[Air-L] Call for Papers - Special Issue on Hidden Organizations

AoIR Colleagues, For those of you who study certain hacktivist collectives, anonymous support groups, online hate groups, Internet piracy, dark web organizations, online front organizations, largely invisible virtual businesses, or other somewhat hidden organizations online… For those of you whose work examines various technologies of concealment, digital anonymity, online secrecy, privacy, invisibility, or other processes related to the hiding of organizations and/or their members… I’m pleased to announce the call for papers for a special issue of Management Communication Quarterly (MCQ) on Hidden Organizations. The “hidden” details are pasted below. The deadline for submitted papers is October 1, 2014. For those not familiar with MCQ, it publishes work from across the organizational and management communication fields and has strong appeal across all disciplines concerned with organizational studies and the management sciences. It is a top 20 journal in communication and is ranked in the top half of all management journals based on impact. You can learn more about this journal and view this call for papers at http://mcq.sagepub.com/. Please let me know if you have any questions and please consider submitting any relevant work you have for this special issue. ----- Call for Special Issue of Management Communication Quarterly: Hidden Organizations Guest Editor: Craig R. Scott, Rutgers University Background Hidden organizations are ones where the identity of the organization and/or its members is heavily concealed, for a variety of reasons, from various audiences. They are collectives organizing in shaded, shadowed, and dark regions of the organizational landscape (see Scott, 2013). These hidden organizations include, but certainly are not limited to, undercover organizations, shadow governments, clandestine groups, terrorist cells, crime cartels, many gangs, and other dark networks. To that we can add many online and offline support groups, certain hate groups, new religious movements, some hacker/hacktivist organizations, secret societies, and potentially even political action committees. Also hidden from view are various stigmatized companies, front/shell organizations, aspects of the informal economy, and even certain highly specialized small businesses that remain largely invisible to the public. These hidden collectives represent an important and likely growing segment of our world. Yet, in many ways, we as citizens, consumers, and scholars of organizations have failed to seriously and adequately consider these various forms of hidden organizations—creating both missed opportunities and potential dangers. There are several explanations for this. First, our scholarly focus on the familiar organizational foreground of predominantly large for-profit businesses, easily recognized governmental agencies, and a few high profile nonprofits and NGOs contributes to a lack of awareness of what may be an even larger arena of other less visible collectives. We instruct our students about the value of branding and identity creation, various professional associations conduct training workshops to improve skills in reputation and image management, and we draw primarily on these recognizable organizations in our teaching and consulting—all of which draws attention away from more hidden collectives. Second, we live in a world where too often the name of the game is the name game (Glynn & Abzug, 2002; Schultz, Hatch, & Larsen, 2000), where organizations dedicate substantial efforts to provide a highly recognizable name and visual identities that enhance their reputation (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). There is a general bias in much of society for openness and transparency and a lack of serious attention to that which is hidden or kept secret. A third reason for the lack of attention to hidden organizations is that existing methods privilege more visible forms of organizing. Certainly, their somewhat hidden nature often makes accessing information about them challenging—leading researchers to pursue more convenient samples and cases. A final potential reason for the inattention to these hidden organizations is seen in broader critiques about our continued reliance on outdated organizational theory even amid recognition of widespread changes. Davis (2009) offers an informative critique in arguing that large corporations have lost their central place in American social structure as we move from an industrial to post industrial economy, where “the applicability of several of our existing theories is called into question” (p. 41). Thus, a contemporary view of organizations and organizing must extend our focus to consider other important forms and the distinctive organizing processes in these collectives. Recent work examining both alternative organizations (see Parker, Cheney, Fournier, & Land, 2014) and the dark side of organizations (see Linstead, Maréchal, & Griffin, 2014) represents valuable extensions to our scholarship—though that work rarely addresses hidden organizations themselves. These various hidden collectives matter because “there are real consequences associated with the successful and unsuccessful efforts of these organizations and their members to conceal and reveal their identity to key audiences” (Scott, 2013, p. xi). As Alvesson (2004) observed, “We live in a complex world, characterized by interaction with a lot of different people, organizations (of whom most are barely known), and production processes…” (p. 168, emphasis added). Thus, we need more research and theorizing about these hidden collectives in our scholarship. This special issue seeks to unmask some of these hidden organizations and to initiate a scholarly conversation about these collectives as a way to stimulate prescient theorizing (Corley & Gioia, 2011) on this important part of our society. The selected submissions will shed some much needed light on these hidden organizations and their largely concealed practices by highlighting collectives of a different breed and, often, purpose. It will seriously question assumptions about the importance of promoting an organization’s identity and building widespread name recognition