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A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.
Research Study for Organizational Treatise on the Golden Age of Piracy and Its Virtual Implications
ABSTRACT The aim of this study is analyzing the Golden Age of Piracy and examining its characteristics in order to gain a deeper understanding of organizational reality regarding today's virtual world. In this context, the Golden Age of Piracy and pirate organizations are examined from a historical point of view. The genuine and successful organizing form of piracy in a complex environmental system is a special approach in dealing with the dualistic form of an authoritarian-democratic structure. Furthermore, diversity management in such an organization and the existence of unique organizational contracts enabling the distinctive characteristics of pirate organizations provided a different insight to the organizational reality of today. Hence, it is stated that characteristics of environment in internet show a striking similarity to the Golden Age of Piracy. Despite the limitations of using a historical metaphor in study of organizational reality, study on the Golden Age of Piracy provides a special interpretation to the interesting features of the organizational structures in the virtual age. Keywords: The Golden Age of Piracy, Pirate Organization, Organizational Environment, Internet, Virtual Organizations 1. INTRODUCTION In the field of organizational studies, seemingly business organizations are the main focus with a performative intent. Other than business organizations, there are many analyses of state and non-governmental organizations with a similar perspective. Such analyses are conducted mostly with a functionalist paradigm (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). On the contrast, there are a few numbers of studies of marginal organizations such as mafia (Parker, 2008), pirate organizations (Land, 2007; Parker, 2009a), circuses (Parker, 2011a), cowboys (Parker, 2011b) and heavenly hierarchy (Parker, 2009b). Studies of marginal organizations are criticized as having problems in empirical methodology, or some even challenge them saying that they are esoteric studies (Alvesson, 2008). But it has to be seen that the analyses of marginal organizations provides an understanding of a different model of organizational efficacy. Especially the illegal organizations' efficacy is interesting because when they fail, the result is imminent death of the members (Wallek, 1995). Because of this, marginal organizations are ruled under the iron fist of power, but interestingly this iron fist rule have surprising autonomic touches and radical management approaches in it. Sadly, the managerial processes, rules and applications in these kinds of illegal organizations are not given enough importance in the literature (Leeson, 2007; Parker, 2008). But there is much to learn from the organizing principles of marginal organizations. Marginal organization examinations are not only limited to contemporary organizations. Also the organizations of the past can be examined, so that we can anticipate the future of organizations in order to think and change the open future (Parker, 2010). Furthermore, the analysis of marginal organizations is an enriching experience because they have distinctive structures and they existed at different times. Sometimes an insight gained from past can also give a new understanding of what is to be or what can it be. Studies on metaphors (Cornelissen et al, 2008; Morgan, 1980) and studies using historical perspective (Jacques, 2006; Puchala, 2005; Üsdiken & Kieser, 2004) provided a special perspective on understanding of the organizational reality. This study aims to provide an alternative view by using the understanding that is gained from examining a marginal organization; pirate organizations in the Golden Age of Piracy. There have been studies on the subject (Özmen and Çakar, 2006, Land, 2007, Leeson, 2007, Parker, 2009a, Puchala, 2005) but there is a tendency towards a popular understanding of their nature (Morgan, 2005; Snelders, 2005). In this study, the pirate organizations in the Golden Age of Piracy will be analyzed. Their marginal organization characteristics will be the main scope. We won't look at these organizations to see them as a metaphor of today's managerial approaches; we will look at the factors that made them unique. With this intent, we also aim to put contribution to the discussion that took place in this journal byLand (2007) and by Parker (2009a). Acknowledging their arguments, we want to set the direction towards today and future of the internet as a possible new golden age. That is one of the main contribution that article stands upon, which wil l be mentioned following the discussion regarding piracy. Before beginning the examination of the pirate organizations of the Golden Age of Piracy, we also need to explain the ethical positioning of this study. It is impossible to ignore that pirates are bandits that harmed other people intentionally and they did for their self-interests. No matter how romantic they may sound in stories and even in history (Parker, 2009a), pirates are a group of evil individuals forming evil organizations that harmed people. So, this study is different than former studies on the subject due to its ethical positioning as well as there won't be an idealization of their romantic pirate image. Pirates were not a bunch of freedom fighters; they were illegal people who faced a world where sky was the limit. Whatever we attribute to their possible romanticism is tied to conception of today's global but limited world that doesn't offer horizons of new lands to explore. Keeping a vigilant eye on the unethical nature of pirate organizations, this study aims to analyze organizing principles by focusing on the period of Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1730) (Land, 2007:171; Leeson, 2007: 1053). We believe this period is showing some similarities to current reality and provides alternative realities that can provide us insights for the future. During that period there was a significantly unsteady environment where the new frontiers were continuously being discovered. And pirates formed a very effective type of organizing and became an important factor in the entire oceans. They
also benefited greatly from the power plays between the great powers of that time. Golden Age of Piracy deserves to be analyzed, due to the unique organizational achievements that were performed in a complex and interesting environment. Ever since the early periods of history, there had been piracy activities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (Federzoni, 1936, Puchala, 2005: 3-4) Due to their actions' local characteristics and limitedness of the activity space that piracy activities will not be analyzed in this study. Pirates during the period of golden age between the years 1650-1730 formed new organizing structures in an environment where the borders were expanding in every direction. Piracy activities which took place in other periods did not occur in such a chaotic environment. Golden Age piracy has spread from Caribbean, Latin America to Africa, oceans of the world became infested with the pirate activity (Smith, 1996: 30). It spread so far that some parts of the terra incognita was covered by pirates. This unique nature of the period makes the analysis of pirate organizations of the golden age invaluable for a fresh look at today's organizational reality in the world of internet. In order to avoid subjective evaluation, we will concentrate more on the events of the period and environmental conditions. For all these purposes, we shall begin this marginal organization study by defining the "pirate". 2. WHO IS A PIRATE? Piracy is defined as "an act of robbery on the high seas", and pirate is defined as the "one who commits or practices piracy" (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The dictionary of the pirates (Rogozinski, 1997) defines the pirate as a seaman robbing the other seamen. The challenging part of pirate identity is their function in their ships and the pirate ships or even small armadas consisting of pirate ships. Because the organization skills needed for such an endeavor is beyond a definition of a simple robber. Pirate ships consisted of deviant members of the society that had a tendency of using criminal ways to acquire their needs and wants. And these organizations consisting of deviant individuals were aiming to survive and prosper by preying on the ships of anyone they can rob. In addition to this basic and functional definition of the pirate, there is also a popular image of pirates in the common psyche of the people. In this study, we tried to reach a clearer and more historically accurate pirate persona, by ignoring the popular cultural pirate image as much as possible. The pirate image in the western literature is created by romantic imaginations of the authors. At first they were a symbol of adventure, and people were so curious about them. Their stories got exaggerated by the attention of the people. But as time passed further into the industrial age, they began to be seen as part of romantic relic of the past, and people began to look at them with more sympathy (Parker, 2009a). Popular culture has created a pirate reality which was actually different than the reality. This can also be seen in the studies that are affected by the popular culture image of the pirates. These studies consider piracy out of its own context and the characteristics of the Golden Age of Piracy. In these studies, pirate is mentioned as an ideal figure or as a hero and the pirate reality is re-shaped for the sake of managerial approaches marketed by the authors (e.g. Morgan, 2005). There are also studies that are taking pirates as part of a critical approach to the present zeitgeist. These studies are conducted connecting the golden age to present and idealizing the organizing forms of the pirates whilst suggesting an alternative and radical organizing model (Land, 2007; Snelders, 2005). For instance, Rediker (2004) mentioned pirates as democrats of the open seas (McLynn, 2004). Pirates are represented as liberal minded, collective, antiauthoritarian, egalitarian public heroes (Pritchard, 2005). In such studies pirates are idealized. Such an approach has unrealistic characteristics as well as it is against the ethical positioning of this study. We have to emphasize the main characteristics of the pirates - they were a bunch of criminals who robbed people, and didn't hesitate to kill if they had to, or even in many cases because they liked to do so. In order to reach a less romantic but more realistic image of the pirates, we need to assess the environmental conditions of the period. 