Organizing beyond Organizations for the Common Good Confronting Societal Challenges through Process Studies

by Gehman, Joel; Jarzabkowski, Paula; Langley, Ann; Tsoukas, Haridimos

• ISBN13: 9780198956648
• ISBN10: 0198956649
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780198956655
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2025-08-08
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Author Biography

Joel Gehman, Lindner-Gambal Professor of Business Ethics and Professor of Strategic Management and Public Policy, George Washington University School of Business,Paula Jarzabkowski, Professor of Strategic Management, City St George's, University of London,Ann Langley, Distinguished Research Environment Professor, University of Warwick,Haridimos Tsoukas, Columbia Ship Management Professor of Strategic Management, University of Cyprus

Joel Gehman is the Lindner-Gambal Professor in the Department of Strategic Management and Public Policy at the George Washington University School of Business. His research investigates how organizations can contribute to tackling grand challenges related to sustainable development through strategic practices, technological innovation, and institutional change. He is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and more than a dozen business school teaching cases.

Paula Jarzabkowski is Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Queensland and City St George's, University of London. Her research takes a qualitative, practice theory lens to understanding how people in organizations address the complex problems or 'grand challenges' affecting society. She has published this work in over 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, three research monographs, and several edited books and journals. Paula is a Fellow of both the Academy of Management and the British Academy.

Ann Langley is Emerita Professor at HEC Montréal and Distinguished Research Environment Professor at the University of Warwick. Her research deals with strategic processes and practices in complex organizations with an emphasis on qualitative research methods. She has published over 100 articles and 14 books. She is currently Deputy Editor for qualitative research at the Academy of Management Journal, and co-editor, with Haridimos Tsoukas, of the OUP book series 'Perspectives on Process Organization Studies'.

Haridimos Tsoukas is the Columbia Ship Management Professor of Strategic Management at the University of Cyprus and a Distinguished Research Environment Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Warwick Business School. His research interests include organizational knowledge, organizational becoming, practical reason in management studies, and philosophy and organization studies. With Ann Langley, he is co-editor of the OUP book series 'Perspectives on Process Organization Studies', and is author of several books including Philosophical Organization Theory (OUP, 2019).

Table of Contents

1. Organizing beyond organizations for the common good: Confronting societal challenges through process studies, Joel Gehman, Paula Jarzabkowski, Ann Langley, and Haridimos Tsoukas2. How employee activists tackle societal issues by promoting organizational discourse-practice alignment, Stewart Clegg, Miguel Pina e Cunha, and Arménio Rego3. Employee actions beyond organizational borders: A narrative analysis of the communicative constitution of CSR communication, Astrid Jensen, Cindie Maagaard, and Heidi Jensen4. Could legitimizing a process organizing ethos on the frontline of civil service lead to more sustainable outcomes?, Shaheem de Vries and Kosheek Sewchurran5. Why won't you listen to me? How actors construct discursive legitimacy in issue fields, Helen Etchanchu6. Organizing disorganization: The isolation, separation, and polarization of climate change demands, Daniel Nyberg, Vanessa Bowden, and Christopher Wright7. Soundtracking, accompaniment, and modelling: How the cultural production of music addresses societal challenges, Benjamin D. Innis and Jean M. Bartunek8. Snorkelling masks to breathe: How urgency enables inter-organizational responses to paradoxical grand challenges, Jane K. Lê and Amadou Lô9. Navigating the paradoxes of engaged research to address grand challenges: A process model, Natalie Slawinski, Jennifer Brenton, Bruna Brito, and Wendy Smith10. Addressing cross-level challenges in designing multistakeholder partnerships, Jill Purdy and Barbara Gray