Organising as Practice

Treating organisations as ongoing achievements emergent from quotidian practices, practice-based approaches are growing in significance. The group uses a broad range of approaches, from ethnomethodology through Bourdieu and Foucault to critical realism. Each is characterised by an ambition to develop the chosen approach in a critical fashion and to publish the results in the leading outlets.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the panel for UoA 36 Business and Management cited the research outputs of the group as providing evidence of research they judged as internationally excellent. Examples are:

Dalvir Samra-Fredericks guest edited an influential issue of Organization Studies on practice-based approaches in 2009. She regularly speaks at conferences and other institutions outlining her distinctive approach to strategy as practice and has been influential in the development of this approach. Her work was highlighted in Journal of Management Studies in 2011 as the international exemplar of qualitative research.
Alistair Mutch has developed an approach to the study of the relationship between information technology and organisations that was published in Organization Science in 2010. This led to him guest editing a special issue of MIS Quarterly on critical realism, the first special issue to be dedicated to a specific philosophical approach in any of the major US journals.

The group organises seminars and workshops exploring the nature of practice-based approaches. Details of these can be found on the news and events page. Group members welcome applications for doctoral study; please see their individual pages for further details of areas of interest.