2.1 Organizational Environment in The Golden Age Of Piracy Ever since the beginning of the marine activity, piracy activities have been seen. Mediterranean piracy of the ancient times, piracy activities in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean pirates of the Ottoman times are good examples of these. So, it will be better to mention the idiosyncratic characteristics of the organizational environment of the Golden Age of Piracy. When we look at the period called the golden age of the piracy (1650-1730), we see a new group of pirate organizations began to be form in the brave new world of exploration and conquest. This world's main focus was the colonial domination of the globe, firstly centered on the sphere of Latin America and Africa then its reach has widened beyond the known horizons. In this period the transfer of resources from America to Europe was in a considerable amount. And this activities were not done by a monolithic structure of colonial power, there was many great powers struggling with each other in order to control more colonial field. So piracy emerged as a different organizing model that fills in the every gap it can find in this system. At that time, while the Portuguese and the Spanish impact colonial powers were slowly dwindling, the English, the Dutch and the French were struggling to increase their powers in the oceans (Braudel, 1982; Brummet et al, 2000; Kennedy, 2001; Lunsford, 2005). The diversity in the characteristics of great powers and the struggles among them were creating opportunities for pirates to flourish. Portuguese and Spanish was trying to protect their position against aggressive expansion of the British, the Dutch and the French. Many alliances and deals were done in the process, and these activities were increasing the environmental complexity drastically. Furthermore, the possibility of rapid changes among these alliances and hostilities between them were raising the
environmental dynamism. In such a complex environment, there was a great marine transfer of considerable amount of resources from the recently discovered lands or new colonies. This transfer served as a breeding ground for pirate organizations. Environmental richness of the situation was feeding the piracy activities to the extent that was never seen before in history. In such a context, there was little distinction among merchant ships, military ships and pirates as in many cases merchant ships and military ships have committed piracy when they found a chance. With an organizational perspective, we can see that ostensible limitless boundaries of the environment have great effect on pirate activities. This organizational environment covered a variety of places from Atlantic Ocean to Indian Ocean, such as Port Royal in Jamaica, Tortuga (Haiti and Dominic Republic today) or Madagascar (Little, 2005: 77). In this big geography, pirates were not only plundering the wealth of the victims, they were also selling victims as slaves or getting ransom for them (Puchala, 2005: 3). The wide scope of the activities in such an environment caused pirates to be sucked into the power plays of great powers for the domination of the specific regions and the trade routes. In this period of struggle, pirate organizations were showing considerable adaptation skills. Their flexible organizing style made pirate communities the basic organizational structure of the period. Golden age pirate organizations were so effective that between the years of 1655-1680 countless villages and twenty-two larger towns were plundered while they robbed hundreds of trade ships (Rogozinski, 1997). When we look at the development process of pirate organizing we also see the main principles of population ecology theory. According to population ecology theory, environment has an effect on organizational communities or on an organizational form rather than an individual organization. Adaptation of the organizational community to its environment depends upon its meeting the expectations or filling the gap of the environment and fitting of the organizational community or organizational form to its environment. This situation is called the rationality of natural selection (Hannan and Freeman, 1977). It is claimed that the selection is realized with the environmental pressures, meaning that as long as the organizational community fits the environmental requirements selection occurs. It is assumed that more effective organizational communities have much more survival rate than the less effective ones. Furthermore, the organizational community may maintain its survival on the basis of the resources provided by the environment and how these resources are used by the community (Aldrich, 1979). Additionally, for the existence of an organizational community there should not be any barriers among the members' interaction with each other whilst members are being exposed to the same institutional effects. The golden age of the piracy is a perfect match to show all these selection processes explained in the theory. The global political lacuna where the piracy grew was a fertile ground for such a fit between the organizational community and the environment. Hence, especially in the earlier period of this lacuna, a boom in pirate organizations was observed. In the dependent resource pool, especially the high amount of richness of the recently discovered lands transferred by Portugal and Spain was a reinforcing motivator of the organizational activity. In this context, many pirate communities were being formed and they were being effective in the open seas with the management of the successful captains and therefore growing. Capturing of nearly four hundred ships by the notorious pirate Black Bart is a noteworthy example for the effectiveness of such an organizations (Cordingly, 1996: 141). Pirates acting in the less successful pirate organizations were either killed by the navy or they entered more successful pirate organizations. During that period, change was incredibly rapid in the sense of organizing. The change in the environmental factors had a direct impact on the pirates. This situation might be considered as a cyclic process. As long as the sovereign powers are felt the piracy was getting less and when the sovereign powers could not reach any region, pirate organizations immediately began benefiting from the gaps (Puchala, 2005: 2). This cyclic process might be considered also as the dialectic of the order and the chaos; so long as there was a power for the order the environmental complexity was low, and as soon as there was a gap, chaotic forces accelerates environmental complexity to its limits. Again in the scope of this cyclic process, the Golden Age of Piracy ended primarily owing to renovation of the navy and the standing army with the support of technological changes in Britain. These improvements were directly affected by the rise of economic powers at the dawn of industrial age. Beginning with the mid 18th century, particularly Britain became a sovereign power in the open seas against pirates as pirates had been a threat for the economic power of the British. In addition to effect of industrial revolution and the superior power of the British navy, colonies beginning to get settled and their becoming more than a wild frontier enabled the change in the situation (Puchala, 2005; Smith, 1996). In the following period, even though the piracy was continued, it became a marginal activity performed by the limited amount of criminals (Sherry, 2008: 355). The changing organizational environment made golden age pirate organization style impossible. Although piracy was maintained in different places and at different times, it has never been as effective as in the Golden Age of Piracy. Golden age pirates had a very intense organizational interaction that made them much different than the other periods, because they could have organizational interaction that could happen regardless of the width of their environments. When the crews of the pirate ships were analyzed, it is seen remarkably in the trial documents that many pirates were also formerly active in the other pirate communities (Cordingly, 1996: 364-281). Crews from the different pirate communities were coming together in several ports such as Bahamas or Port Royal. These ports had been a meeting place for the pirates for a long time. That made the information exchange among them possible. This information traffic among pirates having origins from different regions and beliefs was possible due to the similarities of the pirates' managing rules and in-group agreements. The black flags were embraced with personal differences by the pirates. And it is certain that the common characteristics of the
laws of the captains and formation of the fleets for chasing large amounts of booties couldn't be possible without such an interaction. In this period, there were some main meeting points for the pirates. Tortuga (Haiti and Dominic today), Nassau (Bahamas today) and some parts of Madagascar were considered as the towns of the pirates (Parker, 2009a: 177; Smith, 1996: 33). Such towns were havens for the pirates and in addition to supplying, the maintenance and the repair of the ships were done in these places. Besides; these harborages were suitable for recruitment for the crew, gaining recent information, hiding from their pursuers and most importantly they offered an opportunity for selling and exchanging plundered goods (Puchala, 2005: 6-7). These towns were shared by many different pirate communities, and some of the leading pirates were forming cartels by making deals on the rights of these towns (Smith, 1996: 33). Considering all these interactions, it can be stated that piracy represented a complex system that many agents were involved to the process (Puchala, 2005: 7). Whilst pirates were plundering for themselves, actually, they were getting diverse agents (e.g. trader at the port, smuggler, inn owners, local administrators conniving of the pirates, monarchy getting his share) into an economic cycle (Parker, 2009a: 168). The lacuna in the organizational environment also supported that economical structure of the piracy (Smith, 1996). Great powers of the period had also spectacular effect on this pirate economic system with the usage of "privateer" authorization. At this point, the explanation of privateer concept is crucial for gaining a deeper understanding of the complexity of this system. Privateer was a pirate who was given a privateer license that gave him right to do piracy on behalf of the state. With this license attacking an enemy nation's ships and plundering them, wasn't seen as illegal. More interestingly, a part of the booty had to be saved for the state. Unless the state approved, the pirates could not get their share of the booty. State wasn't only enabling pirate activity, it was benefiting from this activity by all possible means. It can be stated that pirates who had privateer license made a significant level of plundering and became an important element among the naval activities of the European states. Hence, many captains might be privateers of separate powers by changing multiple sides (Little, 2005: 17). After the golden age of the piracy, privateer activities were professionally maintained by the seamen whom many of them were not pirates (Konstam, 2001). It is seen that the British were protecting and supporting the pirates by giving privateer licenses for decreasing the Spanish power in the Golden Age of Piracy. As you can see above there was a great deal of complexity in the environment and political ambiguities directly affected pirates. The dynamic and unique structure of the pirate organizations in the time of Golden Age of Piracy was a natural result of these complex environmental forces. Now we have to see these pirate organizations in depth to understand the uniqueness of their structures. 