Knowledge-sharing, control, compliance and symbolic violence

Kamoche, Ken; Kannan, Selvi; Siebers, Lisa Qixun

Abstract

Recent developments in control hold that professionals are best managed through normative and concertive as opposed to bureaucratic and coercive mechanisms. This post-structuralist approach appeals to the notion of congruent values and norms and acknowledges the role of individuals’ subjectivity in sustaining professional autonomy. Yet, there remains a risk of over-simplifying the manifestations of such control initiatives. By means of an in-depth case study, this article considers the challenge of implementing a knowledge-sharing portal for a community of R&D scientists through management control initiatives that relied on a blend of presumed ‘peer pressure’ and the rhetoric of ‘facilitation’. Arguing that traditional approaches such as normative/concertive control and soft bureaucracy only partially explain this phenomenon, we draw from Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of ‘symbolic violence’ to interpret a managerial initiative to appropriate knowledge and affirm the structure of social relations through the complicity of R&D scientists. We also examine how the scientists channelled resistance by reconstituting compliance in line with their sense of identity as creators of knowledge.

Citation

Kamoche, K., Kannan, S., & Siebers, L. Q. (2014). Knowledge-sharing, control, compliance and symbolic violence. Organization Studies, 35(7), https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840614525325

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 2, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Apr 4, 2014
• Publication Date: Jul 1, 2014
• Deposit Date: Apr 5, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Apr 5, 2018
• Journal: Organization Studies
• Print ISSN: 0170-8406
• Electronic ISSN: 1741-3044
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 35
• Issue: 7
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840614525325
• Keywords: Bourdieu, compliance, control, knowledge, resistance, symbolic violence
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/729649
• Publisher URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0170840614525325