Extending the Turn to Work: New Directions in the Study of Social-Symbolic Work in Organizational Life

Abstract

Over the last two decades, a growing number of studies of novel forms of social-symbolic work (e.g., identity work, boundary work, institutional work, values work, etc.) have appeared in the organization and management studies literature. This growing body of research – the ‘turn to work’ in organization theory – has provided important new insights into how actors purposefully participate in the social construction of organizations and their contexts. The aim of this special issue is to build on and extend these insights and in this introductory essay we begin by outlining a framework that provides a useful meta-theory – the social-symbolic work perspective – for integrating this stream of research. This perspective revolves around two key concepts: ‘social-symbolic objects’ defined as meaningful patterns in a social system; and ‘social-symbolic work’ defined as conscious, reflexive efforts to shape social-symbolic objects. We then introduce the articles that appear in this special issue and identify important cross-cutting themes. Drawing on these articles, we go on to identify potentially fruitful areas for future research on social-symbolic work and end with a challenge to organizational scholars to build on this special issue to move our understanding of social-symbolic work forward.