Craig Scott
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804781381
- eISBN:
- 9780804785631
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804781381.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
Many organizations and their members devote extensive resources to promoting themselves and being known to others. However, not all organizations want or need their identity to be recognized and not ...
More
Many organizations and their members devote extensive resources to promoting themselves and being known to others. However, not all organizations want or need their identity to be recognized and not all organizational members want to have their membership or affiliation known by at least certain audiences. As we consider secret societies, anonymous support programs, hate groups, terrorist cells, covert military units, organized crime, gangs, parts of the underground economy, front organizations, stigmatized businesses, and even certain hidden enterprises tucked away in quiet office parks, we have to question what we think we know about the identity goals of organizations and their members. This book offers a framework for thinking about how a wide range of organizations and their members communicate their identity to relevant audiences. Considering the degree to which organizations strategically make themselves visible, the extent to which members express their identification with the organization, and whether the relevant audience is more mass/public or local, we can describe various “regions” in which these collectives reside-ranging from transparent and shaded to more shadowed and dark. Importantly, organizations operating in these spaces differ in how they and their members communicate identity to others. The perspective offered here helps draw attention to more shaded, shadowed, and dark collectives as important organizations in the contemporary landscape.Less
Many organizations and their members devote extensive resources to promoting themselves and being known to others. However, not all organizations want or need their identity to be recognized and not all organizational members want to have their membership or affiliation known by at least certain audiences. As we consider secret societies, anonymous support programs, hate groups, terrorist cells, covert military units, organized crime, gangs, parts of the underground economy, front organizations, stigmatized businesses, and even certain hidden enterprises tucked away in quiet office parks, we have to question what we think we know about the identity goals of organizations and their members. This book offers a framework for thinking about how a wide range of organizations and their members communicate their identity to relevant audiences. Considering the degree to which organizations strategically make themselves visible, the extent to which members express their identification with the organization, and whether the relevant audience is more mass/public or local, we can describe various “regions” in which these collectives reside-ranging from transparent and shaded to more shadowed and dark. Importantly, organizations operating in these spaces differ in how they and their members communicate identity to others. The perspective offered here helps draw attention to more shaded, shadowed, and dark collectives as important organizations in the contemporary landscape.
Craig R. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804781381
- eISBN:
- 9780804785631
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804781381.003.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Organization Studies
This chapter questions the assumption that all organizations wish to be prominently identified and highly visible to various audiences. The complex society of the twenty-first century is ...
More
This chapter questions the assumption that all organizations wish to be prominently identified and highly visible to various audiences. The complex society of the twenty-first century is characterized by an increasingly diverse set of hidden organizations-including secret societies, fraternal orders, organized crime, gangs, terrorist cells, counterterrorism and government intelligence agencies, the informal economy, backstreet businesses, anonymous support groups, hacktivists, obscure political fundraising groups, and various front organizations. Thus, there is a need for a contemporary framework that captures key communication and identity issues at play for a range of organizations-including, but not limited to, those where members or entire organizations remain largely hidden to at least certain key audiences.Less
This chapter questions the assumption that all organizations wish to be prominently identified and highly visible to various audiences. The complex society of the twenty-first century is characterized by an increasingly diverse set of hidden organizations-including secret societies, fraternal orders, organized crime, gangs, terrorist cells, counterterrorism and government intelligence agencies, the informal economy, backstreet businesses, anonymous support groups, hacktivists, obscure political fundraising groups, and various front organizations. Thus, there is a need for a contemporary framework that captures key communication and identity issues at play for a range of organizations-including, but not limited to, those where members or entire organizations remain largely hidden to at least certain key audiences.
