Status Degradation and Organizational Succession: An Ethnomethodological Approach

Previous research on organizational succession is reviewed briefly and the limitations are summarized. An ethnomethodological approach is then developed as a means of enriching theories of succession by focusing on the richness and complexity of actual succession events. The usefulness of the ethnomethodological approach is illustrated by examining a detailed account of the first occurrence of succession in an emerging social organization, where succession took the form of status degradation. An analysis of succession events is proposed which 1) views the emerging organization as a linguistic construction that members used as a resource in accomplishing succession, 2) subsumes and explains members' activities, practical concerns, and conversational utterances, and 3) conceives of succession as an event accomplished through situated activity, ritual forms, and the social construction of an enforceable organizational reality. Finally, a grounded, low-order, substantive model of succession is constructed. Directions for future elaboration of the model are proposed, and the general usefulness of an ethnomethodological approach to understanding organizational phenomena is indicated.