Abstract

To explore visibility in organizations, this chapter takes a phenomenological approach, attending to the lived experience of visibility at work. Phenomenology aims to investigate the conditions of the appearance of phenomena and therefore what is taken as reality. In particular, it tries to reveal the difference between what appears and how something appears or becomes visible as something, as well as the interplay between these two modes. It also considers the invisible in this process. Following a phenomenological perspective, this chapter discusses specifically the status, distinct qualities and entwinement of visuality and the invisible in organizational life-worlds and how they function together as sources of perceiving, knowing, performing and understanding in and about organizations.