Corporate social responsibility as a catalyst of circular economy? A case study perspective in Agri-food

Purpose

This study aims to analyze how, under the stakeholder theory, corporate social responsibility (CSR) might favor the emergence of circular economy (CE) in the Agri-food sector, which is a relevant context, as it is technologically dynamic and requires paying attention to all the stakeholders.

Design/methodology/approach

An exploratory, qualitative research design has been adopted to study the phenomenon in detail, as it facilitates the understanding of complex phenomena such those under investigation and helps enrich existing theory with new insights from real-world cases to add theoretical generalizations to the existing body of research in the field.

Findings

The results of this study highlight that companies adopting CSR models are oriented toward circularity.

Practical implications

This study provides useful indications to managers and policymakers as to how to favor the two approaches (CSR and CE) and benefit all the stakeholders.

Originality/value

While there is wide scholarly and managerial interest toward CSR and CE, previous research has mainly analyzed CE and CSR as two independent phenomena. Therefore, there is a lack of understanding about how the two areas are linked. Following previous studies that have started to theoretically argue an interconnection between CSR and CE, in this research, it has been empirically investigated, and further explored theoretically, whether CSR can implicitly encourage the emergence of CE approaches.

The dark side of university student entrepreneurship: Exploration of Chinese universities

The dark side of entrepreneurship, especially the dark side of student entrepreneurship, has received little attention from academia. This study tries to examine the dark side of entrepreneurship among students in Chinese universities. Employing qualitative method by conducting semi-structured interview with students at the universities. Our study identifies the unproductive and destructive factors that drive the dark side of student entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship costs that accompany students in the process of entrepreneurship are usually time pressure, academic conflict, and even health damage. There is a huge discrepancy between the knowledge given to students by universities and the knowledge required for entrepreneurship, and college students frequently lack entrepreneurial knowledge and business logic. In China, the use of inappropriate policy tools has decoupled the student entrepreneurship policies it pursues from the purpose the policies are supposed to serve. In so doing, this study contributes to the micro-level of the notion of the dark side of student entrepreneurship.

Greenwashing behaviors in construction projects: there is an elephant in the room!

In the process of urbanization, a brisk building boom triggers a series of environmental problems. Construction contractors usually present environmentally fraudulent behaviors, i.e., greenwashing behaviors (GWBs), to legitimize their activities, ultimately hindering the sustainable development of the society. However, the formation mechanism of the contractors' GWBs is still unclear. Through the lens of fraud GONE theory (i.e., greed, opportunity, needs, and exposure), this study applies the multi-group structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the formation mechanisms of GWBs. The results of SEM show the relationships between four fraud factors and GWBs. Additionally, the projects are grouped into three categories: government investment projects, private-public-partnership (PPP) projects, and private investment projects. The results of multi-group SEM reveal that the effects of four fraud factors differ significantly across projects with different investment characteristics. The results of fsQCA suggest that there are three typical driving mechanisms for GWBs. Furthermore, this study develops a project information transparency framework and a "greenwashing tree" to form a systematic understanding of GWBs. Finally, on these bases, this study provides targeted suggestions and policy recommendations for governing contractors' GWBs.

Who is pulling the strings in the platform economy? Accounting for the dark and unexpected sides of algorithmic control

This paper aims to address the dark side perspective on digital control and surveillance by emphasizing the affective grip of ideological control, namely the process that silently ensures the subjugation of digital labour, and which keeps the ‘unexpectedness’ of algorithmic practices at bay: that is, the propensity of users to contest digital prescriptions. In particular, the theoretical contribution of this paper is to combine Labour Process with psychoanalytically-informed, post-structuralist theory, in order to connect to, and further our understanding of, how and why digital workers assent to, or oppose, the interpellations of algorithmic ideology at work. To illustrate the operation of affective control in the Platform Economy, the emblematic example of ride-hailing platforms, such as Uber, and their algorithmic management, is revisited. Thus, the empirical section describes the way drivers are glued to the algorithm (e.g. for one more fare, or for the next surge pricing) in a way that prevents them, although not always, from considering genuine resistance to management. Finally, the paper discusses the central place of ideological fantasy and cynical enjoyment in the Platform Economy, as well as the ethical implications of the study.

