Contents and AbstractsIntroduction: Introduction: The Plan chapter abstract
This chapter sets out the case for studying secrecy in organizations including providing definitions of key terms and differentiating secrecy from related concepts such as anonymity, taboo and privacy. Secrecy is distinguished from secrets in terms of process versus content, with the focus of the book being on the process of secrecy. Core arguments are introduced, including the idea that secrecy is about both concealing and sharing information, and that secrecy and openness are not to be treated as opposites. The ethical stance of the book is explained as well as the cultural and emotional richness of secrecy. The idea of secrecy as a hidden architecture of organizational life is introduced and there is an explanation of the empirical studies referred to in the book.
1Laying the Theoretical Foundations chapter abstract
This chapter traces how secrecy appears in theoretical writings in the social sciences and particularly in the works of Max Weber, Georg Simmel, Erving Goffman, Elias Canetti, Michael Taussig and others. This allows the development of a theoretical and conceptual vocabulary that we bring together as seven foundations to guide the subsequent analysis. Informational and social approaches to organizational secrecy are differentiated, and it is shown that by taking a social approach it is possible and necessary to consider how secrecy creates in and out groups and corresponding identities. This approach also shows that things that are kept secret are not necessarily valuable but that, by being kept secret, they come to acquire a value. Secrecy also creates vulnerabilities, since secrets are always in danger of being revealed.
2Bricks and Mortar: From Organizing Secrecy to Secrecy as Organizing chapter abstract
This chapter takes the concepts developed in the previous chapter and deploys them to explain how secrecy is not just something that organizations habitually engage in, but also can be seen as something which is a way of organizing. To do this, the chapter draws upon fragmented discussions of secrecy within classic, if now sometimes forgotten or neglected, texts within organization studies by, among others, Edgar Schein, Melville Dalton, Robert Jackall, Chris Argyris, Michel Crozier and Wilbert Moore. From these it is shown that secrecy can interact with the structures of an organization and specifically the formal and informal hierarchies in different ways. The classic texts also point out how secrecy may spur the attribution and sense of privilege, superiority, status, exclusivity and independence.
3Walls and Corridors: Organizing Formal Secrecy chapter abstract
This chapter tackles formal secrecy, showing how rational-legal processes of law, regulation and surveillance construct organizational boundaries around secret knowledge as well as rules for sharing this knowledge within organizations. The kinds of secrets with which this chapter is especially concerned are trade secrets and military and intelligence secrets, with examples drawn from a large variety of historical and present-day cases. Walls and corridors are taken as the principle metaphor to connote how formal boundaries both make barriers and define paths of communication for secrets. But it is also explained how these processes have an irrational and paradoxical nature, so that formal organizational secrecy does not occur on the basis of clear principles or by reason of functional necessity.
4Open and Closed Doors: Organizing Informal and Public Secrecy chapter abstract
This chapter considers informal and public secrecy. Here the processes involved are based on trust and norms, rather than law, and have ramifications for many organizational phenomena including groups, cliques, decision-making, politicking and leadership. Rumour and gossip are also discussed as ways through which secrets are shared within organizations. The case of public secrecy poses particular complexities since it relates to the paradoxical situation in which secrets both known and not-known. In this chapter it is again stressed that secrecy involved both concealing and sharing knowledge and this is denoted through the metaphor of open and closed doors. Empirical examples are drawn from a wide variety of sources, including academic studies of professional services firms and the well-known case of the Wikileaks disclosures.
5The Hidden Architecture of Organizational Life chapter abstract
This chapter brings together the main lines of analysis to explicate the metaphor of secrecy as a hidden architecture of organizational life, that is, how secrecy can construct the social order of organizations. The focus is on how secrecy can create and be created by organizations, in terms of the epistemic compartmentalization, or boundaries, and cabling, or connections, it involves, and also how it brings to life particular organizational experiences. The metaphor expresses how secrecy enacts a kind of joining together of what might normally be thought of as quite different domains: the inside and outside; the structural and the experiential. There is a review of the different kinds of architectural styles which might be metaphorically associated with organizational secrecy.
Conclusion: Conclusion: Finishing Touches chapter abstract
This chapter puts forward a series of claims as to why the arguments in this book are important for the study of organizations. The aim is to show how this is not just a matter of studying secrecy per se, but is necessary for studying organizations at all, and is presented not so much as a new approach but as re-connecting with a classic vein of organizational analysis. By regulating what is said and not said, by and to whom, secrecy organizes social relations. At the same time as it brings about organizational structures and cultures, secrecy is embedded in them. Rather than constituting a singular phenomenon that an organization does or does not exhibit, secrecy is deeply interwoven into the very social fabric that knits together organizations in the first place. The methodological issues of empirically researching organizational secrecy are addressed, and also debates about secrecy and transparency.
