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Ethical leadership dilemmas in the open office environment. Donatella De Paoli , Norwegian School of Management BI Perttu Salovaara , Arja Ropo , University of Tampere Bristol 9.12.2011. Paper background.
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Ethical leadership dilemmas in the open office environment Donatella De Paoli, Norwegian School of Management BI Perttu Salovaara, ArjaRopo, University of Tampere Bristol 9.12.2011
Paper background • Based on the project “Leadership in Spaces and Places” with 5 interdisciplinary projects: • Interior design, Disseminated work, Social space, Symbolic management, Office space design • “How do spaces and places perform and construct leadership?”
Lefebvre (1991), three spaces: • Planned • Practiced • Imagined Imagined: Subjective, atmosphere, feeling, experiences, likes and dislikes…
Organizational space as a resource of control? • “The work building facilitates managerial control of the labour process, enabling the co-ordination of production through the division of labour and the construction of systems of surveillance” • “Workers are subjected to specific architectural and managerial constructions of organizational space – frontier of control over the working environment” Halford 2004
Historical background • Historically factories and offices (early 20th c.) were open and controlled by leaders - • Hawthorne studies drew attention away from physical facilities and conditions • Renewed interest for space in organizational studies last 10 years • However, little research on leadership &space
Analysis of materials • “It is a commonplace in traditional research that prisons, hospitals and similar total institutions have a set of informal rules, which are different from, and often oppose, the official ones” (Potter Wetherell 1987, p. 19)
Ethical dilemmas • Dilemma: “double proposition”, problem offering two possibilities, neither of which is practically acceptable • Ethical leadership dilemmas at open office • Environment should promote communication and cooperation, but there are examples where it does the contrary • e.g. How to give personal feedback (in professional Panopticon)? • Less distance between hierarchical levels: informality encouraged, yet being “on stage” (some leaders complain they are constantly watched at – and so do followers) • Social learning: unified perception of architecture, uniform culture, all end up doing same, fast integration to the code; afraid of breaking the rules, social control that leads to self-control
Thank you! Questions, comments, ideas?!