelsen af ikke-viden relateret til spredningen af husdyr-MRSA i de danske svinebesætninger i årene fra 2010-2015, hvor forekomsten steg til et irreversibelt niveau. Vi bidrager til den sociologiske litteratur om uvidenhedens samfundsmæssige rolle og skabelse med et kommunikativt perspektiv på ikke-viden. Analysen viser, hvordan ikke-viden blev (re)produceret og fastholdt i kommunikation gennem dennes selektioner. Ydermere viser vi, hvordan disse kommunikative selektioner var filtret sammen med adskillige dynamikker, såsom et spil mellem...
Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars ... more Under the umbrella terms, ‘agnotology’, ’strategic ignorance’, and ‘willful ignorance’, scholars have identified and unpacked the mechanisms and strategies involved in producing and maintaining ignorance. These analyses tend to have in common that strategic ignorance is about avoiding, hiding, or rendering existing knowledge unreliable. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s sociological concept of communication, we supplement these accounts with an analysis of how ignorance can be produced and maintained by means of communicative selection. Taking the emergence of the zoonotic disease LA-MRSA in Denmark as our empirical case, we explore the management of ignorance under conditions of non-knowing. Our analysis demonstrates how ignorance may be not only maintained but also multiplied without hiding knowledge, keeping secrets, or creating doubts. The analysis thus sheds new light on the dynamics through which ignorance is produced, while knowledge is on full display and acknowledged. The analysis furthermore shows how strategic interests are coupled to ignorance by means of communicative selection.
Peer interaction is a standard aspect of most leadership development programmes and is seen to be... more Peer interaction is a standard aspect of most leadership development programmes and is seen to be conducive to learning. Realising deeper and critical reflexivity in peer interaction is, however, challenging. This study employs conversation analysis to empirically explore peer interactions in a leadership development programme for first-line managers in the public sector in Denmark. The analysis shows that a socio-moral order, that is normative expectations inherent in interactions, guide peer discussions and shape the conditions for reflection and deeper reflexivity. The socio-moral order was based on a central principle of treating each other as experts on one’s own practice. This principle allowed for reflection but turned attention away from critical reflexive practices. As a result, peer discussions took a more conservative rather than a transformational orientation. The study extends the theoretical understanding of the conditions for critical reflexivity as it demonstrates how the socio-moral order of interaction regulates engagement in critically reflexive practices.
Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag zeigt, wie die von Niklas Luhmann entwickelte Systemtheorie für eine... more Zusammenfassung: Der Beitrag zeigt, wie die von Niklas Luhmann entwickelte Systemtheorie für eine empirische Analyse von Lärm und lärmerzeugenden Mechanismen geöffnet werden kann. Die dem Artikel zugrunde liegende analytische Strategie ist die Beobachtung der Operationen, die ein soziales System konstituieren. Eine entsprechende Analyse macht auf das Fehlen von Anschlusskommunikation und auf die aktive Produktion von Lärm (verstanden als Operationen ohne Anschlüsse) aufmerksam, d. h. sie öffnet die Analyse für systemische Autolysis (Selbstauflösung). Darauf aufbauend wird eine operationale Analyse organisationaler Kommunikation durchgeführt, die die Leitdifferenz Ereignis / Rekursivität benutzt. Der Artikel ist in sechs Abschnitte gegliedert. Nach der Einleitung wird eine operational-analytische Strategie skizziert (I). Danach wird das Konzept der Autolysis vorgestellt (II). Eine Fallstudie über das Entscheidungsverhalten in einer Organisation des Gesundheitswesens liefert dann Beispiele für organisationalen Lärm im Sinne von Entscheidungen ohne Anschlusskommunikationen (III). Die Fallstudie demonstriert eine aktive Produktion von Geräuschen und identifiziert vier Mechanismen, die ein Rauschen erzeugen (IV). Danach wird diskutiert, wie die Organisation den Lärm beobachtet, den sie erzeugt (V). Abschließend werden die Resultate einer Zusammenführung der operational-analytischen Zugangsweise und des Konzepts der Autolysis identifiziert und weiterführende Perspektiven skizziert.
Journal of Health Organisation and Management, Aug 8, 2008
PurposeSince the emergence of new public health in the 1970s, health has not merely been consider... more PurposeSince the emergence of new public health in the 1970s, health has not merely been considered the absence of disease, but physical, mental and social wellbeing. This article seeks to analyzes the implications of this broad concept of health at an organizational level.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a qualitative case study of boundary drawing in a Danish municipal agency in charge of planning and conducting health promoting and disease preventing activities from 1989 to 2005. The theoretical framework draws on Niklas Luhmann's organization theory.FindingsTwo different organizational answers were found to the challenges inherent in the broad concept of new public health. First, the organization tried to increase its size and incorporate as many aspects of the environment as possible. This expansive strategy jeopardised the identity of the organization. Second, the organization tried to keep clear and tight boundaries and from this position irritate entities in the environment. This limitative strategy made the organization spend relatively more energy on organizing and controlling itself than on public health work.Practical implicationsThe case study shows how a broad concept of health makes boundary management topical in organizations dealing with health promotion and disease prevention. Organizations in charge of public health activities need to reflect on how they can create intelligent compensations for the disadvantages involved in an expansive or a limitative strategy.Originality/valueThe broad concept of health inherent in new public health has been widely accepted and yet its challenges to organizational boundary drawing have attracted little attention. This paper provides an analysis of these challenges.
