Clean your desk! Dressage and activity-based working in a French banking organization

Research output: Contribution to JournalMeeting AbstractAcademic

Abstract

As part of popular new kinds of activity-based working, many companies seek to implement so-called clean-desk policies, in which users have to empty their desk after completing a task, so that other workers can feel free to use this desk. Following Henri Lefebvre's discussion of 'Dressage' in the context of Rhytm-analysis (Lefebvre 2004 [1992]), we argue that clean desk policies are part of a wider organizational strategy in flexibilizing working practices, focusing on the performative management of bodily and material aspects of work demonstrating control over these aspects. In drawing on a case study of a French Bank, which introduced a flexible working environment in 2016-2018, and following Lefebvre's ideas, we argue that and how dressage can be understood as a separate but key component in the domination and embodiment of flexiblized work practices.
Original languageEnglish
Article number2020.20889
JournalAcademy of Management Proceedings
Volume2020
Issue number1
Early online date29 Jul 2020
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2020

Bibliographical note

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings

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