'Open kitchen and open plan office: theatres of frontstage performance accountability', a seminar by Professor Lee Parker (Glasgow)

Open kitchen and open plan office: theatres of frontstage performance accountability

Presented by Professor Lee Parker

Abstract

As key organisational units, open plan offices and restaurant and hotel open kitchens represent contemporary organisational spaces that exhibit unique backstage and frontstage performance features which share similar performance management and accountability challenges. These extend from operational to financial performance accountability at both group and individual levels. Employing the theoretical perspectives of Goffman’s public performance and impression management, as well as the theory of accountability through action, this study investigates how formerly backstage activities are translated into frontstage performance and related accountability in these settings. The study draws on multidisciplinary empirical and theoretical research literatures relating to design and management of open plan and Activity Based Working offices and hospitality industry open kitchen restaurants.  It reveals that such open designs condition an interactive culture amongst multiple participant groups including their co-creating of accountabilities at individual levels. This approach to office and kitchen design influences participants’ expectations, experiences, satisfaction and performance related behaviours with required performance accountabilities expanding beyond traditional financial metrics to include accountability for how operations are conducted at the staff and client/customer interface. Such visible operational environments suggest the opportunity for expanding our attention to performance accountability within organisations to include broadening performance accountabilities that include interpersonal processual actions and relationships as proactive contributors to both performance delivery and its longer term consequences. 

About the speaker

Professor Parker is Research Professor of Accounting at the University of Glasgow. His previous academic posts include the Universities of Glasgow, Dundee, Monash, Griffith, Flinders, Adelaide, South Australia, Royal Holloway University of London, RMIT University Melbourne, honorary professorship at the University of St Andrews, and visiting professorships in the USA, UK, Australasia, Asia and the Middle East.

His research has been published in over 250 articles and books on management and accounting, with a Google Scholar H score of 74 and cited in over 22,000 publications. Scopus SkiVal lists him as one of the highest published scholars in the accounting discipline globally. He is joint founding editor of the globally leading interdisciplinary research journal Accounting Auditing & Accountability Journal (AAAJ) and serves on over 20 journal editorial boards internationally.