This dissertation advances the claim that recent lack of progress in organization theory development has been due less to conceptual inadequacy or lack of rigor, than to unexamined assumptions and 'common sense' about what constitutes 'good' theory. Emerging work experience cannot be represented in theory because current theory itself reflects the values and problems of a specific (industrial) era. Using a form of poststructuralist textual analysis, Foucaultian genealogy, this dissertation establishes the need for understanding theory development as a form of representation, produced and sustained through socially constituted relationships which are undergoing transformational change. It is argued that, through these changes, organizational science itself could become a passing chapter in the history of work. To illustrate this claim, the study examines representations of "knowledge work," a term whose emergence appears to indicate attempts to speak of new work relationships. The main object of analysis in this study is structured observation of the work of an atypical, but apropos, group of knowledge workers--staff nurses in a university teaching hospital. Using genealogical methods, this structured observation is studied as a text created within the discourse of organization studies. One analysis of this text is a "history of the present," which follows the emergence and present operation of the disciplinary practices of the discourse of the employee. Another analysis studies contrasting representations of nursing work in the dominant discourse of science and the marginalized discursive voices of "caring/connecting." The claim advanced from these analyses is that the failure of the management disciplines to develop a self-reflexive dialogue about the active role of representation in theory development limits what can be said about knowledge work to what has already been said about the industrial employee. As one example of poststructuralist textual research, genealogy is presented as a means for bringing this problem into theory development.

This dissertation addresses the lack of attention to work in organization studies (Barley, 1996), and to change processes as they unfold from the perspectives of those attempting to incorporate changes into their own work. Research was conducted "from the inside" (Evered & Louis, 1981). Two periods of fieldwork during the years 1992-1997 provided qualitative data. Q-methodology was incorporated, allowing analysis to flow back and forth between qualitative and quantitative data. This dissertation is based on an empirical examination of how people made sense of attempts at changing their working practices in a company facing pressure from customers to perfect quality, increase speed, and lower costs. Men and women working in this mature, mid-sized manufacturing firm needed to continue to make product--fluid handling components supplied to several industries--while changes were going on around them. Following a major restructuring in the late 1980s, the organization acquired a reputation for forward-thinking management practices. A planned change initiative focusing on teamwork and on introducing kaizen techniques was begun early in 1997. The dissertation experiments with different ways of representing experiences of working and changing (and not changing) in a manufacturing organization. It presents the following stories: a chronological description of changes in ownership, structure, and management practices; reflections on changes in worklife as told by three employees; an account of a kaizen event; cynical and hopeful ways of talking about the teamwork initiative; and expressions of perspectives on changing. Interpretation considers people's responses to the constant flip-flop of demands, changes in structure and technology, and sense-making on a daily basis and in reference to publicity surrounding the previous restructuring. Although based in a single manufacturing organization, results suggest implications. For organizational behavior researchers, practices of shamming and taking shortcuts deserve research attention. Change practitioners may want to consider sense-making processes in order to highlight what they want people to notice and focus on. This was an ordinary organization, experiencing some success despite ever increasing pressures from outside. Men and women working there continued to do their work, making just enough sense to get through the workday.

