Invisible value : how peripheral functions display their worth using narrative action

Abstract

Within organizations, "core" functions directly contribute to organizational production, whereas "peripheral" functions offer support by maintaining key infrastructure. Commonly viewed as indirect contributors or even adversaries to value, peripheral functions operate from positions of low authority and status, struggling to achieve their mandates and to build relationships that enable them to deliver optimal value to organizations. I argue that the peripheral status of these functions stems from a biased valuation process, in which compliance work, often negatively valued, is highly visible, whereas work inherently valuable to organizational pursuits is less visible. Building on an ethnographic study of peripheral Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) professionals in a university setting, this paper shows how these workers, recognizing that existing narratives undervalued their contributions, enacted their own narratives to address the visibility issues inherent in the valuation process. In doing so, these workers achieved higher status and more functional relationships with core workers. Specifically, EHS professionals first minimized the visibility of disruptions due to compliance, thereby building relationships of client service. Second, EHS professionals made visible inherent connections between their work and core organizational goals, thereby breaking down barriers between peripheral and core work, and building partnerships with core workers.