2.2 Pirate Organizations In order to cover pirate organizing, it is crucial to mention what kind of characteristics pirates have and what sort of values they believe in. The roots of such factors are related to the maritime customs of that period. Even though the elements of these customs became radicalized or marginalized, they did not lose their influential origins. Considering the period of the study, the seaman culture of the time belonged to the men that mostly began working at ships from his early youth till he was either dead or incapable to do sailor tasks. Therefore, seamanship was considered as a sort of craftsmanship learned in time. In order to maintain that craftsmanship the men needed to be away from the land for months or even for years. Therefore, seamen developed a culture strictly tied to each other in their own seamen community. Their intimate and close relationship on the sea was considered much more superior than the one on the land. It was a sort of brotherhood since in a ship a man could have many difficulties and everybody needed each other in order to cope with these difficulties (Rogozinski, 1997). Accordingly, the people on land were perceived as totally different group of people that for many times they were seen as simple folk or lowly peasants by the seamen due to this separation of the land and the sea. As seamen were distinguished by the nature of their sea life from the land dwellers, pirates were also distinguished dramatically by their criminal intent compared to the ordinary seamen. Piracy meant to risk their lives by choosing a criminal life on purpose. They chose piracy to escape tough work conditions of the time (Smith, 1996). The pressure created by the very hard working conditions in the trade ships and especially in the navies at that time derives as a substantial factor. Either in the navy or in the trade ships the wages were considerably low, even when it was paid it was given as debit / balance. The death was the continuous danger at any time at anywhere for an ordinary seaman, such that after an ordinary expedition the amount of the people coming back might be considerably low. For instance, at the slave trade ships the one-fourth of the seamen could not come back after an expedition (Land, 2007: 174; Leeson, 2007: 1059). This situation was worse in the navies. Due to difficulty of the conditions the criminals were forced to work, even sometimes people were kidnapped to make them crew in the navies. In such tough circumstances, captain of the ship and the officers were living in separate conditions as the masters of the crew and controlling them with the whips. In addition to these; many reasons made employment conditions unacceptable such as the limited food given, scorbutic disease, easily spread of contagious illnesses due to crowded and narrow working and living spaces. Many members of the crew, as they were stuck in open seas and having had not possibility to escape, had a rebellion mood keeping their hate against not only to the captain and his authority, but also to any kind of authority (Sherry, 2008: 51). In such a context, a seaman became a pirate in three ways; 1. By rebelling against the captain and then by getting control whilst working in a ship as a seaman. 2. By joining to the pirates voluntarily as a seaman having worked in a seized ship. 3. By joining to the ships at the pirate ports and towns.
In case of being a pirate, the gains from a plunder was astronomically higher that amount than the lawful gains of an ordinary seaman. Pirates might earn nearly a hundred times of the annual wage of an ordinary crew with just one plunder (Leeson, 2007: 1077-1078). The pirates were paying the price for such a high income by breaking themselves off the social life. Whilst the other seamen's ships could visit or stop over other ports, the pirate ships could go to just allowed ports, hence the only communication with the normal life was via the battles. Otherwise, they were caught and executed immediately. That situation forced the pirates to be introverted as a community and closed to the social environment. Thus, people out of the pirate ships were seen as "others" by the pirates and that situation caused pirates to see them totally different. It was resulting in a tendency to commit any kind of evil to these people without any hesitation. Despite its criminal tendencies, piracy had a kind of anarchic philosophy; it was based on being against any kind of factors forming the prevailing dominant structure and understanding. Against the hierarchy, against the moral understanding and against the policies of the sovereign states criminals created an order for themselves with their way of living. Even when they withhold their ways with things like privateer contracts, they were all just a matter of opportunist steps; the basic nature of pirate activity was not changed. It is clearly seen that this alternative structure had democratic way of organizing in the limits of their circumstances. Hierarchical layers were nearly none, there was no class difference between the crew and the captain as well as the captain might change sometimes in a bloody way in case the crew was dissatisfied due to failures. Besides, the majority of the crew had the potential to handle nearly any kind of tasks except some very special ones. By giving a sort of judicial power to quartermaster a portion of the power of the captain was lessened. Furthermore, maritime lieutenancy or midshipman positions were not respected or regarded. Yet, in pirate ships men were chosen for the usual tasks that were normally made by warrant and petty officer in the navy or trade ships, meaning there were also functional positions such as boatswain, artilleryman, carpenter and cook (Cordingly, 1996: 129). As pirate crews were against the harsh discipline of that time, they either wanted to join an able captain's crew, or they were electing their captain on the basis of his talents. Except some of the tasks dependent on specialization, there was an egalitarian understanding of task division, and even on the sea these people might overthrow a captain for a new one (Rogozinski, 1997). Captain had absolute power only in times of fighting, chasing or being chased; in all other times and over the issues concerning the crew, the majority of the crew had control. In terms of organizational thought, these aspects demonstrate how the pirates had organic and flexible structure. On the other hand, as the captains of the pirate ships came to the power by passing many competitive and tough processes, they were capable of being strongly authoritarian when they have seen the need. That was making pirate organization much more complex. We see a criminal organization having some faces of democracy depending on rejection of order at one hand, and the same criminal organization could allow full authority to captain at the other hand. All these variations could be possible because of their opportunistic aim of plundering more wealth. Particularly, as mentioned above, in the chase for booty or in war, the authority of the captain was complete and without a question. But, according to the consequences of the events, captain might lose his position so suddenly and mostly pays this change with his own life. The pirates were acting entirely like a wolf-pack. As long as the dominant individual had the power, there was full obedience, and otherwise in the sign of his weakness this person might not even live. It was impossible to have such a perspective in the navy of that time, as they had a well defined rank and file structure. Such a criminal structuring was completely opposite to militaristic view of that time, because the naval structure depended on the characteristics of autocracy, full loyalty to the admiral and obedience to commands as a principle. In the merchant ships, even if the captain didn't have the full death and life powers like the navy captains, the authority of the captain was absolute, any kind of challenge to authority was impossible to think of. In order to redefine the rules of the game in such a time of chaos and turmoil, pirates formed their own way to deal with the dualistic nature of their democratic and authoritarian structure. Pirate organizations formed their own organizational contracts for this purpose. 2.3 The Organizational Contracts of the Pirates Due to their chaotic life styles and their intention to commit a crime, pirate life can be seen as a good example of anomalous life without a future. But when we examine the Golden Age of Piracy, we see that pirate ships were directed with some fundamental principles. These rules were developed to limit the authority of the elected captains, to control and restrict the powers of the quartermaster (Leeson, 2007). These rules were followed like holy commandments and it has bounded everybody in the ships. The crew acted as an authoritarian and decision-making council in the beginning of a journey or when a new captain is elected (Smith, 1996). This council determines a set of articles that have to be signed by each person. These articles reveal how the booty is delivered, compensation amount to be paid to injuries after fights, rules of the ship life (not to be drunk at fight, not to rape woman prisoners, not to bring woman to the ship, and etc.) and the punishments if the rules are broken. Although the existence of a council might seem as a democratic characteristic, suggestions of leaving personally or dissolving the pirate community were considered as fatal offenses (Little, 2005: 38). Whilst the articles might seem dissimilar from ship to ship, as a result of the interaction between pirates, the fundamental approaches and their main structures were alike. Rules followed in a ship of a specific captain could be adapted by other captains, and in time some common rules were widely seen in organizational contracts of pirate organizations. Among these rules, the ones belonging to Black Bart (Barthelomeow Roberts) (Cordingly, 1996: 130-131) are a good representation of the rules of that period; 1. All the important decisions will be given by voting. 2. The person who is stealing from the ship will be marooned.
