IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/119973.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The firm that would not die: post-death organizing, alumni events, and organization ghosts

Author

Listed:
  • Power, Michael
  • Tuck, Penelope

Abstract

We show that alumni events, as settings where workplace identities and relationships reappear and are restaged, are not simply instruments to build and sustain commercially valuable networks. In some cases, they are also forms of post-death organizing for the purpose of celebrating and remembering defunct organizations. Based on participant observation of three annual lunches for alumni of the former accountancy firm Deloitte Haskins & Sells, and interviews with participants, organizers and non-participants, we show that, while alumni reveal an identification with the firm by the act of attending, their first-order motives are primarily social i.e. to meet old colleagues. The “dead” firm as an organization is an indistinct object for them. Yet notwithstanding the weak nature of their firm-based identity, in aggregate the seating arrangements at these lunches re-stage formal features of the dead organization simply from individual alumnus choices to sit with former colleagues. Far from being a trivial emergent outcome, our hand-collected seating plan data is suggestive of how organizations can have a “ghostly” afterlife via alumni events. This analysis establishes intersections between studies of professional service firm alumni events, post-death organizing and ghostliness and points to a broader agenda of enquiry into the afterlife of defunct organizations.

Suggested Citation

  • Power, Michael & Tuck, Penelope, 2024. "The firm that would not die: post-death organizing, alumni events, and organization ghosts," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119973, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:119973
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119973/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabriel, Yiannis, 2000. "Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297062.
    2. Iyer, Venkataraman M. & Bamber, E. Michael & Barefield, Russell M., 1997. "Identification of accounting firm alumni with their former firm: Antecedents and outcomes," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 22(3-4), pages 315-336.
    3. repec:eme:aaaj00:aaaj-02-2015-1984 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Herda, David N. & Lavelle, James J., 2011. "The effects of organizational fairness and commitment on the extent of benefits big four alumni provide their former firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 156-166, April.
    5. Ilias G. Basioudis, 2007. "Auditor's Engagement Risk and Audit Fees: The Role of Audit Firm Alumni," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9-10), pages 1393-1422.
    6. Haridimos Tsoukas & Robert Chia, 2002. "On Organizational Becoming: Rethinking Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 567-582, October.
    7. Daoust, Laurence & Malsch, Bertrand, 2019. "How ex-auditors remember their past: The transformation of audit experience into cultural memory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Ioana Lupu & Laura Empson, 2015. "Illusio and overwork: playing the game in the accounting field," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(8), pages 1310-1340, October.
    9. Ioana Lupu & Laura Empson, 2015. "Illusio and overwork: playing the game in the accounting field," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(8), pages 1310-1340, October.
    10. Ilias G. Basioudis, 2007. "Auditor's Engagement Risk and Audit Fees: The Role of Audit Firm Alumni," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(9‐10), pages 1393-1422, November.
    11. Gendron, Yves & Spira, Laura F., 2010. "Identity narratives under threat: A study of former members of Arthur Andersen," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 275-300, April.
    12. Suddaby, Roy & Gendron, Yves & Lam, Helen, 2009. "The organizational context of professionalism in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 409-427, April.
    13. Bell, Emma & Taylor, Scott, 2011. "Beyond letting go and moving on: New perspectives on organizational death, loss and grief," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 1-10, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2022. "Bonding forged in “auditing hell”: The emotional qualities of Big Four auditors," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    2. Obermire, Kara M. & Cohen, Jeffrey R. & Zehms, Karla M., 2021. "Audit committee members’ professional identities: Evidence from the field," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    3. Daoust, Laurence, 2020. "Playing the Big Four recruitment game: The tension between illusio and reflexivity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    4. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    5. Laurence Daoust & Bertrand Malsch, 2020. "When the Client Is A Former Auditor: Auditees' Expert Knowledge and Social Capital as Threats to Staff Auditors' Operational Independence†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1333-1369, September.
    6. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2024. "Working apart: Remote working and social bonding in the Big Four audit firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    7. Daoust, Laurence & Malsch, Bertrand, 2019. "How ex-auditors remember their past: The transformation of audit experience into cultural memory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Detzen, Dominic & Evans, Lisa & Hoffmann, Sebastian, 2023. "Identities in transition: Audit recruits and the German reunification," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    9. Jeff Everett & Constance Friesen & Dean Neu & Abu Shiraz Rahaman, 2018. "We Have Never Been Secular: Religious Identities, Duties, and Ethics in Audit Practice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1121-1142, December.
    10. Dermarkar, Simon & Hazgui, Mouna, 2022. "How auditors legitimize commercialism: A micro-discursive analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    11. Claire Garnier, 2018. "L'associé est-il un auditeur comme les autres ? La construction de l'identité de l'associé dans les cabinets Big 4 en France," Post-Print hal-01907933, HAL.
    12. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Edgley, Carla & Robson, Keith & Sharma, Nina, 2022. "Organizational responses to multiple logics: Diversity, identity and the professional service firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    13. Corentin Curchod & Jérémy Morales & Damien Talbot, 2015. "Des organisations sous pression. Quand la légitimité, l’identité et le sensemaking sont menacés," Revue française de gestion, Lavoisier, vol. 0(3), pages 11-21.
    14. Flanagan, Christopher & Joyce, Yvonne, 2024. "The recognition and negotiation of class-based barriers to progression and inclusion in accounting professional services firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    15. Tomo, Andrea, 2023. "‘Angry accountants’: Making sense of professional identity crisis on online communities," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    16. Claire France Picard & Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2013. "From Meticulous Professionals To Superheroes Of The Business World: A Historical Portrait Of A Cultural Change In The Field Of Accountancy," Post-Print hal-00993019, HAL.
    17. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher, 2017. "Attracting Prospective Professional Accountants Before and After the CPA Merger in Canada," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 105-127, June.
    18. Camilla Soueneta Nascimento Nganga & Silvia Pereira de Castro Casa Nova & Sandra Maria Cerqueira da Silva & João Paulo Resende de Lima, 2023. "There’s so Much Life Out There! Work-life Conflict, Women, and Accounting Graduate Programs," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 27(Vol. 27 N), pages 210318-2103.
    19. Lambert Jerman & Pauline Beau & Claire Garnier, 2016. "Le « dividual professional »," Post-Print hal-01902409, HAL.
    20. Marie Caussimont & David Carassus, 2015. "L’audit financier en contexte territorial : vers un audit de performance de la gestion locale ?," Post-Print hal-02141946, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    alumni; Deloitte Haskins & Sells; hauntology; organization ghost; post-death organizing; professional service firms;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M40 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Accounting - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:119973. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.