Keeping institutional logics in arm’s length: emerging of rogue practices in a gray zone of everyday work life in healthcare

We set out to explore the practice-level cognitive structures and associated practices characterizing the daily routine work of physicians by conducting a qualitative study in the Turkish healthcare field, in which a recent government-led healthcare reform was implemented causing logic multiplicity. Contrary to the accumulated knowledge in institutional logics literature, a bulk of which suggests that actors craft and enact various practices in managing plural and at times conflicting institutional templates strictly within the confines of higher order societal logics, this study shows that while ground level actors may not exercise complete freedom and maneuverability in relation to pre-established social structures, they do incorporate unconventional schemas of action; namely rogue practices, into their embodied practical activity, which over time become routinized in their day-to-day work lives. Unraveling the dynamics of micro-level practices of highly professionalized ground level actors as they pertain to atypical logical orientations substantially advances our understanding of the unknown or unseen side of how and under which conditions certain or various combinations of institutional logics are employed during day-to-day activities.

‘Civilized Dispossession’: Corporate accumulation at the dawn of modern capitalism

Critical scholarship views corporate accumulation – a fundamental driver of capitalism – as inherently dispossessive, involving violence and expropriation. However, dispossession also involves practices of legitimation that are related to coercive violence in complex ways. We examine the roles of dispossession and legitimation practices as constitutive of corporate accumulation. Specifically, we analyse how dispossession is connected to the appropriation of legitimacy as a symbolic resource which justifies and enables violence and expropriation. Taking an historical perspective, we examine a paradigmatic case of corporate accumulation: the Dutch East India Company’s monopolization of spices on the Banda Islands (1599–1621). In this process, the Dutch moved from (1) initial instances of legitimation to (2) legitimation to enforce Dutch–Bandanese agreements, to (3) legitimation to enable dispossession of the Bandanese, to finally (4) wholesale dispossession of the Bandanese. These four phases reflect a mechanism that we call ‘civilized dispossession’, which describes the escalating three-way interplay between Dutch practices of dispossession and legitimation and Bandanese resistance, and which was driven by institutional experimentation and multi-level institutional work. Integrating institutional and critical perspectives, the notion of ‘civilized dispossession’ provides a novel theorization of corporate accumulation, elucidating the mechanisms by which corporations promote the diffusion of capitalism.

Confronting the Business Models of Modern Slavery

Despite growing attention from companies and regulators looking to eradicate modern slavery, we know little about how slavery works from a business perspective. We address this gap by empirically examining innovations in the business models of modern slavery, focusing on how the business models of slavery in advanced economies have evolved since slavery was legally abolished. While continuities exist, novel business models have emerged based on new actors, activities, and linkages. We categorize these as four innovative models per actors involved (producer/intermediary) and how value is created and captured (revenue generation/cost reduction), and discuss implications for research, policy, and practice.

Enforcement Anticorrupção e Organizações: Uma Revisão Narrativa

ABSTRACT Context: in the administration literature, it is possible to identify several occurrences of the term enforcement, mainly related to studies of corruption. These mentions, however, are not uniform and often refer to different types of the phenomenon. In addition, they occur without connection to regulation studies, in which enforcement is a central concept. Objective: the objective of the present study is to identify the types of anti-corruption enforcement present in the administration literature in the light of the regulatory literature. Methods: we carried out a reflective thematic analysis on 31 articles in the administration area, selected in the Web of Knowledge database and published until 2017, in which corruption and enforcement appear in a related way. Results: at the end of the analysis, it was possible to identify four types of occurrence of the term in the literature: punitive, market, competitive, and cultural enforcement. These four types have unique characteristics in the light of the regulatory literature. Conclusions: the identification of types of anti-corruption enforcement contributes to differentiate the many ways in which the term is used in the literature. Furthermore, as a study of a typological nature, it offers a way to develop new theories, as well as to carry out empirical studies.

Anti-Corruption Enforcement and Organizations: A Narrative Review

ABSTRACT Context: in the administration literature, it is possible to identify several occurrences of the term enforcement, mainly related to studies of corruption. These mentions, however, are not uniform and often refer to different types of the phenomenon. In addition, they occur without connection to regulation studies, in which enforcement is a central concept. Objective: the objective of the present study is to identify the types of anti-corruption enforcement present in the administration literature in the light of the regulatory literature. Methods: we carried out a reflective thematic analysis on 31 articles in the administration area, selected in the Web of Knowledge database and published until 2017, in which corruption and enforcement appear in a related way. Results: at the end of the analysis, it was possible to identify four types of occurrence of the term in the literature: punitive, market, competitive, and cultural enforcement. These four types have unique characteristics in the light of the regulatory literature. Conclusions: the identification of types of anti-corruption enforcement contributes to differentiate the many ways in which the term is used in the literature. Furthermore, as a study of a typological nature, it offers a way to develop new theories, as well as to carry out empirical studies.

