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Decision-making as performative struggle : Strategic political-executive practices influencing the actualization of an infrastructural development

Sander Merkus (Department of Organizational Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Jaap De Heer (Department of Organizational Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Marcel Veenswijk (Department of Organizational Sciences, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Journal of Organizational Ethnography

ISSN: 2046-6749

Article publication date: 12 August 2014

342

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of performative struggle through the use of an interpretative case story focussed on a strategic decision-making process concerning infrastructural development. Performativity is about “world-making” (Carter et al., 2010), based on the assumption that conceptual schemes are not only prescriptions of the world, for the practices flowing from these abstract ideas bring into being the world they are describing. The focus on agency and multiplicity in the academic debate on performativity in organizational settings are combined, resulting in the conceptualization of a multitude of performative agents struggling to make the world.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodological approach of this paper is based on an interpretative analysis of contrasting narratives that are told by political-executives in a strategic decision-making process. These narratives are based on in-depth interviews and participant observation. The interpretative case story, exhibiting the strategic decision-making practices of Aldermen, Delegates and Ministers – focusses on the moments of performative struggle based on strategic narrative practices.

Findings

The interpretative case story will exhibit the way in which a multiplicity of agents reflects on the performative dimension of the decision-making process, anticipates on its performative effects and attempts to manipulate the strategic vision that is actualized into reality. Moreover, the agents are not primarily concerned with the actualization of a specific infrastructural project; they are more concerned with the consequences of decision making for their more comprehensive strategic visions on reality.

Research limitations/implications

The notion of performative struggle has not yet been explicitly studied by scholars focussing on performativity. However, the concept can be used as an appropriate lens for studying meaning making within ethnographic studies on organizational processes such as for instance culture change intervention and strategy formation. The concept of performative struggle is especially useful for understanding the political dimension of meaning making when studying an organizational life-world through the use of ethnographic research.

Originality/value

The originality of this paper lies in the innovative conceptualization of struggle between a multiplicity of reflexive agents in the debate on performative world-making. Moreover, the incorporation of the perspective of performative struggle within organizational ethnographic research is valuable for the development of organizational ethnographic methodology.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the valuable input of the discussion and comments during the Ethnography conference following the presentation of the conference paper on which this paper is based. Individual comments from Dr Kate Kenny, Dr Manuela Nocker and Professor John van Maanen are especially valued. The authors also thank the members of the Organizational and Cultural Change Dynamics group at the VU University and the two reviewers of the first version for their valuable comments. The paper is based on PhD research funded by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment in the Netherlands. The funder has had no role in the production of this paper.

Citation

Merkus, S., De Heer, J. and Veenswijk, M. (2014), "Decision-making as performative struggle : Strategic political-executive practices influencing the actualization of an infrastructural development", Journal of Organizational Ethnography, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 224-245. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOE-12-2012-0058

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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