The temporality of power and the power of temporality: Imaginary future selves in professional service firms
Abstract
This paper extends existing understandings of power, resistance and subjectivity in professional service organizations by developing an analysis of how these relate to temporality. Drawing in particular on Hoy’s reading of the Foucauldian account of temporality, we conceive of disciplinary power regimes and resistance as inherently future-oriented, or, to use Ybema’s term, postalgic. In moving beyond the extant research focus on self-disciplined and/or counter-resistant professional selves, we draw attention to the imaginary future self as an employee response to disciplinary power. In contrast to the future orientation of disciplinary power, this response envisages the future as a discontinuous break with the present which we examine as a form of resistant postalgia. Building on in-depth qualitative data gathered at two professional service firms, we explain how imaginary future selves can shed new light on the interplay of power, resistance and subjectivity.
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The risk of always being in the process of 'becoming' yet never 'arriving' is a serious problem, especially in contexts of responsibility and sustainability.
“The risk of always being in the process of “becoming” yet never “arriving”, as Costas and Grey (2014: 918) put it, is a serious problem, especially in contexts of responsibility and sustainability.”
From Timely hypocrisy? Hypocrisy temporalities in CSR communication (2020) · cites this paper as Costas & Grey, 2014
While delays of desirable futures may be accepted in some organizational contexts, they are likely to be met with suspicion in the CSR arena where deferrals of responsible futures seem to indicate a level of cynicism on the part of its sender.
“While delays of desirable futures may be accepted in some organizational contexts, for example in personal career development (Costas & Grey, 2014; see also Thornborrow & Brown, 2009), they are likely to be met with suspicion in the CSR arena where deferrals of responsible futures seem to indicate a level of cynicism on the part of its sender.”
From Timely hypocrisy? Hypocrisy temporalities in CSR communication (2020) · cites this paper as Costas & Grey, 2014
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Timely hypocrisy? Hypocrisy temporalities in CSR communication
Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.020 · Cited by 105 · see citing works
License to critique: A communication perspective on sustainability standards
Christensen, L. T., Morsing, M., & Thyssen, O. (2017) · Business Ethics Quarterly · doi:10.1017/beq.2016.66 · Cited by 66 · see citing works
- Authors
- Costas, J., & Grey, C.
- Affiliations
- Copenhagen Business School (DK)
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- Venue
- Organization Studies
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2014-01-28
- Volume
- 35
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 909-937
- ISSN
- 0170-8406 (ISSN-L)
- 1741-3044
- OpenAlex
- W2106106838
- Cited by
- 117
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 7 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 18 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 33.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Organization Studies (publishedVersion)
- CBS Research Portal (Copenhagen Business School) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Foucault, Power, and Ethics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Philosophy and Social Theory
- Keywords
- temporality, disciplinary power, resistance, subjectivity, professional service firms, future orientation, Foucauldian power, self-control
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