Exploring the dark and unexpected sides of digitalization: Toward a critical agenda

Digitalization has far-reaching implications for individuals, organizations, and society. While extant management and organization studies mainly focus on the positive aspects of this development, the dark and potentially unexpected sides of digitalization for organizations and organizing have received less scholarly attention. This special issue extends this emerging debate. Drawing on empirical material of platform corporations, social movements, and traditional corporations, eight articles illuminate the various negative implications of the digitalization of work and organization processes, particularly for workers, employees, and activists. In this introduction, we contextualize these valuable contributions that underline the dangers of the ubiquity and simultaneity of digitalization and begin to sketch out potential avenues toward a comprehensive critical agenda of digitalization in organization studies.

Hidden and forbidden: conceptualising Dark Knowledge

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of Dark Knowledge, an epistemology that acknowledges both alternative knowledge and ways of knowing which are cognizant of the moral and ethical positioning of each.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper that uses existing relevant literature to develop the work. The paper uses a four-stage literature search process and draws upon a range of disciplines, including philosophy, computer science and information management, to underpin the evolution of the concept.

Findings

As a conceptual paper, no empirical findings are presented. Instead, the paper presents an embryonic model of Dark Knowledge and identifies a number of characteristics, which may be used to explore the concept in more detail.

Research limitations/implications

There is a clear need to develop a body of empirical work, adding to the theoretical perspectives presented in this paper. It is anticipated that this paper will provide one of the cornerstones for future studies in this area.

Originality/value

The paper makes an original contribution to the study of information behaviours, practices and epistemology.

Rhetorical strategies of legitimation in the professional field of banking

In this study, we analyse the rhetorical strategies of legitimation used by professionals when their conduct is exposed as wrong. Focusing on banking as a professional field and the conduct of bankers during the 2007–8 global financial crisis we ask two questions: what rhetorical strategies did senior bankers use to justify their actions and defend the legitimacy of their profession in the face of widespread public disapproval of banking practices? How did bankers use their professional field to legitimize their behaviour? To answer these questions, we analyse the justificatory rhetoric used by UK banking executives during the Treasury Select Committee hearings following the crisis. Drawing on our analysis we developed a typology of rhetorical strategies of legitimation used by the bankers, based in part on the concept of neutralization techniques. We argue that bankers, with some exceptions, drew largely on intra-field rhetoric, deeply embedded in institutionalized practices, to justify their behaviour and legitimize their profession. The lack of more convincing inter-field rhetoric only accentuated the mismatch between the moral universe of the bank executive and that of the traditional citizen, voter, and taxpayer.

Leadership styles and workplace ostracism among frontline employees

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine critical associations of transformational leadership, Laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership, and authoritative leadership styles to predict perceived workplace ostracism among frontline employees (FLEs).

Design/methodology/approach

A snow-ball sampling technique is employed to collect data from 250 FLEs working in the telecommunication sector of Pakistan. The data are collected by means of a self-reported questionnaire.

Findings

All of the hypotheses are supported by the results. The authoritative leadership, transactional leadership, and Laissez-Faire leadership styles are found to positively relate to workplace ostracism while transformational leadership style is found to negatively relate to workplace ostracism.

Practical implications

The managers working in customer service organizations in general and telecom sector in particular should offer leadership training programs to transform supervisors (i.e., in their roles as being the leaders) by re-shaping their thinking as visionary leaders of future. Furthermore, the study has implications to strengthen the communication mechanisms by seeking opinions from FLEs about the leadership styles of their supervisors. This is to ensure that leaders actually transform themselves from being a highly traditional leader to more participative and positive leaders.

Originality/value

The relationships of different leadership styles to study their impact on workplace ostracism and the context of telecommunication service sector of Pakistan are unique to this study.

