Hirst, Alison

341 Pages·2017·25.42 MB·English

by  Christine Middleton

A SOCIOLOGICAL JOURNEY INTO SPACE:
ARCHITECTURE AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN A CHANGING
LOCAL GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION
ALISON HIRST
Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy
July 2011
Abstract
The relationship between the physical work environment and the social practices
associated with it has until recently been neglected in studies of organisation and public
management. Although there is now growing interest in organisational space, the area is
characterised by competing definitions and fragmented contributions. There are still
relatively few empirical studies, and no ethnographic studies which have analysed the
relationship between organisational space and organisational social processes over time
and in depth.
A sociological analysis of the interrelationship between the material environment of an
organisation and organisational social structures and processes is undertaken, using a
case study of a UK local authority which undertook a spatial reconfiguration of all its staff
over a period of four years. During this time, successive groups of staff were moved into
new or refurbished buildings which were designed to support 'new ways of working', a
term which stood for fluid networking across structural boundaries, in particular,
directorates and hierarchical levels. In these new offices, all staff were based in open
plan space and no employees had official 'ownership' of a particular desk. The new
spatial configuration grouped 'strategic' managers in a central headquarters building,
'back office' employees in an adjacent building, and relocated 'locality' staff in 'Public
Service Villages' which integrated staff across directorates. Senior managers expressed
ambitious intentions for the way in which this new configuration could reshape what
they presented as an outdated bureaucracy into an outward-looking, inspirational
organisation based on a networked form. The study focuses chiefly on the strategic
centre and back office buildings and compares officially stated intentions with the social
processes and structures that actually emerged over time in both buildings.
The case study is ethnographically-oriented and works within Pragmatist criteria of truth
and validity. The analysis uses Lefebvre's conceptualisation of the social production of
space to integrate social and spatial dimensions, and link the configuration of space with
the social structures of capitalism. To compensate for Lefebvre's relative neglect of
agency in the production of space, use is made of Berger and Luckmann's analysis of the
social construction of reality. Thus, the thesis applies what Harvey terms the
'geographical imagination', which relates everyday spatial processes to the wider
sociospatial configuration ofthe society of which they are a part.
The first two contributions link the spatial structure of organisation with the degree of
autonomy given to employees. In the strategic centre, new networked structures
emerged to an extent, but the transformation to a network form was limited by a
hierarchical sociospatial structure, which the study conceptualises as the 'invisible office'.
In the back office building, the official priorities appeared to have shifted towards the
cost-efficient use of space and the capacity to flex the organisation structure rapidly.
This resulted in a sociospatial structure in which the key distinctions were between the
top managers and all other staff, and between employees who established unofficial
ownership over particular desks and those who could not. In this building, the use of
space mapped closely onto the non-inclusive roles which Kallinikos argues are the basic
units from which modern organisation is composed. The exchangeable use of space can
therefore be understood as a shift in which the efficiency and rationality of bureaucratic
organisation is increased. In both buildings, the group of employees at the top of the
organisational hierarchy (in what was officially suggested should be an entirely non
hierarchical environment) maintained a semi-private space. While both office
environments had the same material capacity for exchangeability, the more powerful
organisational members appeared to take root and from this position of spatial stability
planned the flexible reconfiguration of other employees.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to my supervisors, Tony Watson and Mike Humphreys, for your brilliance,
wisdom, friendship and drollery. Thanks too to Andrea Tomlinson for administrative
excellence and stalwart moral support. I'll always be proud of my association with
Nottingham.
As usual, thanks are due to Jane Brown for being Jane Brown.
Most of all, love and gratitude to my excellent family, Tony, Ruan and Lupin. Thank you
boys, and here's an end to all sneaky typing!
Table of contents
Abstract
Acknowledgements
Table of contents
List of tables and diagrams
Chapter 1
Sociology, spatiality and change in local
government
1 Research aim and rationale 1
2 Space, place and material artefacts: key concepts 5
3 The unfolding story of buildings in Southern County Council 7
3.1 Before 2004: the 'old campus' 7
3.2 2004: the purchase and occupation of Enterprise House 9
3.3 Further changes stemming from the move to Enterprise House 10
3.4 FirstService and Troy House 11
3.5 Further into the periphery: Public Service Villages (PSVs) 12
sec:
3.6 The proposed 'flexible firm' structure in 'Securing the Future' 12
4 Structure of the thesis 14
Chapter 2
Organisation studies, public sector management
