Organizationality and alterity: Critical reflections on “Teal organizing” in an online community of practice

Longman, Richard

Abstract

This paper develops an understanding of organization outside formal organizations by exploring the interplay between identity and alterity. Based on a netnography of an online community of practice (#AlteritOrg – a pseudonym), I reveal four qualitative markers that we might extrapolate to theorize organization outside formal organizations. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, I add to the literature on alternative organizations by drawing attention to Teal organizing (Laloux, 2014), which is representative of practitioner-led approaches that sit on the periphery of critical attention. I demonstrate how Teal organizing demands we reconsider a number of assumptions about our habitual theorizing of formal
organizations. Second, I extend the growing literature on organizationality (Dobusch & Schoeneborn, 2015) by incorporating my findings pertaining to (i) emergent organizational structures, (ii) activity allocated according to roles, (iii) decisions made at a local level, and (iv) a culture of experimentation. In sum, the paper adds to extant research on organization outside formal organizations by drawing attention to the interplay of identity and alterity in such settings.

Citation

Longman, R. (2021, July). Organizationality and alterity: Critical reflections on “Teal organizing” in an online community of practice. Paper presented at 37th EGOS Colloquium – Organizing for an Inclusive Society: Meanings, Motivations & Mechanisms, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (unpublished)
• Conference Name: 37th EGOS Colloquium – Organizing for an Inclusive Society: Meanings, Motivations & Mechanisms
• Conference Location: Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
• Start Date: Jul 1, 2021
• End Date: Jul 3, 2021
• Deposit Date: Sep 2, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 2, 2021
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7736414