The inhuman challenge: Writing with dark desire

Adaptations of Deleuze’s and Guattari’s philosophizing on the immanent forces of the unconscious have risen to challenge joyous, affirmative readings of their work by bringing the dark and destructive aspects of desire into focus. We find an innate potentiality within such accounts, as they are themselves spoken by the inhuman within us – the forces which render our subjective intentions obsolete. To supplement more traditional forms of academic expression, we advocate for an affective style of writing that can bring about ‘shocks to thought’ and convey the inhumanity of desire. We see this as an activating form of aesthetic violence that channels dark desiring itself and thereby challenges critical organizational scholarship that seeks to ‘raise awareness’. An inhuman textuality that recognizes our own obscenity in disgust and through repulsion serves to unleash that which is typically unthinkable and unspeakable in organizational research.

President Trump as status dysfunction

In this brief polemic we argue that Trump’s words, actions and inactions are potentially deeply damaging to the legitimacy of the office he holds and to the continuity of the institutions defining that position. This, writ large, is an issue for organization theory. We use Searle’s concept of status functions to argue that Trump invokes problems of status dysfunction. He has failed to place himself in a position to be competent and does not conform to expectations of the role of president, his presidency is characterized by disorganization and he has not become presidential. This is important in the context of US political culture and institutions.

Minding less: Exploring mindfulness and mindlessness in organizations through Skillful Means

Mindfulness has received increased attention in organizational studies. Yet we ask, is mindfulness necessary, indeed achievable, in every “moment” and every context? Mindfulness as co-opted by organizations is often considered a positive and helpful state, while little attention is paid to the important notion of mindlessness. Our comprehensive exploratory review of mindfulness and mindlessness highlights theoretical debates and responds to calls for a more balanced approach to mindlessness and mindfulness. In addition, it highlights practical implications to management learning by introducing Eastern Buddhist principles of non-attachment, practiced through the key concept of Skillful Means. A distinctive contribution of this article is a Five-Fold Framework detailing five aspects of a skillful mindful and mindless approach: context-flexibility, managerial emotional display, managerial learning under complex situations and dilemmas, transferring mindfulness practices from individual to organizational level, and context-sensitive research.

The Organization of Corporate Crime: Introduction to Special Issue of Administrative Sciences

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Skilful means – a Buddhist approach to social responsibility

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the link between spirituality and corporate social responsibility (CSR) from a Buddhist perspective. The paper addresses critical issues in CSR and highlights how the concept of Buddhist skilful means can be applied to tackle such issues. Skilful means is highlighted among various Buddhist concepts because it represents a context-sensitive and practical approach that can be effectively applied in CSR practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper reviews scholarly conversations on the challenges faced by CSR in contemporary business management and justifies the application of Buddhist principles, especially skilful means, to tackle such issues. The paper draws upon a wide range of Buddhist teachings and Sutras to propose a Buddhist skilful means approach to CSR.

Findings

Studies show that CSR is a highly contextualised term. Its definition and implementation differ in various contexts. Buddhism is set apart from other religions by its flexibility in practice and contextualisation. Further, the non-attachment that sits at the heart of the skilful means allows the exploration of different CSR practices to respond effectively to local contexts.

Practical implications

The paper proposes practical means for CSR practices adopted from a number of Buddhist qualities and principles in response to challenges for the practice of CSR.

Originality/value

Buddhist concepts have yet to be discovered or included in major scholarly conversations because of their contradiction of some well-known Western concepts and theories. Skilful means, including the principle of non-attachment, is a Buddhist approach. This paper argues that skilful means is a good fit with CSR as it has practical applications that can address issues identified in relation to CSR and organisational management practices.

Psychometric properties of a scale to measure the dark side of personality

Abstract The psychometric characteristics of the Dark Triad Scale in an Argentinian context are presented. Two successive studies were carried out. Three hundred sixteen people, with an average age of 34.48 years (SD = 10.57), participated in Study 1. An exploratory factor analysis indicated a three-factor structure with suitable internal consistency (Machiavellianism: α = 0.92; narcissism: α = 0.91, and psychopathy: α = 0.89). Two hundred seventy-five people, with an average age of 32 years (SD = 8.10), participated in Study 2. A confirmatory factor analysis corroborated the three-factor structure. The three factors reached Satisfactory Composite Reliability (greater than 0.70) and adequate Convergent-Discriminant Validity (Average Variance Extrated greater than 0.50). The invariance of the scale’s parameters was demonstrated by sex. The results indicate that the Argentinian version of the Dark Triad Scale measures the dark side of personality with appropriate validity and reliability, both in men and women.

