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I remember meeting Silvia Gherardi at one of the Valhalla
workshops that was held in preparation for the 1991 SCOS conference
in Copenhagen. We were getting in or out of a bus, and she was
sporting flowery leggings, I remember well. She told me, smiling
proudly, that she had just become a grandmother. I looked at her,
then at her leggings, and I thought: either my Italian is not as
good as I thought, and I completely misunderstood her, or else this
woman has a pact with some higher powers.
In time, I have learned that Silvia's granddaughter, Ahania, was
indeed born in November 1989. But I still haven't rejected my
hypothesis concerning Silvia's contacts with higher powers. Nobody
could achieve that much, and do so much, in so little time, without
extraordinary help.
Let me begin with Silvia's research record. As a rule, she
follows at least two paths simultaneously, and is writing in at
least two languages at the same time. (In case you are wondering,
she is fluent in Spanish and French, apart from Italian and
English.) The first work of hers that I read was Le
micro-decisioni nelle organizzazioni, from 1990 (reviewed in
Organization Studies, no. 14, 1993). Already there and then one
could trace the beginnings of several fields of interest that Silvia
would develop over time.
The first was qualitative methodology, in which Silvia invented
her own approach – an approach that I would call "replacement". It
consists of asking respondents what other people would need to know
and do in order to replace the respondents at their jobs without
attracting attention. However, the methodological appendix to the
book already was a development of a daring manifesto that she wrote
with Barry Turner in 1987: "Real men don't collect soft data." (For
the young people in the audience I should add that their title was
an allusion to the 1982 US bestseller, Real Men Don't Eat Quiche
by Bruce Feirstein.) I do not believe that this short manifesto of
qualitative methods was ever published anywhere but in the Trento
University series, but it soon became a cult object. We all read it,
we all laughed, and we all loved it.
Second, and perhaps most important, the micro-decisions' book
announced a serious interest in cognitive aspects of organizational
functioning, and in occupational communities, which were later
reframed as communities of practice, and in cognitive aspects of
organizational functioning. These are the matters that she still
pursues. One of the recent proofs is to be found in the special 2007
issue of Organization, under the title "The passion for
knowledge and learning", edited with Davide Nicolini and Antonio
Strati; and in the earlier volume, Knowing in Organizations: A
Practice-Based Approach, edited with Davide Nicolini and Dvora
Yanow in 2003.
Third, the book mentioned organizational cultures, a topic that
Silvia developed further in a 1995 book, which was an epiphany for
many of us: Gender, Symbolism and Organizational Cultures. By
then we had all read North American feminists with great interest,
but with a feeling that not everything was directly relevant to our
problems. Silvia brought it to light: gender discrimination, and
gendering in general, can take different shapes in different places,
and there are cultural aspects to feminism that must be acknowledged.
It's impossible on this occasion present the entire impressive
body of work authored by Silvia Gherardi: there are 150 positions
listed in her CV, and her 2005 book with Attila Bruni and Barbara
Poggio, Gender and Entrepreneurship: An Ethnographic Approach
exists even as an electronic book. Yet there is one topic that runs
through all her works: the topic of symbolism. Her favorite authors
are Carl Jung and William Blake. Deep at heart, Silvia is an
alchemist. Thus, the magic forces need to be evoked once more in my
speech.
Research and publishing are only two of several occupations to
which Silvia dedicates herself. At home in Trento, where she holds
the Chair of Sociology of Work and Organization, she is actively
running an ambitious and dynamic research group called RUCOLA.
RUCOLA means rocket salad, but it also stands for Research Unit on
Communication, Organisational Learning and Aesthetics. Silvia
coordinates it with her life partner, co-author and collaborator
Antonio Strati, who is another constant topic in her life. RUCOLA is
an unusual group in the Italian context: it assembles senior and
junior researchers working together, it is interdisciplinary, and it
is highly productive – in the sense of producing research degrees
and in the sense of producing publications in both Italian and
English. Without checking the list of participants, I am completely
convinced that if not all, then surely most of the present and many
of the past RUCOLA members are here today. The members of RUCOLA
have just begun a three-year European project on gender segregation,
and this is the second Equal project in which Silvia has
participated.