and spatiality: current thinking
1 Introduction to the chapter 18
2 The social construction of reality, bureaucracy and 'post-bureaucracy' 21
2.1 Basic assumptions about society and individuals 21
2.2 The production of social order and change 23
2.3 Organisations as 'negotiated orders' 25
2.4 Organisational design: bureaucracy and 'post-bureaucracy' 25
2.4.1 Bureaucracy understood as the 'ideal type', direct and indirect control 25
2.4.2 Bureaucracy understood as a configuration of roles 28
2.4.3 The 'network' or 'post-bureaucratic' organisational form 30
2.4.4 A shift to a new employment relationship? 32
2.4.5 'Identity work' at work 34
2.5 The context of New Public Management: against 'bureaucracy' 36
2.5.1 The meaning of 'bureaucracy' in public management 37
2.5.2 The first wave of NPM: minimisation, marketisation and managerialism 38
2.5.3 The second wave of NPM: network governance 41
3 Journey into space: space as a dimension of social life 44
3.1 Basic assumptions about space 44
3.2 Lefebvre's contribution to the understanding of social space 46
3.2.1 The production of social space: Lefebvre's triadic model 47
3.2.2 Abstract space 53
3.3 The current spatial fix: 'the space of flows' 55
3.3.1 Contemporary space: homogenised, slippery, fragmented, hierarchical 56
3.3.2 What about the state? 61
3.4 The 'new office' 62
3.4.1 Duffy's 'new ways of working' 62
3.4.2 Duffy's 'design logic': who goes where 63
3.4.3 Spatial practices in the 'new office': fluid networks 65
3.4.4 Symbolism of 'new office' design 70
4 Conceptual framework: the production of space and the 72
production of organisation
Chapter 3
Investigating sociospatial reality
1 Introduction to the chapter 76
2 Epistemological assumptions and Pragmatist criteria of truth and 76
validity
3 Overview of the ethnographically-oriented approach used 78
4 Research design 81
4.1 Initial access in 2004 81
4.2 Overview of the fieldwork 82
4.3 Fieldwork phase 1: investigation of officially stated intentions 83
4.4 Fieldwork phase 2: investigation of subsequent intentions and 85
consequences
4.4.1 Phase 2 participant-observation 86
4.4.2 Phase 2 interviews 86
4.4.3 Phase 2 access, informants and locations 88
4.4.4 Shift in official intentions 90
see
4.5 Feedback from on preliminary analysis and departure from the field in 91
2007
5 Participant-observation in the new offices 92
5.1 Overview of participant-observation undertaken 92
5.2 Researcher identity and impression management 94
6 Interviews 96
6.1 'Studying up': interviewing high status individuals in phase 1 96
6.2 Social categories in the offices: issues arising from phase 2 interviews 98
7 Analysis and interpretation 99
7.1 Assumptions made about empirical materials 99
7.2 Analysis 100
Chapter 4
Taking up space: the expanding role of buildings
inSCC
1 Introduction to the chapter 103
2 2004: the creation of the 'strategic hub' in Enterprise House 104
2.1 The four organisation designers 104
2.2 'Stuffy Southern County' 107
2.3 The old campus 111
2.4 The new division between 'strategy' and 'operations' 113
3 2005 onwards: buildings become a central part of strategy in see 117
3.1 The new SCC-wide Property Strategy 117
3.2 The new organisation designers: the Workspace Improvement Team 119
3.3 Buildings and StF: a premonition of the virtual Council 121
4 Summary 122
Chapter 5
Grand designs: officially expressed intentions for
the strategic centre
1 Introduction to the chapter 123
2 A walk round Enterprise House 125
2.1 Approaching the building 125
2.2 Entering the building: into the atrium and collective spaces 126
2.3 Moving through: stairs and bridges 128
2.4 Breakout areas and offices 129
2.5 The County Lounge and the Council Chamber 131
2.6 The contrast with the old campus 132
3 Officially stated intentions for Enterprise House: new values and 133
practices
4 Designing new spatial practices 138
4.1 Networking: 'popping along' 138
4.2 Look! No hierarchy! 140
4.3 The Councillors' office: a 'no go' area? 142
4.4 Tessellation: blurring the boundaries of directorates 143
5 Designing new lived spaces 146
5.1 'The spaces have to feel good' 146
5.2 'Feels like home' 147
6 Visibility as opportunity and control 148
6.1 Seeing: supporting the spread of new practices 148
6.2 Being seen: curbing undesirable practices 150
7 Configuring the user: the clear desk policy 153
8 Summary: Enterprise House as the 'ideal network' building? 159
Chapter 6
The invisible hierarchy: the re-emergence of
bureaucratic structures in Enterprise House
1 Introduction to the chapter 161
2 Back to Enterprise House in 2007 163
3 The invisible hierarchy in the offices 164
3.1 Managers' desk positions 165
3.2 Avoidance of using the manager's desk as a hot-desk 169
3.3 Managers' influence over spatial practices within their office areas 169
4 The invisible hierarchy in the building 172
4.1 Re-creation of inaccessible, 'deep' space for Councillors 172
4.2 Senior officers' attempts to recreate 'deep' space for themselves 174
4.3 Appropriation of meeting rooms by Councillors and senior managers 175
5 Networking 177
5.1 'Not gossiping but networking' 177
5.2 Presentation of self 178
5.3 Invisible barriers to networking 179
6 Working as a team member 182
6.1 Symbolic enhancement of status 182
6.2 Constantly visibility: 'there's nowhere you can go and just be' 184
6.3 Being appraised 186
7 Specialist work 187
8 Managerial work 189
8.1 Managing a team 191
8.2 The loss of space for 'uninterrupted thought' 193
9 Summary 195
Chapter 7
The Dark Side: exchangeable space, flexibility
and non-inclusive roles
1 Introduction to the chapter 197
2 The FirstService model: flexibility and business processes 198