IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/crpeac/v19y2008i7p1034-1053.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Humiliation: A standard organizational product?

Author

Listed:
  • Czarniawska, Barbara

Abstract

Humiliation is treated as a random event, an error in a modern organization. This paper claim is to the contrary—that humiliation, legitimate or not, is a standard organizational by-product, considered to be an unavoidable if regrettable effect of power. The paper presents examples of organizational humiliation and discusses it in the terms of a social act and of an emotion. Contrary to what might be expected, humiliation is not limited to personnel issues; budget and accounting procedures are also arenas permitting humiliation to be produced. The pervasiveness of the phenomenon is scrutinized, ending with a plea for non-instrumental approach to negative phenomena in organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Czarniawska, Barbara, 2008. "Humiliation: A standard organizational product?," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(7), pages 1034-1053.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:19:y:2008:i:7:p:1034-1053
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2007.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1045235407000500
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.cpa.2007.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel, Yiannis, 2000. "Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297062.
    2. Czarniawska-Joerges, Barbara & Kranas, Grazyna, 1991. "Power in the eyes of the innocent (Students talk on power in organizations)," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 41-60.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    2. Gibson, Matthew, 2016. "Constructing pride, shame, and humiliation as a mechanism of control: A case study of an English local authority child protection service," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 120-128.
    3. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2017. "A case study of critique: Critical perspectives on critical accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 88-109.
    4. Collins, David & Dewing, Ian & Russell, Peter, 2009. "Postcards from the Front: Changing narratives in UK financial services," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 20(8), pages 884-895.
    5. Gilbert, Christine, 2021. "Debt, accounting, and the transformation of individuals into financially responsible neoliberal subjects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Per Engelseth & Richard Glavee-Geo & Artur Janusz & Enoch Niboi, 2020. "The Emergent Nature of Networked Sustainable Procurement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Arfan Khalid, 2011. "Effect of Organizational Change on Employee Job Involvement: Mediating Role of Communication, Emotions and Psychological Contract," Information Management and Business Review, AMH International, vol. 3(3), pages 178-184.
    3. Cliff Oswick, 2014. "A Study of Case Studies: Some Reflections and Projections on the Narrative Structuring of Management Cases," South Asian Journal of Business and Management Cases, , vol. 3(1), pages 7-14, June.
    4. Power, Michael & Tuck, Penelope, 2024. "The firm that would not die: post-death organizing, alumni events, and organization ghosts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119973, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Kevin Morrell, 2008. "The Narrative of ‘Evidence Based’ Management: A Polemic," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 613-635, May.
    6. Beattie, Vivien, 2014. "Accounting narratives and the narrative turn in accounting research: Issues, theory, methodology, methods and a research framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 111-134.
    7. Sörgärde, Nadja, 2020. "Story-dismantling, story-meandering, and story-confirming: Organizational identity work in times of public disgrace," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3).
    8. Jerzy Kociatkiewicz & Monika Kostera, 2015. "Into the labyrinth : tales of organizational nomadism," Post-Print hal-02423775, HAL.
    9. Jerzy Kociatkiewicz & Monika Kostera, 2023. "Longing as learning, learning as longing: insights and improvisations in a year of disrupted studies," Post-Print hal-03735974, HAL.
    10. Jean-Philippe Bouilloud & Ghislain Deslandes & Guillaume Mercier, 2019. "The Leader as Chief Truth Officer: The Ethical Responsibility of “Managing the Truth” in Organizations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 1-13, June.
    11. Marcus T. Wolfe & Dean A. Shepherd, 2015. "What do you have to Say about That? Performance Events and Narratives’ Positive and Negative Emotional Content," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 895-925, July.
    12. W. E. Douglas Creed, 2003. "Voice Lessons: Tempered Radicalism and the Use of Voice and Silence," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(6), pages 1503-1536, September.
    13. Ian Fillis & Ruth Rentschler, 2010. "The Role Of Creativity In Entrepreneurship," Journal of Enterprising Culture (JEC), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(01), pages 49-81.
    14. Dirk Holtbrügge, 2013. "Indigenous Management Research," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 53(1), pages 1-11, February.
    15. Andrea Kampmann & Burkhard Pedell, 2022. "Using Storytelling to Promote Organizational Resilience: An Experimental Study of Different Forms of Risk Communication," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 74(4), pages 695-725, December.
    16. Michela Arnaboldi & Irvine Lapsley, 2010. "Asset management in cities: polyphony in action?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 23(3), pages 392-419, March.
    17. Valérie-Inès de La Ville & Eléonore Mounoud, 2015. "A Narrative to Approach to Strategy as Practice: strategy making from texts and narratives," Post-Print halshs-01390100, HAL.
    18. Dan Wang & Zhongyuan Zhang, 2022. "Disassembling the influences of perceived family relational conflict on business family offspring’s intrapreneurial intentions," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 153-189, March.
    19. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    20. John Luhman & Andy Nazario, 2015. "Alienation, Police Stories, and Percival," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 665-681, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:19:y:2008:i:7:p:1034-1053. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/critical-perspectives-on-accounting/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.