This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development and leadersh... more This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development and leadership practice. Critical studies of management and leadership development programmes have mainly focused on such programmes as spaces for identity work and/or identity regulation. This article extends the literature by investigating the notion of organisation, the organisational view, in a large management and leadership development programme and how it works as a source of authority for the participating managers. Our inquiry is based on ethnographic studies of both an in-house management and leadership development programme in a large Danish public organisation and of the managerial practice of six participating managers. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organisations perspective, we analyse how the management and leadership development programme (re)produces a unitarist organisational text, an organisational view that assumes the members of the organisation have the same goals and perspectives. We further analyse how this organisational text shapes the authority relationships that managers engage in in their leadership practice. The article demonstrates how the unitarist organisational text fails in authorising participating managers as it clashes with the plurality of perspectives and interests in the organisation and is not recognised as a source of authority by employees and collaborators.
Research has demonstrated how ignorance is made, manipulated and called upon; how it is the resul... more Research has demonstrated how ignorance is made, manipulated and called upon; how it is the result of strategies, activities and structures. This article extends the literature on ignorance by exploring actors’ own explanations of their self-inflicted ignorance following acts of ignoring. By means of a case analysis, we explore how actors explain and justify ignoring data they themselves produced. We provide a multifaceted model of how ignoring actors’ own rationales, facilitated by contextual conditions, enables persistent acts of ignoring the content and dysfunction of collectively upheld systems. We contribute to the understanding of ignorance by demonstrating how self-inflicted ignorance is made possible by the combination of ignoring rationales and their facilitators, which configures buffers against knowledge-seeking efforts.
This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development (MLD) and le... more This article explores the relationship between management and leadership development (MLD) and leadership practice. Critical studies of MLD programmes have mainly focused on such programmes as spaces for identity work and/or identity regulation. This article extends the literature by investigating the notion of organisation, the organisational view, in a large MLD programme and how it works as a source of authority for the participating managers. Our inquiry is based on ethnographic studies of both an in-house MLD programme in a large Danish public organisation and of the managerial practice of six participating managers. Drawing on a communicative constitution of organisations (CCO) perspective, we analyse how the MLD programme (re)produces a unitarist organisational text, an organisational view that assumes the members of the organisation have the same goals and perspectives. We further analyse how this organisational text shapes the authority relationships that managers engage in in their leadership practice. The article demonstrates how the unitarist organisational text fails in authorising participating managers as it clashes with the plurality of perspectives and interests in the organisation and is not recognised as a source of authority by employees and collaborators.
This special issue explores the role of ignorance in contemporary organisations. 1 In recent year... more This special issue explores the role of ignorance in contemporary organisations. 1 In recent years, ignorance has received growing attention in sociology, organisation studies and cultural studies (Gross and McGoey, 2015). Scholars have taken an interest in how corporations invest time and resources in producing and maintaining ignorance (Proctor, 2008). Organisations' ability to marginalise potentially uncomfortable knowledge
Covid-19-pandemien har tydeliggjort, at nye zoonoser indebærer usikkerheder og mangel på viden. D... more Covid-19-pandemien har tydeliggjort, at nye zoonoser indebærer usikkerheder og mangel på viden. Dermed bliver det relevant at undersøge, hvordan organisationer og andre aktører håndterer distinktionen mellem viden og ikke-viden. Sidstnævnte er denne artikels fokus. Inspireret af, hvad der er blevet kaldt agnotology (Proctor & Schiebinger 2008) og the sociology of ignorance (Gross & Mcgoey 2015; McGoey 2012, 2019), analyserer vi produktionen og fastholdelsen af ikke-viden relateret til spredningen af husdyr-MRSA i de danske svinebesætninger i årene fra 2010-2015, hvor forekomsten steg til et irreversibelt niveau. Vi bidrager til den sociologiske litteratur om uvidenhedens samfundsmæssige rolle og skabelse med et kommunikativt perspektiv på ikke-viden. Analysen viser, hvordan ikke-viden blev (re)produceret og fastholdt i kommunikation gennem dennes selektioner. Ydermere viser vi, hvordan disse kommunikative selektioner var filtret sammen med adskillige dynamikker, såsom et spil mellem...
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