Phenomenography’s contribution to organizational studies based on a practice perspective

Abstract

Purpose – This paper aims to propose the phenomenography as an approach that may contribute to the organizational studies based on the practice perspective, considering that it analyzes the phenomenon through the practitioner’s view and experience. Design/methodology/approach – It is a theoretical essay about phenomenography as a theoreticalmethodological perspective, considering its concept, its relation with practice theories and how its theoreticalmethodological approach is capable of bringing a new perspective over the organizations, in the practice perspective. Findings – The phenomenographic method, together with the practice perspective, enables mapping, identifying, describing and relating all the different ways by which an organization, in each one of its structuring dimensions, is effectively experienced. It argues that aspects such as the phenomenographic interview, the second-order perspective, the collective conceptions stated in the outcome space and their relations, the complexity of hierarchy and the abductive theorization about the emerging concepts of collective perceptions form, all together, an alternative and promising theoretical approach to analyze the entanglement between action and the material dimension that constitutes the organizational practices. Practical implications – The phenomenographic outcome space may become a catalyst of a theorization about practices, which is capable to modify them or modify the way they are understood. Originality/value – It discusses the possibility of phenomenography to theorize from the agents’ collective consciousness.