in an effort to establish a strong reputation. It will also hopefully offer ideas for theorizing about and researching a much wider range of organizational forms than those that currently dominate our literature. Possible Topics This special issue seeks both empirical and conceptual/theoretical pieces related to hidden organizations. Special consideration will be given to submissions reporting original data—utilizing any appropriate method—that examine communicative and/or managerial aspects of a wide range of hidden organizations including, but not limited to, the following entities and their members: covert special missions units, secret or secretive government agencies, clandestine operations, spy rings, eco-terrorist groups, other terrorist cells, the Mafia or other organized crime syndicates, Yakuza or other street gangs, Silk road and others operating on the dark web, pirate organizations, illegal animal fighting rings, KKK, various hate groups, twelve-step support groups, various other online and offline support groups using anonymity, domestic violence shelters, the Underground Railroad or other similar assistance networks, Scientology, cults and other new religious movements, Anonymous and certain other hacker/hacktivist organizations, various secret societies and select fraternal organizations, Skull and Bones, political action committees, sweatshops, front or shell organizations, various aspects of the informal economy, bathhouses and certain others elements of the sex industry, and highly specialized small businesses that remain largely invisible to most. We are also interested in empirical research and more conceptual/theoretical essays addressing motivations for and/or ways in which organizations and/or their members conceal identity, promote invisibility, maintain secrets, obscure image, encourage anonymity, fake transparency, and/or engage in other organizing practices that serve to hide organizations and their members. Submissions detailing unique methodological approaches appropriate for the study of hidden organizations will also be considered. We encourage submissions that examine organizations operating in multiple countries or that have special international significance. In general, we are not looking for studies that merely examine the deceptive practices or hidden work within otherwise visible organizations unless those practices are truly core to the collective’s identity. We are not interested in failed efforts of organizations that were unable to effectively promote themselves to a specific audience. Furthermore, we are generally seeking more than historical or purely descriptive essays about one or more hidden organizations. Key Dates All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review by qualified scholars. Key dates for submitters are as follows: October 1, 2014: Deadline to submit full papers for consideration in MCQ Special issue January 1, 2015: Determine submissions to be accepted or revised for possible acceptance March 1, 2015: Revisions due; Final issue submissions selected June 1, 2015: Articles delivered to MCQ for special issue to appear in late 2015 Contact/Submission Information For this special issue, manuscripts should not exceed 10,000 words (including references, tables, figures, etc.). For other questions about the issue and the appropriateness of a potential submission, please feel free to contact issue editor Craig Scott at <mailto:crscott@rutgers.edu> crscott@rutgers.edu or 848-932-7125. To submit your work by the deadline, please follow guidelines on the MCQ journal website: <http://mcq.sagepub.com/> http://mcq.sagepub.com/. This full call is available online at <http://mcq.sagepub.com/site/includefiles/MCQCallforPapers.pdf> http://mcq.sagepub.com/site/includefiles/MCQCallforPapers.pdf References Alvesson, M. (2004). Organization: From substance to image? In M. J. Hatch & M. Schultz (Eds.), Organizational identity: A reader (pp. 161-182). Oxford, England: Oxford University. Corley, K. G., & Gioia, D. A. (2011). Building theory about theory building: What constitutes a theoretical contribution? Academy of Management Review, 36, 12-32. Davis, G. F. (2009). The rise and fall of finance and the end of the society of organizations. Academy of Management Perspectives, 23(3), 27-44. Fombrun, C., & Shanley, M. (1990). What's in a name? Reputation building and corporate strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 233-258. Glynn, M.A., & Abzug, R. (2002). Institutionalizing identity: Symbolic isomorphism and organizational names. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 267-280. Linstead, S., Maréchal, G., & Griffin, R. W. (2014). Theorizing and researching the dark side of organization. Organization Studies, 35(2), 165-188. Parker, M., Cheney, G., Fournier, V., & Land, C. (Eds.). (2014). The Routledge companion to alternative organization. New York: Routledge. Schultz, M., Hatch, M. J., & Larsen, M. H. (Eds.). (2000). The expressive organization: Linking identity, reputation, and the corporate brand. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Scott, C. R. (2013). Anonymous agencies, backstreet businesses, and covert collectives: Rethinking organizations in the 21st century. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press. Craig Craig R. Scott, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Communication Vice Chair, ICA Organizational Communication Division School of Communication & Information Rutgers University 4 Huntington Street, New Brunswick, NJ 08901 Voice: 848-932-7125; Fax: 732-932-6916; Office in 201 DeWitt (185 College Avenue) Web: http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/directory/crscott/index.html Linked in: <http://www.linkedin.com/pub/11/b83/241> http://www.linkedin.com/pub/11/b83/241 Author of <http://www.amazon.com/Agencies-Backstreet-Businesses-Covert-Collectives/dp/ 0804781389/ref=la_B00BFX9962_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362894609&sr=1-1> Anonymous Agencies, Backstreet Businesses, and <http://www.amazon.com/Agencies-Backstreet-Businesses-Covert-Collectives/dp/ 0804781389/ref=la_B00BFX9962_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362894609&sr=1-1> Covert Collectives: Rethinking Organizations in the 21st Century