Learning from Sociability-Intensive Organizations: An Ethnographic Study in a Coffee Organization.
| Autor | Fantinel, Leticia |
Introduction
In the context of the growth of individualism (Bauman, 2001a) and the development of cities and urban cultures (Zukin, 1995), people are constantly searching for different types of places and collectivities (see, e.g., Bauman, 2001b) as alternative spaces for meeting and socializing (Frugoli, 2007) on a regular basis. Many of these places are organizations that rely on the work of managers. More and more, contemporary life is deeply embedded in organizations that provide sociability as a good. While we perceive sociability as strategic for contemporary organizations, and while we have consolidated knowledge about it in the Social Sciences, we lack structured knowledge in Organization Studies on sociability as a central ingredient of organizational processes. Organizational scholars have considered social relations as an inherent and diffused concept of organizational analysis and theorization. Even though sociability has been considered a spontaneous process of organizational life, this notion has not yet been proposed as a central, robust, and strategic concept in organizational theory.
The main goal of the present research is to theorize on the centrality of sociability within organizations by developing the concept of sociability-intensive organization and by identifying its effects in terms of the production of organizational space and the process of organizing in a broader way. We understand the concept of organizing according to the theorization developed by Karl Weick, as a heuristic path to do both, highlight the processual dimensions of organizations and challenge the static notion of organization as a fixed and rigid entity (Czarniawska, 2008; Duarte & Alcadipani, 2016; Weick, Sutcliffe, & Obstfeld, 2005).
Sociability-intensive organization is elaborated as a key concept, in which sociability is one of the most strategic goods produced by employees and offered to customers. Furthermore, sociability-intensive organizations are formed by spaces that mediate the daily sociability modes engendered among urban dwellers. Sociability-intensive organizations highlight how sociability drives organization dynamics. They help every organization to rethink how the strategy role of sociability is being considered within organizational life and space. Indeed, all organizations are pervaded by sociability experiences that shape organizational spaces, although they may vary in their different levels of manifestation. Because sociability is intrinsic to the human condition, organizations cannot exist without a minimum level of sociability.
The origin of the concept of sociability lies in theories developed by Simmel (2003) and several studies from the Chicago School of Sociology. Thus, our theoretical framework is composed by an articulation of theories from Sociology and Organizational Studies. From that theoretical articulation, we consider sociability as a strategic dimension of organizational life. Furthermore, sociability provides us with a singular lens for grasping organizational dynamics, thereby enabling a better understanding of the daily, spatial, and cultural life of organizations. The connection between some types of organizations and sociability is manifestly intense. We develop the concept of sociability-intensive organization from an empirical study of a coffee organization, because the rise of coffee shops in the world is consistent with the growing notion of a public sphere in a new social context in which society is mediated by consumption (Cowan, 2008). Coffee shops around the world have, for decades, implied spaces of cosmopolitism and social interaction, from the first establishments in Europe to contemporary global chains like Starbucks. In this sense, perhaps just like the taxi (Toiskallio, 2000), the coffee shop symbolizes any great multicultural city and requires singular organizational dynamics. The so-called cafe culture is part of the everyday life of cities, mediating social interaction in a playful sense (Bookman, 2014), in third places (Oldenburg, 1989) between public and private space.
The concept of sociability-intensive organization is based on empirical ground. Coffee organizations are emblematic to the study of sociability. As coffee shops increasingly appeared in Brazil, the act of going to these spaces came to be perceived as a new social, cultural, and economic fashion (Fantinel, Cavedon, & Fischer, 2012), following the development of big cities, powered by the growth of the middle class (Souza & Lamounier, 2010). Thus, we have conducted an ethnographic research in a coffee shop in Brazil. The ethnographic method allowed a better interaction with subtle and meaningful information on sociability, as we were able to have access to rich and context-sensitive information, as well as to conduct a deep interpretation of sociability in the organizational setting. Deep description and interpretation of how sociability is central in a coffee organization allow us to better understand the subtleties of sociability within organizations. They also allow the conception development of some processes that characterize sociability-intensive organizations: fabrication of spontaneity, fluidity of spatiality, and fertilization of dialogue.
The main contribution of our research is addressed to the field of Organization Studies, as we conceptualize, describe, and discuss the sociability-intensive organization as a strategic concept. We fill a theoretical gap that corresponds to the lack of knowledge about the concept of sociability and its centrality in terms of Organization Theory. Indeed, in Organization Studies, sociability is commonly taken for granted and assumed as a natural, intrinsic, and spontaneous phenomenon in organizational settings. Consequently, our research produces new conceptual categories that give centrality to the concept of sociability in Organization Studies. Moreover, it establishes new connections to organizing processes and organizational space. We assume that our perception and experience of space animate organization space (Taylor & Spicer, 2007). Thus, space goes further than a matter of physical setting. Focusing on sociability-intensive organizations, we may enlarge our understanding of organizational space.
Sociability in Organization Studies
The concept of sociability was originally created by Simmel (2003), who perceived society as being continuously formed and dissolved by individuals through reciprocal interactions. Simmel (2003) conceived society as a way of organizing human experiences by designating a network of human relationships that occur in a particular time and space. From this perspective, sociability furthers the understanding of how society is organized because it is a type of interaction in which the interest and the goal are interaction itself.
The Chicago School of Sociology adopts an empirical approach to study and theorize about sociability (Graphmeyer & Joseph, 2009). From a symbolic interactionist approach, Urban Studies and Sociology incorporate ethnographic practice into the study of sociability and consider it as a tie to social life in cities (Zukin, 1995). Contemporaneously, some studies have adopted an interpretation of sociability based on a closer and broader view of everyday life in which different subjects and contexts are analyzed, beyond urban elites (Cowan, 2012). The notion of sociability has evolved from this traditional concept and has become a pivotal notion for analyzing social cohesion and distinction, communication, and relatedness to material cultures (Cowan, 2012). We see this movement as an effort towards the embodied and embedded dimensions of the sociability, which brings us closer to a processual and performative notion of space (Beyes & Steyaert, 2011).
In Organizational Studies, the concept of sociability appears peripherally; it is fragmentally and vaguely discussed by organizational scholars. Research on organizational psychology and behavior understands sociability as the ability or the propensity to be sociable, as part of the larger phenomenon of organizational behavior (Nord & Fox, 1996). Other researchers consider sociability as a dimension of organizational cultures, as the degree of friendliness among members of an organization (Goffee & Jones, 1996).
Indeed, sociability can be considered from plural angles and understandings. In order to integrate the plural understandings, we propose organizational sociability, which is more contextual and enables a more specific and, at the same time, multidimensional analysis of organizational practice. This notion works as the interplay among individuals, mediating social interaction in an organization. It takes place inside and outside organizations; it occurs through symbolic and material processes, depending on the existence of three basic dimensions (relation among people, proper spatial context, and favorable ambience). As it acknowledges the valuable elements of organizational analysis, the concept of organizational sociability can enlarge the focus of the researcher and thereby encourage theoretical enrichment. From this viewpoint, we can conceptualize everyday organizational life as a dynamic field of sociability through which space is constantly experienced and reshaped. Sociability materializes through interactions in which social relations are reproduced and transformed (Llewellyn & Hindmarsh, 2013). Interaction is a domain in which social relations reproduce and become practice through speech and attitude (Llewellyn & Hindmarsh, 2013). Accordingly, expressions of social relations are visible elements of organizational sociability, depending on the context and culture of the organization. Interaction and relation are key ingredients in the analysis of sociability. Relation implies connection and association, while interaction occurs in a distinct dimension from formal, planned events. Indeed, not only employees but also...
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