The broad area of interest for this study is the nature of justice in organizational life. More specifically, it focuses on human resource managers and the ways in which their everyday activities create and sustain fair organization for themselves and for others. The linking of justice with human resource management is manifest in an extensive body of theory and research. In general, inquiry concerns the perceptions of employees about the fairness of organizational policies and procedures. My study diverges from this approach in both its theoretical position and its research focus. As a researcher, I maintain a different philosophical position regarding the nature of reality, knowledge, and human nature. In so doing, I offer different conceptualizations of human resource management and justice that shifts attention to each as socially constructed by organizational actors. My project is grounded in a micro-sociological orientation and draws upon two theoretical traditions, ethnomethodology and symbolic interaction. Within this framework or intersubjective approach, I use observations and interviews to describe human resource management as being defined by and through interactivity. In addition, I suggest that certain types of interactions ("justice occasions"), involving the making or applying of organizational policy or procedure, are of particular interest as local interactive sites of doing justice. The specific research question addressed in this study was: What are the verbal practices of human resource managers that serve to create and sustain fair organization as a shared definition of reality? I draw upon observations and interviews to develop the HR managers' understanding of justice as consistency. Then, using audiotaped conversations between HR managers and other organizational members during justice occasions, I document three interactional methods employed by these professionals to establish consistency as a quality of organizational life: (1) Projecting the Future, (2) Recalling the Past, and (3) Defining the Situation. I suggest that these interactional practices are not only how human resource managers do fairness, but that they are defining elements of human resource managing. This research contributes to justice and HRM scholarship by attending to the activities of human resource managers. It extends our knowledge about human resource management by explicating the ways in which HRM is defined and sustained by those who practice it. Further, it demonstrates that fairness, as a quality of organizational experience, is constructed in the everyday activities of organizational life.

Workers with developmental disabilities have recently entered the work force as a result of human service agency efforts to integrate these individuals with their non-disabled peers. Much of the integration efforts have occurred without the input of those individuals with developmental disabilities. Research completed regarding the work lives of the worker with developmental disabilities has focused mainly on wages and social integration. The majority of research data was collected from individuals other than the workers with developmental disabilities themselves. In order to effectively learn what is of importance to the worker with developmental disabilities, interviews with these individuals needed to be conducted. As suggested by others who have conducted research in the field of developmental disabilities, a qualitative research approach was used to obtain data. Quality of Work Life criteria established for non-disabled workers was used as a guide throughout the study. The data obtained through this study indicated that the Quality of Work Life improved for the participants once they left sheltered employment and were employed in integrated employment sites with non-disabled peers. Of importance to the participants was not only wages and having the opportunity to be with non-disabled peers, but also the opportunity to complete a variety of job tasks, keeping busy throughout their work day, and having some autonomy on the job. The participants also had an imbalance between their work and non-work time, most wanting the opportunity to work more hours per week. In addition, as a result of experiencing success in the work place, the participants began to identify with their non-disabled co-workers rather than their peers who still were employed at the sheltered workshops.

Identity has long been a prolific research interest for organizational scholars. Its popularity can be attributed to the development of post-bureaucratic organizations, where control is no longer achieved through external forms (i.e. rules and procedures), but rather, "softer" mechanisms, such as organizational culture and values. Examining identity therefore becomes crucial for understanding how employees internalize organizational goals to exhibit desired behaviors. While the predominant approach has been to analyze how organizations help shape, control, and regulate member identity, this project calls into question the assumption of organizational employment to explore the micro-processes of identity construction among a growing class of worker in the U.S.: the self-employed professional. This investigation is grounded in the world of personal coaching, an emerging profession organized largely by self-employment. Between 2007–2011, I immersed myself in the "field" of coaching, generating data via ethnographic methods—i.e. participant observation, in-depth interviews, informal interactions—and secondary archival sources. Applying a critical interpretive lens to conceptualize identity not as a "thing" but as an ongoing social accomplishment, the analysis reveals three main insights. First, intense identity working was provoked by tensions and anxiety arising from conflicts, contradictions, and challenges, as informants tried to construct a positive identity as a self-employed professional, while simultaneously performing vital (and mostly unrecognized) identity work for the wider coaching profession. Second, since "doing" identity and material conditions are mutually constitutive, identity efforts can be categorized as having a profitable, proficient, or pragmatic orientation; I contend that this typology is applicable to other self-employed professionals. Third, as a socially negotiated process, identity working is one which recruits many participants—both within and outside of the coaching community. Furthermore, geographically-dispersed members actively regulate and control each other's identities to maintain professional standards, via new organizing forms, like social media. This investigation contributes to knowledge about the nuances of identity working, and linkages between such micro-processes and the wider historical, socio-economic conditions. Extending beyond the coaching profession, the data produced serve as a contextual exemplar for exploring how individuals navigate the restructuring of labor and changing employment relations, which increasingly characterize the "new world of work."