3. All the weapons and the swords will be kept clean. 4. No women will be on board. 5. The ones escaping the ship in the fight will be killed. All the 6. quarrels of the crew will be resolved on land. 7. The booty will be shared as two shares for the captain and the head of the crew, one and a half shares for the head of the armorer and the boatswain, a quarter shares for the officers and a share for the crew. 8. Injuries will be compensated; for the ones who lose arm or leg will get additional booty share regarding the severe of the injury. After signing such a contract a seaman was considered immediately as a pirate (Land, 2007: 179). These rules helped removing the causes for the failure as well as successful performing of the organization, improving efficiency, preventing cheating and having a fair and just system. Even among some of the rules there were rules about gaining a higher share dependent on individual performance. Particularly, a pirate who demonstrated an outstanding behavior or a significant courage in a fight might be paid more (Leeson, 2007: 1074). Besides, such an additional share given for the injured ones provided a sort of primitive social security. On the other hand, bandits making the rules exhibit the peculiar practical nature of these rules. As shown above, while there are classical rules regarding the conditions of the weapon or stealing, there were futuristic rules based on decision-making by voting, the order in the share system or even additional share for the injured ones. Though there might be differences among the pirate captains, with the mutual interactions of the pirates the practiced rules resembled each other. The physical punishments applied in the navy or trade ships were not included, however they might be given if there is a common decision by the pirate crew. Whilst there were death sentences, the lack of physical punishments as a discipline penalty was a noteworthy expression of the reaction to the prevailing order. Being incapable of going to places where pirates are not welcomed and being executed immediately if caught made pirate organization radicalized. And it reinforced the dictum of piracy rules and pirate life style over the pirates (Cordingly, 1996). The power of the contract has one more interesting aspect since pirate organizational contract was managing to bind a group of criminals with various diverse origins to a complex and illegal organization. In the pirate ship piracy was the only common ground as there might exist British, French, and Dutch people; a range of hunters and smugglers from the Caribbean; Spanish fugitives; African runaway slaves; Native Americans and even in some extreme cases women who normally not accepted in the ships at that time. Such diverse origins and backgrounds of seamen in the pirate ships exhibit a striking pointin the name of diversity management with an organizational perspective. Diversity management (Cox, 1994) was concentrated on managing of differences of the organization members in an efficient way. But for pirates, it was a natural factor at that time. People who could not even speak the same language and having dissimilar cultures were easily coming together in a pirate organization. Because, they required such a structure in order to reach their aim of plunder and richness. The gathering of pirates was not just inside the pirate organization, but also different pirate organizations did come together. For instance, when it is heard Henry Morgan was going to plunder Panama, many other pirates joined him and in the end, thirty-three ships and two thousand of people attacked to Panama. This attack caused great deal of harm to town and its inhabitants. Such co-operations among the pirates show their common aims are much more important than the differences they carry. However, not meeting the expectations of the pirates regarding the plunder caused serious conflicts aftermath. After Panama, the pirates had such conflict among themselves. But it is important to know that as long as there is a common goal, pirate organizations can be formed into a super-structure of pirate group. 3. THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD When we look at the present, the rise of the piracy activities is observed at significant level of affecting international trade on seas. Serious amount of the piracy activity is felt especially around Somali and East Asia. Even though the piracy around the Southeast Asia region (Young & Valencia, 2003) is not observed as much as in the Somali region, prolonging of the piracy draws attention according to the statistics (Bradford, 2007: 190-191; ICC International Maritime Bureau, 2009). Even it is stated that Somalia might be considered as Tortuga of the 21st century (Angeloni, 2009). At the end of 2011, pirates were active again, and the actual figures for the year 2011 were as follows; Table : WORLDWIDE PIRACY INCIDENTS IN 2011 Total Attacks Worldwide 421 Total Hijackings Worldwide 42 Incidents Reported for Somalia Total Incidents 231 Total Hijackings 26 Total Hostages 450 Total Killed 15 Current vessels held by Somali pirates Vessels 10
Hostages 172 Source: International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services, 2011 Both in the land and on the sea the restraining of the pirates are not easy, hence, they can easily get the control of the ships and make negotiations for the ransom. These pirates, significantly distinctive from the ones in the golden age, are using high technology, moving very quick with the fast boats, gaining income mostly via ransoms and not forming a radical social cohesive group living and moving altogether as the pirates in the golden age (Puchala, 2005). Even the density of the piracy activities might seem increasing today, considering that situation as a new Golden Age of Piracy would be an illusion. In a circumstance where the environmental conditions are clarified, today's pirates are formed by moving of the criminals from land to sea, therefore they are noticeably different than the pirates of the golden age. Pirates of the golden age created an idiosyncratic sea life under the shades of the great powers in a period when the borders of the world are not known definitely. Today, the similar conditions of the golden age of the piracy appear in a very different environment apart from the open seas. Internet is providing a new environment whose boundaries are not known, and there are now different great powers such as states and corporations willing to have much more control on this new frontier. For this control, organizations get formed in the internet both for legal and illegal purposes. Their organization styles are generally different than what we have known about organizing. These special times and characteristics have close resemblances to the golden age of the piracy. Simply internet means "web of the webs" and represents a world where the computers are connected to each other via multiple networks in the entire planet. In the limitless world of the internet there is space for any kind of actor either public institutions, or private companies or free individuals. As in the beginning of the golden age, the technical infrastructure provided by the Unites States of America, one of the great powers of today, presents new borders to be opened. With the development of new environmental conditions, in the relatively borderless context that we face, there are countless opportunities for new initiatives. The context is even more ambiguous than the golden age with its various aspects, because, several undefined activity is growing and along with that it is required to determine whether these activities are crime or not. The states are issuing and implementing new laws. However, since there is not an enabled power that might control the present lacuna, internet expands to a limitless field. Netizens acting organized in internet are not affected by the organizational constraints in classical sense. This prevents such activities to become a serious problem . Even though many countries are trying to implement arrangements for prohibiting access to web sites and internet, alternative practicalities are created immediately in order to overcome those arrangements. For each prevention measure there are hundreds of new approaches to bypass them. Furthermore, controlling becomes much more harder due to the very rapid processing and delivering of the electronic data by the computers; connecting of people from various places such as universities, libraries, homes, workplaces; reproduction and download of the materials having intellectual property rights without losing any quality (Hinduja, 2008: 391, Mason, 2008). Briefly, the entire world is connected to each other, and even though there might seem legal regulations exist, any kind of legal and illegal activity can be achieved via internet in the frame of these principles (Cisler 2006; Cooper and Harrison, 2001; Mason, 2008). Via the internet, companies can make several transactions primarily the financial ones, buy and sell any sort of product and service legally or illegally and digitally servable products might be downloaded and shared directly. Wide range of crimes is committed worldwide via the internet (Grabosky, 2007); a synergy comes into existence between the organized crime and the internet (Ksethri, 2005). It is assumed that such internet based crime actions will grow up with the spread of the internet all around the world (Denning, 2001). All these demonstrate how the internet cannot be controlled. Therefore, it is still a serious discussion point what kind of a control mechanism will be administered in the internet (Gigch, 2000). Yet, it is very obvious that many classical crime organizations change into a new form through the internet. People are challenging the companies, the states and even the international organizations whilst making actions against them over internet (Furnell and Warren, 1999; Klein, 2000; Tormey, 2004). Having separate motivations Internet pirates (hackers) also make several various actions by benefiting from the limitlessness of the internet. Generally termed as hackers while some of these people owing to their curiosity target to crack passwords, some of them have the motivation of giving harm to the environment and some others develop new ways of robbing or stealing. However, among these people there is also a special group who might work with some legal institutions and help to the police. Among the aims of these people are to follow the illegal hackers and to bring those to the courts (Barber, 2001). In a very similar vein, a range of anti-virus software firms or companies producing operating systems employ former hackers. Hence, they can control the reliability and safety of the produced software or systems (Roberts and Webber, 2002). Since these hackers, who previously being in different actions in the internet and seem independent, are competent of internet and software technologies, they are used by both the companies and the states with the aim of having and providing safety. This might be considered as one of the reflection of the privateer institution to the present day. In such an environment where the borders are unknown and the control is impossible the former pirate hackers become privateers for the companies and for the states in order to overcome the ambiguity. In some circumstances the aim of the actions of the hackers might be to have a position as a privateer. Furthermore, hackers communicate, share files and information via virtual communities in such a world where the borders are not drawn, even they might have a special hierarchical structure among them (Cooper and Harrison, 2001). Today, in the uncontrollable environment of the internet the political hackers are also growing in order to benefit from the chaotic structure
