Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon
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Insider research can be seen as phenomenological approach of research (Verschuren,<br />
2009), oriented in a reflexive way <strong>on</strong> the living present (O'Reilly, 2009). Insider research<br />
adds a radically reflexive dimensi<strong>on</strong> to organizati<strong>on</strong>al studies through c<strong>on</strong>necting<br />
the organizati<strong>on</strong>, the strategy, the policy and the management (‘the otherness’)<br />
to the complex, living, bodily sense-making and c<strong>on</strong>stituting of meaning (‘the<br />
betweenness’) (Cunliffe, 2003). By bringing in the self, the researcher’s relati<strong>on</strong> with<br />
the ‘otherness’ becomes reflexive as part of the way organizati<strong>on</strong>s are staged in<br />
organizati<strong>on</strong>al studies (Alvess<strong>on</strong> et al., 2008).<br />
As argued before my research is undertaken from an insider positi<strong>on</strong> because of what I<br />
experience as a debatable relati<strong>on</strong> between a usually instrumental approach of policy<br />
and the actual results and appreciati<strong>on</strong>. My research is departing from ‘pers<strong>on</strong>al’<br />
experiences. ‘Pers<strong>on</strong>al’ is put between brackets to avoid the suggesti<strong>on</strong> of a self-absorbed<br />
(narcissistic) approach of research. Living, sense-making and c<strong>on</strong>stituting of<br />
meaning is a social process, in which people in their mutual and interdependent interacti<strong>on</strong><br />
c<strong>on</strong>stitute social reality. As such my research is c<strong>on</strong>nected to a social c<strong>on</strong>structi<strong>on</strong>ist<br />
approach (Gergen, 1999).<br />
It will become clear that if the sociality of ‘pers<strong>on</strong>al’ experiences is taken seriously<br />
within insider research, it will have quite some c<strong>on</strong>sequences for how insider research<br />
should be d<strong>on</strong>e. I became aware of these c<strong>on</strong>sequences by learning and experiencing<br />
from the way research is d<strong>on</strong>e within a complex resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-approach (see<br />
next paragraph). This approach bel<strong>on</strong>gs to the domain of reflexive insider research and<br />
offers possibilities to explore and to understand what happens when starting from<br />
what is experienced in daily organizati<strong>on</strong>al life. In line with Cunliffe (2003) from now<br />
<strong>on</strong> I will designate the combinati<strong>on</strong> of research from a ‘pers<strong>on</strong>al’ and reflexive perspective<br />
as radically reflexive.<br />
1.4 Radically reflexive: a first introducti<strong>on</strong> to a complex<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-approach<br />
The way my research is d<strong>on</strong>e, is based <strong>on</strong> a doctoral programme which from 1995 <strong>on</strong><br />
was developed at the University of Hertfordshire (UK) (Stacey, 2012b). The founders of<br />
the complex resp<strong>on</strong>sive process-approach are Ralph Stacey, Doug Griffin and Patricia<br />
Shaw.<br />
In 2010 I entered a comparable programme at the Dutch Open University. This programme<br />
was set up within the PhD-school of the Management School of the Open<br />
University and came to be known as the Complexity Track. Entering this programme<br />
meant participating in a so called learning group of 4 PhD-students, two permanent<br />
supervisors, a larger group of PhD-students within the Complexity Track and still<br />
larger within the PhD-school, and being taught by visiting professors from all over my<br />
country and the world.<br />
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