“Letting go of the raft” – The art of spiritual leadership in contemporary organizations from a Buddhist perspective using skilful means

Organizations are diverse workplaces where various beliefs, values and perceptions are shared to varying extents. How can spiritual leadership induce altruistic love and intrinsic motivation among diverse members within the organization and without being regarded as really yet another covert, sophisticated form of corporate exploitation of human vulnerability reflective of the “dark side” of organizations and leadership? This paper explores an approach to spiritual leadership from a Buddhist perspective focusing on the power of skilful means to tackle such concerns. In organizational pursuits such as appearance, reputation, fame, power, recognition and even leader–follower relationships are associated mostly with objectives and expectations, known in Buddhism as “attachment”. In Buddhism, however, any kind of attachment may be a source of suffering that eventually leads to negative consequences. In reviewing the dark side of spiritual leadership practices and how Buddhism is commoditized for organizational purposes, we reaffirm on the importance of the notion of non-attachment in Buddhism. We unpack the application of the Buddhist metaphor of “the raft”, non-attachment and other Buddhist stories of skilful means in spiritual leadership and their contribution to leadership studies.

A Visual Turn for Organizational Ethnography: Embodying the Subject in Video-Based Research

For organizational ethnography we argue that traditional philosophies of onto-epistemological realism be supplanted by interpretive and reflexive thinking to provide fresh theoretical assumptions and new methodological proposals for film- and video-based research. The argument is developed in three phases: First, to establish analytical context, we explore the historical evolution of the ethnographic organizational documentary and discuss habitual problems – methodological, philosophical and technical – that filmmakers have faced when claiming qualities of directness and objectivity in their work, that is, through the style of ‘film-truth’. Second, to advance new conceptual logic for video-based organizational research, we supplant the objectivist and realist philosophy underpinning traditional documentary filmmaking with sociologically interpretive and reflexive arguments for undertaking ethnography in organizations, a subjective process which importantly yields greater understanding of affect and embodiment. Finally, to define new methodological opportunities, these interpretive and reflexive arguments are marshalled to underpin a strategy of participatory thinking in video-based organizational ethnography – a ‘withness’ approach facilitating a greater sense of affect and embodiment as well as polyvocal interpretation of visual data; a practice which sees filmmakers, social theorists, participants and viewers alike united in analytical space.

‘Killing is our business and business is good’: The evolution of ‘war managerialism’ from body counts to counterinsurgency

Managerialism versus professionalism is a central axis of conflict across many occupations. ‘The profession of arms’ is no exception. This article explores the contested yet symbiotic relationship of management and the military via a discussion of the Vietnam conflict and contemporary debates over restructuring the US military to fight so-called ‘New Wars’. It portrays a complex picture of the organization and measurement of destruction, arguing that managerialism has long been an important ideological element of civilian and military practice. While management systems such as the infamous ‘measurements of progress’ in the Vietnam War were practically dysfunctional, they were effective up to a point in their managerialist goal of portraying civilian and military organizations as effective, evidence-based, progressive and ethical. This logic also pertains to contemporary debates over ‘progress’, and its measurement in the Iraq and Afghanistan counterinsurgencies and the campaign against Isil. Despite its practical limitations, managerialism is highly prevalent as ideology in warfare, fixating on tactical and operational levels, thereby excluding broader strategic, political or ethical discussions. ‘Progress’ and its mismeasurement in Vietnam and the New Wars are therefore best understood not simply as reasons for military and civilian failures in prolonged and inconclusive conflicts but as evidence of the success of managerialism in restricting public scrutiny and accountability of the business of war.

Shedding light on the darker side of language

The purpose of this article is to shed light on the “darker” side of language in cross-cultural communication and explore ways that it can be addressed, using a dialogical approach. Bakhtin’s dialogical perspective conceptualizes sensemaking as the co-construction of meaning through interconnected utterances (“addressivity” and “responsivity”), multivoicedness (“polyphony”), and multiple speaking styles (“heteroglossia”). We use these concepts to analyze the social processes underlying linguistic hegemony and language-based in-group behavior in a case study of the performance of six multicultural teams at an American subsidiary in France. We found that although dialogical practices proved to be effective in deterring the emergence of the dark side of language, the lack of a dialogical mindset prevailed in four of the six teams. These findings point to the need for cross-cultural management policies which reward addressivity, polyphony, and heteroglossia while penalizing team members who use their superior language skills to dominate others.