of the internet. For instance, there is a hackers group called anonymous making actions (hacktivism) against the governments, corporations or even the NATO in order to protest censorship, the bans on internet and support some other social campaigns such as "occupy Wall Street". (The Guardian, 2012; The New York Times, 2010). Even though criminal activity in the virtual world and bad intentioned hackers are acting unethically, there is also a shady border between legality and illegality of virtual environment. Many new concepts became subjects of ethical dilemmas and ethical debates as in the anonymous group. But one thing is for sure; the organizational structures of today can benefit from learning about past. After the time of internet boom, there was a big interest in the virtual reality. And it didn't take long to create studies on the virtual organizations and its effects (Ahuja & Carley, 1999; Hughes et al, 2001; Kotorov, 2001; Moshowitz, 1997). But the main problem in the study of the virtual organizations is due to their being examined as organizations with a new technology. This has caused a reductionist approach in understanding of the virtual organizations. Virtual organization challenge is not just a challenge in upgrading the technology. Virtuality in the organizational reality is bringing a new and complicated paradigm, that can't be understood only by trying to see the reality on the surface. In the early periods of internet boom, it seemed like a matter of organizations adapting to the new magical technology, which was called internet. As time passed, internet seemed like losing its shiny appearance. But despite the loss of shiny appearance, internet began to penetrate the lives of the people deeper. It became part of the social and organizational reality so fast. Hence, in today's world, there are virtual organizations that are organized all around the globe. But it also turns out that, conventional organizations are slowly evolving towards the new virtual structures of today, communications systems, structures of the organizations are inside a state of dynamic change. Organizations of today are in a struggle for survival in the complicated environment of today. Super powers of today have gone beyond a mere definition of states. The infrastructures of the internet began at the hands of a state like United States and still many states like China, Iran and North Korea are trying real hard to control the flow and interaction in the virtual world. There is a struggle for sovereignty in the virtual world (Ludlow, 2001). But are these superpowers really the sovereigns of the virtual domain? Sociologically and politically it may be a long debate, but according to the organizational perspective, debate is considerably short. The superpowers of the world for the businesses are the multinational corporations who are each day evolving, growing and increasing in power. The boundaries of the new world are for the new reality of these multinational corporations. In this time of a brave new world for a corporate existence, organizations are trying to cope with the change of the times. They are still managing to hold on because boundaries are new and it provides many gaps as it had provided to the pirates of the past ages. Virtual organizations of today are nowadays benefiting from the new boundaries, smaller organizations gain surprising successes; it is a golden age of virtually moving new breed of organizations that can only be compared to the pirate organizations of the Golden Age of Piracy. These organizations are generally composed of the people that are also beyond the conventional definitions. But we have to learn more about their existence, a mere extrapolation of the organizational reality of the current is not enough. We have to learn about the entropic powers of their organizational environment more, because they might become a bright shiny dream of the past and they can be removed by the colossal structures of the multinational corporations. Another alternative would be the legitimation of capitalism with this new technology discourse based on internet for the sake and future of the same multinational corporations (Fisher, 2010). Yet, this study is not aiming to act as a doomsayer of the future, we are well aware of the limitations of the metaphorical evaluation of the reality. Yet, we are just trying to provide a different tool in examining the organizational reality of today. As a reality of today, in this limitless environment we might also consider social media. Especially with the development of social media, the understanding of online and virtual organization has evolved, developed and changed (Fuchs, 2010a). Currently, millions of people are using social media and communicating with each other. Such a virtual organization is totally different than the discussions realized in the 1990s. Based on free labor (Terranova, 2000) or immaterial labor (Cote & Pybus, 2007), social media depends upon its consumer-producers. Perhaps that is why the giant corporations are interested in such social media initiatives, putting less but getting more. However, the same social media is one of the triggers behind the Arab Spring which is also a demonstration of a chaotic environment. Hence, internet comes with unthinkable and unimagined alternatives with a gift economy (Barbrook, 2003) and with alternative media (Fuchs, 2010b) so that a new area where the struggles of power, control and resistance arise. As there are multinationals or states trying to control everything on it, there are alternative organizations rejecting the obedience and making claims for freedom. It is very unlikely to make any kind of prediction regarding the future of internet as which sovereign will dominate the field is totally unknown. The future with full of opportunities might not be dystopian, however, as golden age exhibits there might be other possibilities that we can learn from the past to change the future. 4. CONCLUSION Golden Age of Piracy contains a wide range of elements and variables in which the borders cannot be drawn and the laws cannot be determined. Study of the Golden Age of Piracy has a chance of providing unique interpretations on the different and complex organizing structures of today. We need such different approaches, because the traditional approaches of organization theory have problems in interpreting the organizational reality of today. Structures in the virtual environment create challenges that are pushing the well known and accepted approaches of fundamental organizing principles. Organizational structures prescribing flexibility, short-term partnership, networking and information sharing seem effective in this unlimited and uncontrollable environment for the moment. Analyzing the Golden Age of the Piracy is beneficial in terms of
exhibiting how such divergent organizing structures interact with each other in similar ambiguous environments. Today, owing to technological advancements a high level of ambiguity pervades in terms of environment. In the following times, we will be observing an increase in uncertainty in the environment. It is not clear what internet as an organizational environment will transform into, either to a platform for all voices with a participative democracy or to a platform where multinationals and states will control and exploit the limitlessness. Further studies on the Golden Age of Piracy should be concentrated on more specific sectors and alternative worlds in order to benefit more from such a rich historical metaphor of organizational reality. REFERENCES Ahuja, Manju K. and Carley, Kathleen M., "Network structure in virtual organizations", Organization Science, Volume 10, Number 6, Pages 741-757, 1999. Aldrich, Howard E., Organizations and environments. 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J., "Computer hacking and cyber terrorism: The real threats in the new millennium", Computers& Security, Volume 18, Number 1, Pages 28-34, 1999. van Gigch, John P., "The World Wide Web cannot ignore accepted legal and ethical standards in the name of uncontrolled freedom", Human Systems Management, Volume 19, Pages 205-212, 2000 Grabosky, Peter, "The Internet, technology and organized crime", Asian Criminology, Volume 2, Pages 145-161, 2007. Hannan, Micheal T. and Freeman, John, "The population ecology of organizations", American Sociological Review, Volume 82, Number 5, Pages 929-964, 1977. Hinduja, Sameer, "Deindividuation and Internet software piracy", Cyberpsychology and Behavior , Volume 11, Number 4, Pages 391-398, 2008. 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Kshetri, Nir, "Pattern of global cyber war and crime: A conceptual framework", Journal of International Management, Volume 11, Number 4, Pages 541-562, 2005. Land, Chris, "Flying the black flag: Revolt, revolution and the social organization of piracy in the 'golden age'", Management &Organizational History, Volume 2, Number 2, Pages 169-192, 2007. Leeson, Peter T., "An-arrgh-chy: The law and economics of pirate organization", Journal of Political Economy, Volume 115, Number 6, Pages 1049-1094, 2007. Little, Benerson, The sea Rover's practice: Pirate tactics and techniques, 1630-1730. Potomac Books, Virginia, 2005. Ludlow, Peter, (ed.), Crypto anarchy, cyber states and pirate utopias. MIT Press, Massachusetts, 2001. Lunsford, Virginia W., Piracy and privateering in the golden age Netherlands.: Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire, 2005. Mason, Matt, The Pirate's dilemma, Free Press, New York, 2008. 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Puchala, Donald J., "Of pirates and terrorists: What experience and history teach", Contemporary Security Policy, Volume 26, Number 1, Pages 1-24, 2005. Roberts, Paula and Webber, Jenny, "Virtous hackers: Developing ethical sensitivity in a community of practice", AustralianJournal of Information Systems, Volume 9, Pages 172-177, 2002. Rogozinski, Jan, The wordsworth dictionary of pirates. Wordsworth Editions, Great Britain, 1997. Sherry, Frank, Raiders and rebels: A history of the golden age of piracy, Harper Collins E-Books, New York, 2008. Smith, Simon, "Piracy in early British America", History Today, May, Pages 29-37, 1996. Snelders, Stephen, The Devil's anarchy, Autonomedia, USA, 2005. Terranova, Tiziana, "Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy", Social Text, Volume 18, Number 2, Pages 33-57, 2000. The Guardian, Anonymous, 2012. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/anonymous Retrieved at 10.01.2012) The New York Times, Times Topics, Anonymous (Internet group). 2010 (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/anonymous_internet_group/index.html Retrieved at 10.01.2012) Tormey, Simon, Anticapitalism: A beginner's guide. Oneworld Publications, London, 2004. Üsdiken, Behlül and Kieser, Alfred, "Introduction: History in organization studies", Business History, Volume 46, Number : 3, Pages 321-330, 2004. Wallek, Lee R., The mafia manager: A guide to success, December Pr., USA, 1991. Young, Adam J. and Valencia, Mark J., "Conflation of piracy and terrorism in Southeast Asia: Rectitude and utility", Contemporary Southeast Asia, Volume 25, Number 2, Pages 269-283, 2003. Dr. Ula? Çakar got his PhD from Dokuz Eylül University in 2007. Currently he is an assistant professor at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business. His research interests are based on ecological management, business ethics and epistemological origins of organization/management thought. Mr. Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar has been a PhD student since 2007 and currently working as a research assistant at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business. His research interests are mainly based on resistance theories, critical management studies, ethics and the relationship between the businesses and the state.
