Talking About Organizations Podcast 132: AoM Special (Part 1) -- Multimodal Impact: Translating Academic Knowledge via Contextual, Collaborative, and Collectivist Modes
Dec 10, 2025
Malia Cavaglio, an organization scholar exploring embodiment in workplace practices. Stefan Manning, a researcher using film and impact storytelling to bring research to publics. Ann Muller, a sociologist studying deliberation and frontline professional decision-making. Akshay Mangla, an academic who co-designs SOPs with police to improve women's safety. They discuss SOP design and piloting, deliberative workshops, film-driven impact campaigns, and embodiment as translation.
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Written Guidelines Bridge Hierarchies In Police Work
- Written guidelines act as a translation bridge across hierarchical police structures and make practices legible in postcolonial bureaucracies.
- Akshay Mangla co-designed SOPs with Indian police, used pilot RCTs and station-level training to align written rules with frontline realities.
Pair SOPs With Peer Deliberation
- Combine documents with facilitated discussion so officers can surface exceptions and adapt procedures horizontally.
- Mangla found trainings became peer spaces where stations shared workable solutions, not just top-down instruction.
Documentation Can Backfire Without Resource Fit
- Written rules can increase administrative burden and lose credibility when disconnected from resource constraints.
- Officers resisted SOPs framed as "superhero" tasks without matching capacity, creating uptake limits.