The corporation performed: minutes from the rituals of annual general meetings

• Published in: Journal of organizational ethnography Vol. 4; no. 3; pp. 341 - 355
• Main Author: Nyqvist, Anette
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bingley Emerald Group Publishing Limited 12.10.2015
• Subjects: Actors; annual general meetings; Anthropology; Companies; Corporate governance; Corporations; Decision making; Dependency theory; Directors; Drama; Ethnography; HR & organizational behaviour; Institutional investments; meeting ethnography; organizational anthropology; Organizational structure/dynamics; organizations; Rituals; Shareholder voting; Social Anthropology; socialantropologi; Stockholders; Theater; Organizational anthropology; Annual general meetings; Meeting ethnography
• ISSN: 2046-6749; 2046-6757; 2046-6757
• DOI: 10.1108/JOE-12-2014-0037

Purpose – In this paper the annual general meetings (AGM) of corporations are conceptualized as front-stage performances and dramas where the three roles of the corporation – the shareholder, manager and director – perform the corporation as a particular type of organization. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Meeting ethnography conducted at four seasons of AGMs in Sweden. Findings – The study sheds light on how the required AGM of public companies may be seen as a ritualized, legitimizing and trust-building corporate performance where the different roles of the corporation are played out in positioning procedures and where the corporation as an organizational form is enacted. Originality/value – The topic is of this paper is clearly original. Looking at corporations from an anthropological angle, exploring foundation myths, rites and organizational cultures, have been employed earlier, but exploring AGMs from an anthropological angle, is new.