doc_374727445.docx
A treatise is a formal and systematic written discourse on some subject, generally longer and treating it in greater depth than an essay, and more concerned with investigating or exposing the principles of the subject.
Research Study for Organizational Treatise on the Golden Age of Piracy and Its Virtual Implications
ABSTRACT The aim of this study is analyzing the Golden Age of Piracy and examining its characteristics in order to gain a deeper understanding of organizational reality regarding today's virtual world. In this context, the Golden Age of Piracy and pirate organizations are examined from a historical point of view. The genuine and successful organizing form of piracy in a complex environmental system is a special approach in dealing with the dualistic form of an authoritarian-democratic structure. Furthermore, diversity management in such an organization and the existence of unique organizational contracts enabling the distinctive characteristics of pirate organizations provided a different insight to the organizational reality of today. Hence, it is stated that characteristics of environment in internet show a striking similarity to the Golden Age of Piracy. Despite the limitations of using a historical metaphor in study of organizational reality, study on the Golden Age of Piracy provides a special interpretation to the interesting features of the organizational structures in the virtual age. Keywords: The Golden Age of Piracy, Pirate Organization, Organizational Environment, Internet, Virtual Organizations 1. INTRODUCTION In the field of organizational studies, seemingly business organizations are the main focus with a performative intent. Other than business organizations, there are many analyses of state and non-governmental organizations with a similar perspective. Such analyses are conducted mostly with a functionalist paradigm (Burrell and Morgan, 1979). On the contrast, there are a few numbers of studies of marginal organizations such as mafia (Parker, 2008), pirate organizations (Land, 2007; Parker, 2009a), circuses (Parker, 2011a), cowboys (Parker, 2011b) and heavenly hierarchy (Parker, 2009b). Studies of marginal organizations are criticized as having problems in empirical methodology, or some even challenge them saying that they are esoteric studies (Alvesson, 2008). But it has to be seen that the analyses of marginal organizations provides an understanding of a different model of organizational efficacy. Especially the illegal organizations' efficacy is interesting because when they fail, the result is imminent death of the members (Wallek, 1995). Because of this, marginal organizations are ruled under the iron fist of power, but interestingly this iron fist rule have surprising autonomic touches and radical management approaches in it. Sadly, the managerial processes, rules and applications in these kinds of illegal organizations are not given enough importance in the literature (Leeson, 2007; Parker, 2008). But there is much to learn from the organizing principles of marginal organizations. Marginal organization examinations are not only limited to contemporary organizations. Also the organizations of the past can be examined, so that we can anticipate the future of organizations in order to think and change the open future (Parker, 2010). Furthermore, the analysis of marginal organizations is an enriching experience because they have distinctive structures and they existed at different times. Sometimes an insight gained from past can also give a new understanding of what is to be or what can it be. Studies on metaphors (Cornelissen et al, 2008; Morgan, 1980) and studies using historical perspective (Jacques, 2006; Puchala, 2005; Üsdiken & Kieser, 2004) provided a special perspective on understanding of the organizational reality. This study aims to provide an alternative view by using the understanding that is gained from examining a marginal organization; pirate organizations in the Golden Age of Piracy. There have been studies on the subject (Özmen and Çakar, 2006, Land, 2007, Leeson, 2007, Parker, 2009a, Puchala, 2005) but there is a tendency towards a popular understanding of their nature (Morgan, 2005; Snelders, 2005). In this study, the pirate organizations in the Golden Age of Piracy will be analyzed. Their marginal organization characteristics will be the main scope. We won't look at these organizations to see them as a metaphor of today's managerial approaches; we will look at the factors that made them unique. With this intent, we also aim to put contribution to the discussion that took place in this journal byLand (2007) and by Parker (2009a). Acknowledging their arguments, we want to set the direction towards today and future of the internet as a possible new golden age. That is one of the main contribution that article stands upon, which wil l be mentioned following the discussion regarding piracy. Before beginning the examination of the pirate organizations of the Golden Age of Piracy, we also need to explain the ethical positioning of this study. It is impossible to ignore that pirates are bandits that harmed other people intentionally and they did for their self-interests. No matter how romantic they may sound in stories and even in history (Parker, 2009a), pirates are a group of evil individuals forming evil organizations that harmed people. So, this study is different than former studies on the subject due to its ethical positioning as well as there won't be an idealization of their romantic pirate image. Pirates were not a bunch of freedom fighters; they were illegal people who faced a world where sky was the limit. Whatever we attribute to their possible romanticism is tied to conception of today's global but limited world that doesn't offer horizons of new lands to explore. Keeping a vigilant eye on the unethical nature of pirate organizations, this study aims to analyze organizing principles by focusing on the period of Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1730) (Land, 2007:171; Leeson, 2007: 1053). We believe this period is showing some similarities to current reality and provides alternative realities that can provide us insights for the future. During that period there was a significantly unsteady environment where the new frontiers were continuously being discovered. And pirates formed a very effective type of organizing and became an important factor in the entire oceans. They
also benefited greatly from the power plays between the great powers of that time. Golden Age of Piracy deserves to be analyzed, due to the unique organizational achievements that were performed in a complex and interesting environment. Ever since the early periods of history, there had been piracy activities in the Indian Ocean and Mediterranean Sea (Federzoni, 1936, Puchala, 2005: 3-4) Due to their actions' local characteristics and limitedness of the activity space that piracy activities will not be analyzed in this study. Pirates during the period of golden age between the years 1650-1730 formed new organizing structures in an environment where the borders were expanding in every direction. Piracy activities which took place in other periods did not occur in such a chaotic environment. Golden Age piracy has spread from Caribbean, Latin America to Africa, oceans of the world became infested with the pirate activity (Smith, 1996: 30). It spread so far that some parts of the terra incognita was covered by pirates. This unique nature of the period makes the analysis of pirate organizations of the golden age invaluable for a fresh look at today's organizational reality in the world of internet. In order to avoid subjective evaluation, we will concentrate more on the events of the period and environmental conditions. For all these purposes, we shall begin this marginal organization study by defining the "pirate". 2. WHO IS A PIRATE? Piracy is defined as "an act of robbery on the high seas", and pirate is defined as the "one who commits or practices piracy" (Merriam-Webster, 2011). The dictionary of the pirates (Rogozinski, 1997) defines the pirate as a seaman robbing the other seamen. The challenging part of pirate identity is their function in their ships and the pirate ships or even small armadas consisting of pirate ships. Because the organization skills needed for such an endeavor is beyond a definition of a simple robber. Pirate ships consisted of deviant members of the society that had a tendency of using criminal ways to acquire their needs and wants. And these organizations consisting of deviant individuals were aiming to survive and prosper by preying on the ships of anyone they can rob. In addition to this basic and functional definition of the pirate, there is also a popular image of pirates in the common psyche of the people. In this study, we tried to reach a clearer and more historically accurate pirate persona, by ignoring the popular cultural pirate image as much as possible. The pirate image in the western literature is created by romantic imaginations of the authors. At first they were a symbol of adventure, and people were so curious about them. Their stories got exaggerated by the attention of the people. But as time passed further into the industrial age, they began to be seen as part of romantic relic of the past, and people began to look at them with more sympathy (Parker, 2009a). Popular culture has created a pirate reality which was actually different than the reality. This can also be seen in the studies that are affected by the popular culture image of the pirates. These studies consider piracy out of its own context and the characteristics of the Golden Age of Piracy. In these studies, pirate is mentioned as an ideal figure or as a hero and the pirate reality is re-shaped for the sake of managerial approaches marketed by the authors (e.g. Morgan, 2005). There are also studies that are taking pirates as part of a critical approach to the present zeitgeist. These studies are conducted connecting the golden age to present and idealizing the organizing forms of the pirates whilst suggesting an alternative and radical organizing model (Land, 2007; Snelders, 2005). For instance, Rediker (2004) mentioned pirates as democrats of the open seas (McLynn, 2004). Pirates are represented as liberal minded, collective, antiauthoritarian, egalitarian public heroes (Pritchard, 2005). In such studies pirates are idealized. Such an approach has unrealistic characteristics as well as it is against the ethical positioning of this study. We have to emphasize the main characteristics of the pirates - they were a bunch of criminals who robbed people, and didn't hesitate to kill if they had to, or even in many cases because they liked to do so. In order to reach a less romantic but more realistic image of the pirates, we need to assess the environmental conditions of the period. 