Toward a Bourdieusian Perspective on the Tribe and Organisations

ABSTRACT

The article aims to contribute to the under-developed research on pro-tribal behavior in organizations, by building on existing studies that focus either on economic or non-economic motivations and drivers of pro-tribal behavior at either individual, organizational, or societal levels of analysis. Drawing on Bourdieu’s social practice theory, we show how a multiplicity of drivers and motivations for pro-tribal behavior in the organization could emerge, interrelate and evolve by offering a new perspective that account for the interplay between economic and non-economic motivations; agency and structurally constrained aspects of human action; and the multiple levels of influences on pro-tribal behavior that extant studies have yet to fully explicate.

KEYWORDS:

• Bourdieu
• pro-tribal behavior
• tribe
• ethnicity
• practice theory
• nepotism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).