But you are not to think that Silvia stays at home: she also
finds time and energy to tour various academic institutions in many
European and non-European countries, presenting her research and her
thinking. I should add that my boss, Rolf Solli, claims that in his
entire career, no presentation has ever made an impression on him
such as the one Silvia gave at our School. He even admits that he
has a difficult time remembering the main message, so taken was he
with Silvia’s art of presentation.
Her talents are recognized far beyond our School. In September
2005 she received the degree of Doctor honoris causa from the
Department of Social Sciences at Roskilde University. Silvia Gherardi is the first
professor in the Faculty of Sociology in Trento to receive this
degree from another university.
And last but not least – that is the last accomplishment of
Silvia's I'm going to talk about, not the last of her
accomplishments – Silvia has been, and is, a talented, dedicated,
and effective organizer of international cooperation. She organizes
conferences and workshops in Trento, was active in the creation and
maintenance of SCOS, and recently helped to create the Standing Work
Group on Practice-Based Studies of Knowledge and Innovation in
the Workplace, which she convened at the EGOS 2007 conference.
The group is also organizing doctoral schools, and Silvia is engaged
in this activity. What is more, she was the first female chairperson
elected to EGOS in 1997, and held this position until 2000. Now,
Arndt Sorge was kind enough to share with me the backstage of this
event. In his words:
"In 1990, I was collecting authors for articles in the
International Encyclopedia of Business and Management. I had
to organise the writing, reviewing, and improvement of nearly 30
articles for the Organisation Behaviour section of the
encyclopedia. Silvia was the only author who submitted a draft
that was acceptable without any correction, even within the time
specified. I was so impressed that I awarded her my personal
prize for the best performance in the series, at my own cost,
which was a meal for her and Antonio. That memory stuck with me.
[…] The next thing is that in 1997, when we were compiling a
proposal for the composition of the new EGOS Board at Budapest,
the following thing happened. We developed a proposal that did
not have any woman on the list. Silvia had heard about this
proposal being in the pipeline, and on the riverboat on which
the EGOS festivity took place in Budapest, Silvia said to me
that if this was going to happen, there was going to be trouble
at the EGOS assembly. Aghast at our mistake; food plate and beer
glass in my hand, I went to the upper deck to find Georg
Schreyögg and tell him about this. He then asked who I proposed
to rectify the blunder. I said Silvia should be proposed,
because I had been impressed by her reliable writing performance.
The other board members were also briefly consulted, and the
proposal was changed. […] The lesson for the presence of females
in prominent academic jobs is clear. You do need to talk to the
right people at parties, and if things go well, this helps to
activate sound comparative judgment of performance even in
chauvinist males."
I am grateful to Arndt for sharing with us his recollections, but
let me add that my memory tells me something slightly different –
namely, that it was we, the women present at the conference and on
the boat, who had suggested Silvia's name after a meeting that we
held. But as you know, stories of the past always differ, and the
important point is that we did have our Silvia in that critical
position. EGOS dates back to 1973, but we had first female track
conveners only in 1993, and the first female chair in 1997. As
Sigrid Quack became the chair in 2006, perhaps things are getting
better, however slowly…
But let us make no mistake; it is not for her gender that Silvia
Gherardi is to become an Honorary Member of EGOS. Silvia is the
heart of EGOS: an exemplary scholar, a dedicated community builder,
and a role model for young people. She has a passion for knowledge
and learning, which she shares generously with others. I am proud of
her accomplishments, proud of her academic generosity, proud to be
her friend. Just as EGOS, I have no doubt, is proud of its new
Honorary Member. |
