CONCERTIVE RESISTANCE: HOW ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERS RESIST COLLECTIVELY IN THE ABSENCE OF RESISTANCE LEADERSHIP

Abstract

This dissertation describes an organizational phenomenon whereby organizational members are able to resist managerial influence collectively in the absence of overt talk or leadership communication—labeled here concertive resistance. Concertive resistance is resistance exercised by organizational members according to a set of core group-level values which challenge, invert, or disrupt managerial control. This investigation supports and extends theory regarding control and resistance in modern organizing. Through an ethnography of two NCAA Division I collegiate sports teams (i.e., football and women’s track), this study revealed how the presence or lack of multiple and overlapping identifications (e.g., masculinity, team camaraderie) allowed for, or inhibited, collective resistance. Analysis of participant sensemaking about resistance episodes revealed differences in the discursive construction, application, and understanding of organizational and extra-organizational premises, which were associated with players’ overlapping identifications. Episodic analysis of two similar resistance episodes revealed that a specific managerial positioning produced in talk triggered concertive resistance—labeled here managerial inquisition. Both concertive resistance and the managerial inquisition support and extend current organizational communication theory including literature on unobtrusive control theory, organizational resistance, organizational identification, discourse and structuration theory. This dissertation focuses on how all organizational members have access to discursive resources for resistance.