Reflections on the magic, joy, and enchantment of Christmas

Weber (2009) predicted that we would live in a totally disenchanted world. When we revisit the history of humankind, we might even agree with him. Our time on this planet has been marked by wars, economic crises, hunger, natural disasters, and pests. In recent years it has been no different.

But then comes that magical moment at the end of the year, when cities, shopping malls, and stores are decorated, get-togethers are scheduled, trips are planned, and families unite. For many individuals, namely those with purchasing power and who live in the Christian West, in an aestheticized economy (Böhme, 2017), it is as if it were a fairy tale, a relief, an interim of happiness. Christmas parties allow these subjects to reimagine their futures, make plans, seek to reconnect with family, friends, and co-workers. In fact, the reimagining and staging of a series of new sounds, sights, and even smells seduce people to re-enchant the world (Hancock, 2020). Thus, taken by the spirit of ‘make-believe’ (Schechner, 2006), we believe that political differences, grudges, grievances, and different agendas can be overcome and that, at the beginning of the following year, everyone will have a new beginning. This is the magic of Christmas.

However, Christmas is often cynically described as a big commercial party (Miller, 1993), associated with conspicuous consumption (Sheffield, 2016), the culture of waste (McGuire, 2016), the unsustainable indebtedness of a part of society (Dickler, 2018; Wood, 2017), the exploitation of workers (Chamberlain, 2016), as well as the increase in personal tragedies, such as the heightened sense of social exclusion (Salonen, 2016) and domestic violence (Oppenheim, 2015).

More than that, when we associate Christmas with a “magic” that makes everything wrong right, we reflect on these constructs. In organizational studies and corporate discourses, the word “magic” has been used instrumentally. It is associated with success (Palo, Mason, & Roscoe, 2020), financial performance (Waters, 2012), entrepreneurship (Ganzin, Islam, & Suddaby, 2020), or even a performative act of commercial and marketing strategies (Tambiah, 2013) or employee engagement (Sloan & Oliver, 2013).

These correlations corroborate the arguments of Styers (2013) and Malinowski (2011). Styers (2013) understands that magic enables the creation of a symbolic link between practice and outcome, while Malinowski (2011) goes further, believing that it is an instrument used (purposely) to achieve specific objectives and goals, as it reflects cultural beliefs established through shared rituals and expressions.

Nevertheless, I believe Christmas cannot be seen as a pantomime, a mere production of capitalism. Like so many others, this festivity in different cultures has social functions - such as lubricating tensions and interpersonal relationships - and psychological functions - in most cases, sources of well-being (Cradick, 1961). This is the magic of Christmas, but for it to work, there must be a shared consensus about its existence and its ability to affect the world (Elliott, 1997).

Let us then affect the world positively. As professors, we can distribute affection; as researchers, we can produce research that gives a social return.

Therefore, I invite everyone, regardless of religion, belief, or worldview, to take advantage of this end of the year to rebuild bridges, heal wounds, restore bonds of friendship, and build a strong and solid academia together.

In this last issue of 2022, I invite everyone to enjoy some exquisite articles. We begin with Black community feminism in the Southwest of Colombia as a form of self-governance, written by our colleagues Alexandra Zapata Gonzalez, Maricel Sandoval Solarte, and Silvia Caicedo-Muñoz. This study explored a possible definition of black community feminism based on the experience of one of the Mayoras of the Colombia Pacific region. It contributed to the recognition of women’s work in this region, their own government, and governance through organization studies from Afrodiasporic perspectives. The authors used ethnographic autobiography as a method. Among the results and conclusions, this feminism could be understood as practices and commitments that some black women from the Colombian Pacific region are assuming and leading in the community, vindicating art as a fundamental element in this process.

The second article is entitled Consumption praxis: a study of the search for freedom from gender oppression in the context of online games, by Kelen Cristina Duarte and Ronan Torres Quintão. This article theorizes about how women face gender oppression in consumption. Using data from the context of online games in Brazil, collected through 15 in-depth interviews and netnography, the concept of “consumer praxis” is defined as a reflexive action that liberates the oppressed in consumption environments that reinforce the subordination of the other. The results reveal that women seek liberation through dialogic action against gender oppression, with mobilization and occupation of the market. The research advances in the cultural studies of consumption, demonstrating how a consumption practice can help in the search for liberation from oppressive societal relations.

Next, Priscila Keller Pires and Graziela Dias Alperstedt offer us The material turn in organizational studies: contributions from “On Justification,” an article contributing to the debate on the “material turn” in the social sciences and, more specifically, regarding sociomateriality in organizational studies, including spatiality. The authors defend the proposition of the Theory of Justifications, which advocates that the moments of dispute experienced in organizations are not reduced only to speeches but use objects and spaces to reaffirm their logic of action. They use the Theory of Justifications applied to the study of organizations, emphasizing the engagement of objects, things, and spaces that are triggered in these moments of dispute or test, present in organizations, thus contributing to the advances of this analysis.

