Relatedness & the ethics of writing organization

In this Special Issue we invite authors to explore why it is epistemologically and ethically desirable to describe organization poetically. In an industrialized society that is increasingly in panic and defined by political conflict, the ethics of relatedness are not just epistemologically an issue but also ethically one. Relatedness and responsibility — and especially as motivated by the heritage of Levinas — remain a crucial impulse for an ethical society and within that society, ethical research. Researching organization needs to understand relatedness and not to define it out of existence. Research that denies relatedness, we submit, only strengthens the political-economic-organizational crises of our times. Organizational research has long been identified with a reductionist, analytic form of research. For instance, the ‘empirical analytical' tradition sees no role for the researcher's affect in research. But the repression of affect makes access to motivation, creativity and the sources of innovation nearly impossible. As Graham Harman (2016) expresses it, ‘undermining' (i.e. the reduction of the organization into its elements and the mapping of the relations between those elements) and ‘overmining' (i.e. identifying the organization with transcendental truths, first principles and metaphysical principles) both fundamentally hinder researcher/researched interaction. Organizational researchers usually write themselves out of their research, research processes are disconnected to their manifold contexts. The absence of relatedness prevents engagement, care and deep learning. Separation and distance preclude the challenging of one's presuppositions and thought. Thus we ask: What relational epistemology and research practices are needed to do justice to human relatedness in creating and maintaining sustainable organizations? How does one include affect, relatedness and care for others? How does one write texts that preserve relation, presence and responsibility? What ethics of organizational research and writing embody practical responsibility for a more just and cohesive society? To give but a few examples: · Lingis (2016) recounts personal situations in which many of us would consider him as a victim, but relationally on his position and invites the reader to reconsider one's conception of justice. · Veissière (2009, 2010) as a researcher on the streets of Bahia, feels as a ‘pimp' taking advantage of his researchees' vulnerability. He even comes to the realization that his way of trying to aid could be detrimental due to his academic habit of distancing. Deeper connection leads him to revise his descriptions and theories. · Stewart (1991) makes the case for contaminated knowledge, in which researchers fully engage themselves inthe group studied and include their own experience and their affect in their reflections. · Brosseau (2015) writes from a refugee position, and feels the need to research poetic writing in order to relate more authentically to society.