What counts? In work, as in other areas of life, it is not always
clear what standards we are being judged by or how our worth is being
determined. This can be disorienting and disconcerting. Because of
this, many organizations devote considerable resources to limiting and
clarifying the logics used for evaluating worth. But as David Stark
argues, firms would often be better off, especially in managing
change, if they allowed multiple logics of worth and did not
necessarily discourage uncertainty. In fact, in many cases multiple
orders of worth are unavoidable, so organizations and firms should
learn to harness the benefits of such "heterarchy" rather than seeking
to purge it. Stark makes this argument with ethnographic case studies
of three companies attempting to cope with rapid change: a
machine-tool company in late and postcommunist Hungary, a new-media
startup in New York during and after the collapse of the Internet
bubble, and a Wall Street investment bank whose trading room was
destroyed on 9/11. In each case, the friction of competing criteria of
worth promoted an organizational reflexivity that made it easier for
the company to change and deal with market uncertainty. Drawing on
John Dewey's notion that "perplexing situations" provide opportunities
for innovative inquiry, Stark argues that the dissonance of diverse
principles can lead to discovery.
Les mer
Accounts of Worth in Economic Life
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781400831005
Publisert
2013
Utgiver
Vendor
Princeton University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Antall sider
264
Forfatter