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Announcing a free Asynchronous Seminar on Social-Symbolic Work

  • 1.  Announcing a free Asynchronous Seminar on Social-Symbolic Work

    Posted 03-08-2021 16:09

    Building on our book, Constructing Organizational Life, and on the recent online synchronous seminar on social-symbolic work that took place in February, we have put together an Asynchronous Seminar on Social-Symbolic Work. If you are interested in learning more about the social-symbolic work perspective we develop in the book, this is a great way to explore the concept and its applications.

     

    The seminar is completely free, and we'd be delighted if you used it in whatever way is helpful. If you're a student or want to learn more about different forms of "work" in organizational life, you might work through the whole thing. If you're teaching doctoral or research masters students, you might use some or all of the slide decks, videos, or readings lists. One our aims in writing Constructing Organizational Life was to develop a text that could be used alongside other materials in a doctoral seminar in organization theory or organizational behavior. In any case, feel free to use and re-mix the materials in whatever way works for you. We only ask that you cite appropriately.

     

    For background, in Constructing Organizational Life, we build on diverse forms of "work" in organizations, including identity work, emotion work, boundary work, strategy work, and institutional work to develop the social-symbolic work perspective. The perspective highlights people's efforts to construct the social world, and focuses attention on the motivations, practices, resources, and effects of those efforts. (For more of an overview, see reviews by Weick and Langley.)

     

    The asynchronous seminar comprises an introduction to social-symbolic work, overviews of self work, organization work, and institutional work, and discussions of theoretical opportunities and methodological challenges associated with the social-symbolic work perspective. It includes videos of our mini-lectures from the seminar, our PowerPoint slide decks, and a reading list for each of the topics.

     

     

    Enjoy,

    Tom and Nelson

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    Tom Lawrence

    Professor of Strategy

    Saïd Business School

    University of Oxford

     

    Constructing Organizational Life (Oxford University Press)

    Social-Symbolic Work | Exploring the Turn to Work in Social Science and Society

    SBS Website Google Scholar ResearchGate