2.1 Organizational Environment in The Golden Age Of Piracy Ever since the beginning of the marine activity, piracy activities have been seen. Mediterranean piracy of the ancient times, piracy activities in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean, Mediterranean pirates of the Ottoman times are good examples of these. So, it will be better to mention the idiosyncratic characteristics of the organizational environment of the Golden Age of Piracy. When we look at the period called the golden age of the piracy (1650-1730), we see a new group of pirate organizations began to be form in the brave new world of exploration and conquest. This world's main focus was the colonial domination of the globe, firstly centered on the sphere of Latin America and Africa then its reach has widened beyond the known horizons. In this period the transfer of resources from America to Europe was in a considerable amount. And this activities were not done by a monolithic structure of colonial power, there was many great powers struggling with each other in order to control more colonial field. So piracy emerged as a different organizing model that fills in the every gap it can find in this system. At that time, while the Portuguese and the Spanish impact colonial powers were slowly dwindling, the English, the Dutch and the French were struggling to increase their powers in the oceans (Braudel, 1982; Brummet et al, 2000; Kennedy, 2001; Lunsford, 2005). The diversity in the characteristics of great powers and the struggles among them were creating opportunities for pirates to flourish. Portuguese and Spanish was trying to protect their position against aggressive expansion of the British, the Dutch and the French. Many alliances and deals were done in the process, and these activities were increasing the environmental complexity drastically. Furthermore, the possibility of rapid changes among these alliances and hostilities between them were raising the
environmental dynamism. In such a complex environment, there was a great marine transfer of considerable amount of resources from the recently discovered lands or new colonies. This transfer served as a breeding ground for pirate organizations. Environmental richness of the situation was feeding the piracy activities to the extent that was never seen before in history. In such a context, there was little distinction among merchant ships, military ships and pirates as in many cases merchant ships and military ships have committed piracy when they found a chance. With an organizational perspective, we can see that ostensible limitless boundaries of the environment have great effect on pirate activities. This organizational environment covered a variety of places from Atlantic Ocean to Indian Ocean, such as Port Royal in Jamaica, Tortuga (Haiti and Dominic Republic today) or Madagascar (Little, 2005: 77). In this big geography, pirates were not only plundering the wealth of the victims, they were also selling victims as slaves or getting ransom for them (Puchala, 2005: 3). The wide scope of the activities in such an environment caused pirates to be sucked into the power plays of great powers for the domination of the specific regions and the trade routes. In this period of struggle, pirate organizations were showing considerable adaptation skills. Their flexible organizing style made pirate communities the basic organizational structure of the period. Golden age pirate organizations were so effective that between the years of 1655-1680 countless villages and twenty-two larger towns were plundered while they robbed hundreds of trade ships (Rogozinski, 1997). When we look at the development process of pirate organizing we also see the main principles of population ecology theory. According to population ecology theory, environment has an effect on organizational communities or on an organizational form rather than an individual organization. Adaptation of the organizational community to its environment depends upon its meeting the expectations or filling the gap of the environment and fitting of the organizational community or organizational form to its environment. This situation is called the rationality of natural selection (Hannan and Freeman, 1977). It is claimed that the selection is realized with the environmental pressures, meaning that as long as the organizational community fits the environmental requirements selection occurs. It is assumed that more effective organizational communities have much more survival rate than the less effective ones. Furthermore, the organizational community may maintain its survival on the basis of the resources provided by the environment and how these resources are used by the community (Aldrich, 1979). Additionally, for the existence of an organizational community there should not be any barriers among the members' interaction with each other whilst members are being exposed to the same institutional effects. The golden age of the piracy is a perfect match to show all these selection processes explained in the theory. The global political lacuna where the piracy grew was a fertile ground for such a fit between the organizational community and the environment. Hence, especially in the earlier period of this lacuna, a boom in pirate organizations was observed. In the dependent resource pool, especially the high amount of richness of the recently discovered lands transferred by Portugal and Spain was a reinforcing motivator of the organizational activity. In this context, many pirate communities were being formed and they were being effective in the open seas with the management of the successful captains and therefore growing. Capturing of nearly four hundred ships by the notorious pirate Black Bart is a noteworthy example for the effectiveness of such an organizations (Cordingly, 1996: 141). Pirates acting in the less successful pirate organizations were either killed by the navy or they entered more successful pirate organizations. During that period, change was incredibly rapid in the sense of organizing. The change in the environmental factors had a direct impact on the pirates. This situation might be considered as a cyclic process. As long as the sovereign powers are felt the piracy was getting less and when the sovereign powers could not reach any region, pirate organizations immediately began benefiting from the gaps (Puchala, 2005: 2). This cyclic process might be considered also as the dialectic of the order and the chaos; so long as there was a power for the order the environmental complexity was low, and as soon as there was a gap, chaotic forces accelerates environmental complexity to its limits. Again in the scope of this cyclic process, the Golden Age of Piracy ended primarily owing to renovation of the navy and the standing army with the support of technological changes in Britain. These improvements were directly affected by the rise of economic powers at the dawn of industrial age. Beginning with the mid 18th century, particularly Britain became a sovereign power in the open seas against pirates as pirates had been a threat for the economic power of the British. In addition to effect of industrial revolution and the superior power of the British navy, colonies beginning to get settled and their becoming more than a wild frontier enabled the change in the situation (Puchala, 2005; Smith, 1996). In the following period, even though the piracy was continued, it became a marginal activity performed by the limited amount of criminals (Sherry, 2008: 355). The changing organizational environment made golden age pirate organization style impossible. Although piracy was maintained in different places and at different times, it has never been as effective as in the Golden Age of Piracy. Golden age pirates had a very intense organizational interaction that made them much different than the other periods, because they could have organizational interaction that could happen regardless of the width of their environments. When the crews of the pirate ships were analyzed, it is seen remarkably in the trial documents that many pirates were also formerly active in the other pirate communities (Cordingly, 1996: 364-281). Crews from the different pirate communities were coming together in several ports such as Bahamas or Port Royal. These ports had been a meeting place for the pirates for a long time. That made the information exchange among them possible. This information traffic among pirates having origins from different regions and beliefs was possible due to the similarities of the pirates' managing rules and in-group agreements. The black flags were embraced with personal differences by the pirates. And it is certain that the common characteristics of the
