Organization Studies

Organization Studies, Ahead of Print. <br/>

Organization Studies, Ahead of Print. <br/>While a large body of research explains how social movements elicit corporate change by focusing on confrontation of activists against targeted organizations, it remains unclear how the conflicts between activists and their primary targets affect non-target firms. Drawing on social movements research and non-market strategy literature, we examine how non-target firms respond to social contentiousness in the non-market environment in the context of the creation of automotive emissions controls in Japan in the early 1970s. Our findings challenge the somewhat linear assumption that confrontation and direct action against focal firms is a necessary condition for activists seeking change. Instead, our findings underscore the importance of also considering non-target firms in understanding the impact and influences of movements on the broader non-market environment. Moreover, our findings contribute to the non-market strategy literature by revealing that social value-based strategies can serve as an alternative way for corporate targets to exert influence in non-market environments. Specifically, we present a model that shows the linkages between intentional non-market strategies and strategic motivation in market competition, thus responding to calls to consider the linkage between non-market and market strategies.

Organization Studies, Ahead of Print. <br/>

Organization Studies, Ahead of Print. <br/>If we truly want to understand the impact of shame on organizational life there is a need to dig deeper into the very heart of our embodied experience. Building on work that has sought to understand how shame shapes and controls us, we push for an embodied perspective on shame to enter into our scholarly inquiry. To do so, in this essay, we draw on feminist and critical race theory to argue that felt shame can accumulate, untethered to specific episodes of shaming, and inhibit bodily expression. We bring attention to this embodied and durable aspect of shame and suggest there is a need to attend to its impacts on our organizations, the ways we are organized, and how we can organize to resist.

Organization Studies, Ahead of Print. <br/>Craft offers a path to enchantment and meaningful engagement with creation in an increasingly rationalized society. Yet, entering skilled domains where craft is practiced can be challenging for novices, particularly for those less familiar with these domains. While a growing body of research suggests that craft can be made more accessible through nontraditional pathways, the process whereby novices come to perceive craft as accessible remains undertheorized. We explore these ideas through the case of the makers, a diverse DIY movement that embraces all who build, modify, and invent across a variety of skilled domains. Using interview and observational data from Maker Faires—events wherein makers exhibit their projects and engage attendees in making activities—we induce a model of how experts enable novices to perceive craft as accessible. Our findings reveal how experts convey knowledge and skills using a creative craft approach, detailing how experts engage in scaffolding to facilitate novice creation, relax hierarchy, and cultivate fun and whimsy. In turn, this engenders the experience of enchanted engagement for novices who are able to experience how engaging in craft feels without the requisite skills or knowledge. Ultimately, this experience shapes and reinforces novices’ perception that craft is accessible. Our study contributes to the growing scholarship on craft in terms of alternative pathways for entering skilled domains, the role of craft in re-enchanting organizational life, and the emotional rewards of craft.