Representation is hallowed in American jurisprudence. Under the adversary approach manifested in the judicial system of the United States, the right to assistance of counsel is a tenet of the Constitution for those accused of crimes as well as a protection accorded by the Wagner Act for unionized workers facing discipline at the hands of their employers. Of more recent vintage, soaring caseloads have increasingly clogged the courts and, some would contend, have served to deny justice through its delay. Consequently, those enmeshed in disputes have turned to alternate means to resolve their differences equitably and efficiently. Chief among these new methods is a process, mediation, in which adversarial relations are anathema. Parties that consent to mediation choose a neutral who fosters their attempt to negotiate a settlement. In the juxtaposition of our historical reliance on adversaries pitted against each other in the pursuit of justice with a modern dispute resolution venue that demands cooperation in the quest for agreement, is representation still a cherished right? One overarching question prompts this Investigation. Does the presence of a Representative in mediation affect the client's perception of Procedural Justice as well as the likelihood of reaching a settlement? A mixed-design empirical study was conducted in which emic, between-subjects variables (obtained from self-report surveys) and etic, within-subjects variables (experimentally manipulated in a manner akin to policy capturing) were measured in a sample of upper-class undergraduates. In sum, results demonstrate that representation has a positive effect on subjects' perception of Procedural Justice generally and, more particularly, that Facilitators--representatives who empower their clients to directly negotiate with their opponent--augur higher perceptions of fair process and predicted outcomes among their clients than those represented by Advocates, who dominate negotiations, or the Unrepresented. This exploratory Investigation will advance Organizational Justice theory by shedding light on the impact of representation on a client's perception of process control, voice and overall fairness in mediation. Also, the evidence informs mediation practice by suggesting a greater use of representatives who support their client's direct participation.

The interview method was used to conduct a qualitative case study in a large business corporation to discover the organizational culture that supports moving minority employees into management positions, the management practices that enables the phenomena to occur, and the experiences of minority employees who have become managers. The literature was reviewed to explore studies that presented data from African American's perspective about corporate life in America and the specific themes that emerged during this research project. Those themes are culture, learning organization, motivation, leadership, goals, reward, group development, and mentoring. This researcher found little empirical work existing on mentoring and few adequate models that utilize mentoring as a legitimate management development strategy. Therefore the researcher created theoretical constructs and the MENTOR model to improve practice in this area. The findings of this investigation are that organizational culture is based on the assumptions, values, and norms shared by organizational members, that a company can create a culture that values all employees including minorities, and that the company can implement management practices that result in positive work experiences for minority employees which enables them to become managers. The minority managers interviewed have the ability to "fit" into the IBM organization and they have gained acceptance. An invisible barrier or "glass ceiling" does not prevent minorities from advancing beyond lower or middle management positions. Today, there are already minorities at the executive level and the current focus is on moving minorities into the Corporate Officer positions that manage the business. The study creates new knowledge about the value and legitimacy of mentoring as a management development strategy and it produces knowledge directly relevant to managing a diverse work force. Suggestions are offered for future research.

This dissertation is a longitudinal ethnography of a bicultural organization in transition I began in October 1987 directly after the takeover by Japanese management of a Western Massachusetts paper plant. This project documents the experience of both the American workforce and the Japanese management team at the plant, a microcosm of the cultural change process recurrent in modern industrial America. In particular, I examine cultural differences in the understanding of leadership and "concept of work," actual and experienced shifts in how inequality is structured, how conflict is managed, and how "otherness" is defined. The results are organized around four themes which emerged over time from the ethnographic data: (1) a conceptual model of "negotiated culture"; (2) national cultural differences in the transfer of technology; (3) effects of culture on labor relations and the collective bargaining process; and (4) "bicultural alienation" of the American middle manager. This study employs a between-methods triangulated research design involving both a qualitative ethnographic component as well as a quantitative study. The ethnography relies on a dialectical mode of inquiry wherein current anthropological theory and ethnographic data gathered at the field site are constantly compared. The results of the ethnography are then used to inform the generation of strong constructs which are the basis for a quantitatively tested organization-wide census. My ethnographic methods include participant observation and intensive interviewing of the American managers, union committee, blue collar workers, and Japanese management team in the U.S. and in Japan. The quantitative component of my methodology is a retrospective questionnaire administered to the entire workforce (N = 203) which measures their attitudes towards the Japanese management and their assessment of the evolving organizational culture at three distinct time periods: (A) before the takeover; (B) after a $40 million dollar expansion of the facility---a zenith of the company's success; and (C)~the present---after the company has endured its first layoffs in the wake of a severe industry downturn. Results of the questionnaire analysis are woven into the body of the ethnographic reports, sometimes supporting, sometimes adding to, and sometimes challenging the ethnography.

