Rumbling on performativity_Frits Simon

Ontologically reflexive research is to be approached as research in which dissensus,
orientation on local and emergent processes are points of departure through which
conflicts, lost or marginalized voices, ambivalence and diversity are made visible or
audible (Deetz, 1996). This research represents a style of thought which is focussed on
becoming instead of being, on relating instead of positioning and on organizing instead
of organization (Chia, 1995).
In this reflexive process themes emerge and are scrutinized, leading to making sense
of experiences which can be of interest for the researcher and others. This sense-making
may result in a powerful example (Flyvbjerg, 2001), through which a nuanced
view on occurrences within a practice becomes visible. It is the move towards exemplary
knowledge of abduction or phronesis through which understanding a problem in
its context becomes possible (Thomas, 2010).
In this reflexivity the researcher takes responsibility for the many interpretations and
choices he made, through which interpretations of what could have been and can be
become possible. Explicitly describing the reflections during the research process
makes it possible to keep up with the learning process of the researcher and to make
transparent how changes in understandings evolves in research practices over time
(Flyvbjerg, 2001). In general qualitative researchers acknowledge that their texts
cannot be separated from the author, from how it is received by readers and what
impact they have on the involved of the research (Creswell, 2007).
To conclude: reflexivity as point of departure has radical consequences for the position
of the researcher. From a radically dynamical and process-oriented approach of organizational
reality, an outside position of the researcher is disclaimed. Within a radical
approach only an insider’s position is possible, a position in which the researcher
participates and observes, and which enables him to reflect upon his experiences and
in the end to share them. And it is adamant for a researcher to be as much as possible
explicit about his values and beliefs, and to describe the analyses and reflections made
during the research-process.
A radically reflexive complex responsive process-approach
It sounds almost superfluous to state that researchers which profess a complex responsive
process-approach for their research subscribe to a radically reflexive approach.
If research is done while participating in the living present of organizational life, it
appears to be inevitable to take a reflexive stance. For Shaw (2002) reflexivity indeed
is an enhanced attention for what we are doing in our research and how this is intertwined
with our interpretations, decisions and actions we take. Reflexivity is about
opening up the way reality is represented by you as the researcher and then to relate it
critically to traditions of thought in society (Stacey, 2010). In line with what was stated
about reflexivity Stacey (2010) argues that reflexivity should connect you to the history
of your behaviour and destabilize and disrupt the self-evident sufficiency of your
taken for granted interpretations (Stacey, 2012b). Know thyself! Or at least reflexively
38