Organization-driven research: how anticipated reputational risk shapes organizational influence on knowledge production in sensitive organizational research

Description

Kärgel argued in 2026 how organisations shape research on sensitive topics from the inside. Studying destructive obedience at work, she drew on sixty-four interviews and fieldnotes across police, military, and hospital settings in German-speaking countries. Standard accounts treat gatekeepers as outside hurdles to access. She instead defines organisation-driven research: organisations actively shape and delimit the whole study.

Three such routes emerged from her material. First, they control access and what is shared, through strategic gatekeeping and choosing who joins. Second, they control how the topic is framed, stripping its politics and favouring some readings over others. Third, they reach into research design itself. These controls operate together, not as lone obstacles. The author argues method textbooks understate this shaping power. The paper targets researchers planning studies inside powerful bodies.

Catalog record

Source: https://europepmc.org/article/MED/PMC13472908