Performance pinned down: studying subjectivity and the language of performance

Hoedemaekers, Casper Maarten Willem and Keegan, Anne 2010. Performance pinned down: studying subjectivity and the language of performance. Organization Studies 31 (8) , pp. 1021-1044. 10.1177/0170840610376145

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Abstract

We draw on Lacan’s notion of language to study employee subjectivity in a public sector organization (Publica) in the Netherlands. Our main contribution lies in using Lacan’s theorization of language and subjectivity as a basis for a detailed textual analysis of how local organizational discourses shape and inform the subjectivities of employees. We situate our approach within the literature on subjectivity, language and power in work organizations before describing how we carried out interviews to elicit interviewees’ accounts of performance management. The mechanisms of metonymy and punctuation, two central features of a Lacanian conceptualization of language, are analysed by means of a relational analysis of key performance signifiers that we identify in the interview texts. We show how the signification of performance in Publica is pinned down by a central empty signifier which can be understood as a ‘quilting point’ and serves as a site for employee desire and identification. Finally, we show how desire and identification are channelled in specific ways to activate employee self-regulation in achieving the devolvement of responsibility and labour intensification.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Business (Including Economics)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management J Political Science > JN Political institutions (Europe) J Political Science > JS Local government Municipal government P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Subjectivity ; Control ; Lacan ; Symbolic order ; Discourse ; Metonymy
Publisher:	Sage
ISSN:	0170-8409
Last Modified:	19 Mar 2016 22:32
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/19743

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