‘It Sends a Cold Shiver down my Spine’: Ghostly Interruptions to Strategy Implementation

This paper offers new theoretical and empirical understanding of interruptions to strategy implementation by drawing attention to their ghostly nature. The paper proposes a theoretical framework for thinking about the ghostly by combining Freud’s concept of the uncanny with theorizing in cultural geography on collapses of linear time as well as with Avery Gordon’s sociological work on ghostly matters. Empirically, the paper examines the ghostly nature of strategy interruptions through a detailed analysis of conversations between middle managers at a strategy seminar in a Danish local government. I portray the uncanny moments where the familiar account of organizational purposes is not so self-evident anymore, but all of a sudden appears rather disturbing. I show how middle managers envision other, darker futures and express the feeling that something else, something different from before, must be done, although they cannot say exactly what. Going beyond previous accounts of strategy interruption, for example as deliberate resistance by middle managers, the paper contributes with new insight into the moments where the neat ordering of organizational realities performed by corporate strategies breaks down and middle managers come into contact with the broader social and political stakes of their work.

Ruin and Organization Studies

In this paper we offer a preliminary study of the various ways in which ‘ruin’ has significance for organization studies. One important motif associated with both modern and romantic treatments of ruins concerns the revelatory impressions they make. In this respect the tradition of ruin writing will talk of their ‘beauty’, their ‘strangeness’ or their capacity to ‘intimidate’, which somehow never fails to strike a responsive nerve in us. In order to attend to this elusive phenomenon we must necessarily breach some of the self-imposed boundaries of our ‘discipline’. Taking up this challenge we follow W. G. Sebald in his use of contiguity as both method and textual structuring device, allowing us to drift across iconic ruin images, ruin theories and our own ruinous research experiences. This helps us learn how to ‘dwell’ in the ruin – without any impatient reaching after fact or explaining away ruins in the terms of an established tradition of theorizing in organization – and open up new analytic spaces and associations for organizational researchers. These concern specifically (a) a distinctive approach to time, history and memory; (b) an increased awareness of the multiplicity of forces impinging on organization, forces from which we so easily retreat behind the cordon sanitaire of organization-studies-as-usual; and (c) a cognisance of how the very way we write is a mode of doing organization that is crucial for our ability and willingness to look into ‘all corners of reality’ so that we might better grasp organizational phenomena.

The 'dark side' of knowledge brokering

Deploying knowledge brokers to bridge the ‘gap’ between researchers and practitioners continues to be seen as an unquestionable enabler of evidence-based practice and is often endorsed uncritically. We explore the ‘dark side’ of knowledge brokering, reflecting on its inherent challenges which we categorize as: (1) tensions between different aspects of brokering; (2) tensions between different types and sources of knowledge; and (3) tensions resulting from the ‘in-between’ position of brokers. As a result of these tensions, individual brokers may struggle to maintain their fragile and ambiguous intermediary position, and some of the knowledge may be lost in the ‘in-between world’, whereby research evidence is transferred to research users without being mobilized in their day-to-day practice. To be effective, brokering requires an amalgamation of several types of knowledge and a multidimensional skill set that needs to be sustained over time. If we want to maximize the impact of research on policy and practice, we should move from deploying individual ‘brokers’ to embracing the collective process of ‘brokering’ supported at the organizational and policy levels.

Politics of change: the discourses that inform organizational change and their capacity to silence

Changes in healthcare organizations are inevitable and occurring at unprecedented rates. Such changes greatly impact nurses and their work, yet these experiences are rarely explored. Organizational change discourses remain grounded in perspectives that explore and explain systems, often not the people within them. Change processes in healthcare organizations informed by such organizational discourses validate only certain perspectives and forms of knowledge. This fosters exclusionary practices, limiting the capacity of certain individuals or groups of individuals to effectively contribute to change discourses and processes. The reliance on mainstream organizational discourses in healthcare organizations has left little room for the exploration of diverse perspectives on the subject of organizational change, particularly those of nurses. Michel Foucault's work challenges dominant discourse and suggest that strong reliance's on specific discourses effectively disqualify certain forms of knowledge. Foucault's writings on disqualified knowledge and parrhesia (truth telling and frank speech) facilitate the critical exploration of discourses that inform change in healthcare organizations and nurses capacities to contribute to organizational discourses. This paper explores the capacity of nurses to speak their truths within rapidly and continuously changing healthcare organizations when such changes are often driven by discourses not derived from nursing knowledge or experience.