Premium
Writing out praise: Air Canada employees and the 1968 CEO change
Author(s) -
Hartt Christopher M.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
canadian journal of administrative sciences / revue canadienne des sciences de l'administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.347
H-Index - 48
eISSN - 1936-4490
pISSN - 0825-0383
DOI - 10.1002/cjas.1415
Subject(s) - praise , sensemaking , corporation , public relations , affect (linguistics) , management , sociology , business , psychology , political science , social psychology , law , economics , communication
In 1968, the Air Canada CEO was an individual from outside the airline industry, when previously all CEOs had been former airline pilots for the organization. In investigating why, the union writings of Air Canada, a large Crown corporation, make no reference to this 1968 CEO change. I examine how the values, beliefs, and ideas of employees affect the development of an organization's written histories. I apply actor network theory, sensemaking, critical sensemaking, and theories of “writing out” to expose and develop the concept of the noncorporeal actant as a critical influence within a network and in the writing of histories. Copyright © 2016 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.