This dissertation reflects on the construction of money as a way of informing management theory and, hopefully, will motivate scholars to render management theory and its associated practices more transparent and coherent. Management theory is less a discipline than an amalgam of social scientific insights about managerial (and more broadly, organizational) activities. In constructing this body of theory, the various contributors have been relatively unreflective about the sources of their insight. Did it derive from an economic approach, and if so, from which tradition; or did it derive from one of the other social sciences? As a result, contemporary management theory often mixes incomplete or incompatible presumptions. The dissertation is intended to disentangle these combinations by using the construct of "money," a varying concept depending on which of the social science disciplines one draws on. The dissertation has three main components: First, I argue that money is deeply social and complicated, rich with meanings and implications documented in sociology, anthropology, psychology and, especially, economics. I propose that these insights provide the basis for a multi-dimensional framework describing money as a social construction. I believe the money framework, because of money's centrality in organizational life, can facilitate more useful organizational analysis and focus attention on important social implications of money and organizations. Second, I use the money framework to describe the version of money relied on in most management theory through close textual analysis of a compensation textbook, highlighting management theory's reliance on the assumptions of neoclassical economics. As part of the analysis, I draw on scholarly accounts of compensation from sociology, anthropology, and psychology, and examine the ways in which tacit reliance on neoclassical economic presumptions undercuts management theory's aspirations to accommodate the broadly social realms of organizational activity. Third, I describe how the money framework can be used to identify the assumptions and biases of other management constructs such as strategy and how it can be used empirically to describe the organizational construction of money. By providing a framework for analyzing the common element of money, the dissertation lays a foundation for new interpretations of management theory and organizations.

An aging population in the United States, changes in family structure and the labor supply, and a rapidly increasing need for home-based care for the elderly are contributors to a crisis in the home health care industry. This crisis includes severe worker shortages and, for those who cannot pay for costly home health care themselves, an indeterminate quality of care provided to clients. Direct-care industry-focused research has shown that for nursing homes, ownership type can be linked to the quality of care provided to residents (Comondore et al., 2009; Eaton, 2000). Kruse, Freeman, and Blasi's research (2010) also links an organization's ownership, along with participatory decision making by employees, to increased firm performance. Home health care organizations operate under a variety of ownership structures and ownership may affect the productivity of caregivers. My research question in this exploratory study is "How does a home health care organization's ownership structure affect the quality of care that home health aides provide to clients?" Home health care businesses operate predominantly under government, for-profit and nonprofit ownership structures. A few worker cooperatives are also present in the industry. In this study of the latter three organization types, I examine how, in the context of various institutional pressures, these ownership structures and associated decision making processes affect organizational outcomes and influence quality of care. I investigate whether isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983) in the industry may also influence organizational practices and the work environments across home health care organizations. In support of the primary research question, I explore the meaning of quality care. Using a case study framework, I collect in-depth data from company and publicly available documents, interviews, observation, and a survey administered to 628 home health aides. I use it in examining quality of care and other worker and organizational outcomes. My findings reveal that ownership and participatory decision making can be linked to lower levels of turnover, and higher levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and an exploratory construct of quality of care. These positive outcomes are more closely associated with the worker cooperative business than with the other forms of organization.