The organizational lives of numbers: onto-epistemologies of quantification in work and organizational psychology

The current conceptual paper examines the role of quantification in work and organizational psychology (psychologie du travail et des organisations; PTO), based on a view of metrics as performative and as linked to the social construction of knowledge. Understanding the social effects of metrics is part of an overall attempt to understand PTO in its responsibility for workplace experience and wellbeing. Quantitative metrics are usually seen as apolitical and linked to positivist epistemological approaches, but recent work in the sociology of quantification has examined the role of numbers as supports for practice. This literature, which tends to be social constructionist in its onto-epistemology, focuses on how numbers are used within organizations to understand persons, to manage interpersonal relations, and to govern organizations. Thus, quantitative measures are both epistemic tools and mechanisms of power. We argue that because of its focus on quantitative measurement, PTO is uniquely positioned to benefit from recent insights into the social uses of measures, and that bringing these uses to the forefront of PTO research contribute to the social impact of the field. Specifically, the tendency to view measures as transparent and judged solely on psychometric validity tends to draw attention away from the social impacts of measures, even when measures shape how people understand themselves, their work colleagues, and their organizations. Thus, the epistemological positivism of psychometrics relates to the negligence of the social effects of metrics. By contrast, a performative view of numbers allows their epistemic and social-practical dimensions to remain together in view, mixing descriptive and pragmatic aspects of measures. We argue that these effects happen at multiple levels of quantification. First, the level of capture, actors make decisions when and whether to quantify a given psychological phenomenon. Second, at the level of specification, the question of how to quantify brings in issues of construct specification and theorization, but also of social inclusion and exclusion. Finally, at the level of appropriation, questions about the ownership and use of quantified data involve social and ethical stakes that are exacerbated in the context of digitalization. By examining the performativity of metrics at these levels, in the context of PTO, we contribute to the social impact of epistemology by examining how reconfiguring normally epistemological tools as performative reveals the influence of those tools over individuals and organizations.