The fourth article, For an orientation toward the societal impact of graduate studies in administration in Brazil, written by Francisco José da Costa, Márcio André Veras Machado, and Samuel Façanha Câmara, analyzes the challenges of academic graduate studies in administration in Brazil. It considers the challenges of the early 2020s, marked by changes in the Coordination of Higher Education Personal Assessment (CAPES) evaluation and in the graduates’ career prospects. The authors review relevant facts from 2000 to 2020 that led to a shift in the education priority from a focus on research rigor to practical relevance. Based on the reported situation and the intellectual debate on rigor and relevance, two models were defined: one oriented toward scientific production and the other toward societal impact. When assuming the opportunity for change in the direction of societal impact, the study offers propositions for changes in educational projects, research practices, channels for disseminating knowledge, and research incentive policies.

The article Telework and women: perceptions of work and family life balance, by Sara Fabiana Bittencourt de Aguiar, Fátima Bayma de Oliveira, Lygia Gonçalves Costa Hryniewicz, and Anderson de Souza Sant’Anna discuss women’s satisfaction and conciliation of professional and family life in telework at the General Management of Ports, Airports, Borders, and Customs Enclosures (GGPAF) of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The research suggests that women are satisfied with telecommuting since most consider the benefits and improvements in quality of life, despite the disadvantages of social distancing and the accumulation of domestic tasks and responsibilities. The study contributes by expanding the field of knowledge about telework in the period before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can shed light on the design of people management policies that consider the importance of women in the world of work and contemplate the work-family balance.

In the sixth article, Henri Fayol and Claude Bernard’s experimental method, Elcemir Paço Cunha analyzes the relationship between Fayolism and the method Fayol mentioned to have used as a base to support his masterpiece: the experimental method developed by Claude Bernard. The approach used was the history of administrative science, methodologically based on the internal analysis of Fayol’s and Bernard’s works. The research suggests divergences between Fayolism and the experimental method, and show evidence of the period Fayol came across Bernard’s work, identifying that Fayol indeed found inspiration in the experimental method, but later on in the timeline of his scientific production. The main conclusion is that there is strong evidence to suggest that Fayol made a little systematic study of Bernard and only carried out this study after 1916, the year of his main work so he could not have practiced the method to which he said he adhered.

Julieta Kaoru Watanabe-Wilbert, Andrea Valéria Steil, and Gertrudes Aparecida Dandolini, in Network learning and interorganizational learning: a theoretical framework of relationship and interdependence, differentiate “interorganizational learning” and “network learning” by developing five hypotheses and a theoretical framework to demonstrate that interorganizational and network learning are different constructs and the former is an antecedent of the latter. Being aware of the differences between the two can make it easier to allocate resources and energy, whether to achieve organizational change or network-wide transformation. In addition, the article presents multilevel network coordination as the main dynamic for interorganizational learning to evolve into network learning.

In Perception of calling and turnover intention: the moderating role of perceived mobility, Marcelo Soares, Bruno Felix, and Rozélia Laurett analyze the existence of positive, negative, direct, and indirect relationships (via job satisfaction and self-efficacy) between perceiving a calling and intention to leave a job, and the moderating role of perceived job mobility.

Entrepreneurial learning research: a positivist tradition? This research question guided the work of Fernanda Paula Arantes and Maria Salete Batista Freitag. They used a systematic literature review of entrepreneurial learning literature, analyzing elements of studies published on the subject over time, with special emphasis on the methodological approaches employed in empirical research. The study was motivated by the fact that this literature is still fragmented. In addition, previous reviews on the subject did not shed enough light on the methodological aspects of the research.

The final article, Organizational conditions for evidence-based policing: a proposal from the international literature by Gustavo Matarazzo, Rafael Alcadipani, Alan Fernandes, and Maurício de Thomazi presents a history of evidence-based policing and proposes a framework regarding implementation requirements based on four fields: evaluation, leadership, technology, and networking.

In this issue, we also present two case studies. The first, by Mel Girão and Hugo Garbe, Maybelline: dilemmas and challenges of launching in Brazil, discusses positioning strategies and macroeconomic change in Brazil. The second, Queremos! Case: challenges of a startup in the pandemic by Eduardo Russo, Diogo Pereira, Thiago Cañellas, and Victor Almeida discusses the entertainment and live-events sector in Brazil and worldwide.

We wish you a pleasant read, happy holidays, and that next year, we can be together, living in harmony.

Ph.D. Hélio Arthur Reis Irigaray

Editor-in-chief

Ph.D. Fabricio Stocker

Associate Editor

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  13 Jan 2023
• Date of issue
  Nov-Dec 2022