human relations 1–23 © The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0018726716654745 hum.sagepub.com human relations Re-situating organizational knowledge: Violence, intersectionality and the privilege of partial perspective Kate Lockwood Harris University of Minnesota, USA Abstract Scholars have called repeatedly for more nuanced understandings of power and organizational knowledge, but researchers have yet to integrate available critical frameworks that could link these concepts. Moreover, existing analyses of power in organizational knowledge tend to focus on role differences but do not yet consider how social differences – including gender, race and sexuality – shape knowledge. Working from a practice-based approach, I draw upon standpoint theory and intersectionality to show how whiteness, masculinity and heteronormativity are embedded in organizational knowledge. I construct this argument using a case study at a US university known for having some of the best systems for building organizational knowledge about sexual violence on campus. I argue that the university’s practices – specifically those related to interpretation and definition – mask heterogeneity in knowledge across the university. I also show how practices give the university’s knowledge the appearance of neutrality and, subsequently, can unintentionally defer important organizational actions. Keywords critical organizational studies, intersectionality, organizational knowledge, power, practice, rape, sexual violence, situated knowledge, standpoint theory, Title IX Organizational knowledge is sometimes discussed as if it is neutral and homogenous among social groups (Contu and Willmott, 2003; Kuhn and Jackson, 2008). Yet schol- ars consistently show that most organizational phenomena are neither neutral nor Corresponding author: Kate Lockwood Harris, Department of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota, 225 Ford Hall, 224 Church St SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. Email: kharris@umn.edu 654745HUM 0 0 10.1177/0018726716654745Human RelationsHarris research-article 2016 by guest on August 8, 2016 hum.sagepub.com Downloaded from