laws of the captains and formation of the fleets for chasing large amounts of booties couldn't be possible without such an interaction. In this period, there were some main meeting points for the pirates. Tortuga (Haiti and Dominic today), Nassau (Bahamas today) and some parts of Madagascar were considered as the towns of the pirates (Parker, 2009a: 177; Smith, 1996: 33). Such towns were havens for the pirates and in addition to supplying, the maintenance and the repair of the ships were done in these places. Besides; these harborages were suitable for recruitment for the crew, gaining recent information, hiding from their pursuers and most importantly they offered an opportunity for selling and exchanging plundered goods (Puchala, 2005: 6-7). These towns were shared by many different pirate communities, and some of the leading pirates were forming cartels by making deals on the rights of these towns (Smith, 1996: 33). Considering all these interactions, it can be stated that piracy represented a complex system that many agents were involved to the process (Puchala, 2005: 7). Whilst pirates were plundering for themselves, actually, they were getting diverse agents (e.g. trader at the port, smuggler, inn owners, local administrators conniving of the pirates, monarchy getting his share) into an economic cycle (Parker, 2009a: 168). The lacuna in the organizational environment also supported that economical structure of the piracy (Smith, 1996). Great powers of the period had also spectacular effect on this pirate economic system with the usage of "privateer" authorization. At this point, the explanation of privateer concept is crucial for gaining a deeper understanding of the complexity of this system. Privateer was a pirate who was given a privateer license that gave him right to do piracy on behalf of the state. With this license attacking an enemy nation's ships and plundering them, wasn't seen as illegal. More interestingly, a part of the booty had to be saved for the state. Unless the state approved, the pirates could not get their share of the booty. State wasn't only enabling pirate activity, it was benefiting from this activity by all possible means. It can be stated that pirates who had privateer license made a significant level of plundering and became an important element among the naval activities of the European states. Hence, many captains might be privateers of separate powers by changing multiple sides (Little, 2005: 17). After the golden age of the piracy, privateer activities were professionally maintained by the seamen whom many of them were not pirates (Konstam, 2001). It is seen that the British were protecting and supporting the pirates by giving privateer licenses for decreasing the Spanish power in the Golden Age of Piracy. As you can see above there was a great deal of complexity in the environment and political ambiguities directly affected pirates. The dynamic and unique structure of the pirate organizations in the time of Golden Age of Piracy was a natural result of these complex environmental forces. Now we have to see these pirate organizations in depth to understand the uniqueness of their structures. 2.2 Pirate Organizations In order to cover pirate organizing, it is crucial to mention what kind of characteristics pirates have and what sort of values they believe in. The roots of such factors are related to the maritime customs of that period. Even though the elements of these customs became radicalized or marginalized, they did not lose their influential origins. Considering the period of the study, the seaman culture of the time belonged to the men that mostly began working at ships from his early youth till he was either dead or incapable to do sailor tasks. Therefore, seamanship was considered as a sort of craftsmanship learned in time. In order to maintain that craftsmanship the men needed to be away from the land for months or even for years. Therefore, seamen developed a culture strictly tied to each other in their own seamen community. Their intimate and close relationship on the sea was considered much more superior than the one on the land. It was a sort of brotherhood since in a ship a man could have many difficulties and everybody needed each other in order to cope with these difficulties (Rogozinski, 1997). Accordingly, the people on land were perceived as totally different group of people that for many times they were seen as simple folk or lowly peasants by the seamen due to this separation of the land and the sea. As seamen were distinguished by the nature of their sea life from the land dwellers, pirates were also distinguished dramatically by their criminal intent compared to the ordinary seamen. Piracy meant to risk their lives by choosing a criminal life on purpose. They chose piracy to escape tough work conditions of the time (Smith, 1996). The pressure created by the very hard working conditions in the trade ships and especially in the navies at that time derives as a substantial factor. Either in the navy or in the trade ships the wages were considerably low, even when it was paid it was given as debit / balance. The death was the continuous danger at any time at anywhere for an ordinary seaman, such that after an ordinary expedition the amount of the people coming back might be considerably low. For instance, at the slave trade ships the one-fourth of the seamen could not come back after an expedition (Land, 2007: 174; Leeson, 2007: 1059). This situation was worse in the navies. Due to difficulty of the conditions the criminals were forced to work, even sometimes people were kidnapped to make them crew in the navies. In such tough circumstances, captain of the ship and the officers were living in separate conditions as the masters of the crew and controlling them with the whips. In addition to these; many reasons made employment conditions unacceptable such as the limited food given, scorbutic disease, easily spread of contagious illnesses due to crowded and narrow working and living spaces. Many members of the crew, as they were stuck in open seas and having had not possibility to escape, had a rebellion mood keeping their hate against not only to the captain and his authority, but also to any kind of authority (Sherry, 2008: 51). In such a context, a seaman became a pirate in three ways; 1. By rebelling against the captain and then by getting control whilst working in a ship as a seaman. 2. By joining to the pirates voluntarily as a seaman having worked in a seized ship. 3. By joining to the ships at the pirate ports and towns.
In case of being a pirate, the gains from a plunder was astronomically higher that amount than the lawful gains of an ordinary seaman. Pirates might earn nearly a hundred times of the annual wage of an ordinary crew with just one plunder (Leeson, 2007: 1077-1078). The pirates were paying the price for such a high income by breaking themselves off the social life. Whilst the other seamen's ships could visit or stop over other ports, the pirate ships could go to just allowed ports, hence the only communication with the normal life was via the battles. Otherwise, they were caught and executed immediately. That situation forced the pirates to be introverted as a community and closed to the social environment. Thus, people out of the pirate ships were seen as "others" by the pirates and that situation caused pirates to see them totally different. It was resulting in a tendency to commit any kind of evil to these people without any hesitation. Despite its criminal tendencies, piracy had a kind of anarchic philosophy; it was based on being against any kind of factors forming the prevailing dominant structure and understanding. Against the hierarchy, against the moral understanding and against the policies of the sovereign states criminals created an order for themselves with their way of living. Even when they withhold their ways with things like privateer contracts, they were all just a matter of opportunist steps; the basic nature of pirate activity was not changed. It is clearly seen that this alternative structure had democratic way of organizing in the limits of their circumstances. Hierarchical layers were nearly none, there was no class difference between the crew and the captain as well as the captain might change sometimes in a bloody way in case the crew was dissatisfied due to failures. Besides, the majority of the crew had the potential to handle nearly any kind of tasks except some very special ones. By giving a sort of judicial power to quartermaster a portion of the power of the captain was lessened. Furthermore, maritime lieutenancy or midshipman positions were not respected or regarded. Yet, in pirate ships men were chosen for the usual tasks that were normally made by warrant and petty officer in the navy or trade ships, meaning there were also functional positions such as boatswain, artilleryman, carpenter and cook (Cordingly, 1996: 129). As pirate crews were against the harsh discipline of that time, they either wanted to join an able captain's crew, or they were electing their captain on the basis of his talents. Except some of the tasks dependent on specialization, there was an egalitarian understanding of task division, and even on the sea these people might overthrow a captain for a new one (Rogozinski, 1997). Captain had absolute power only in times of fighting, chasing or being chased; in all other times and over the issues concerning the crew, the majority of the crew had control. In terms of organizational thought, these aspects demonstrate how the pirates had organic and flexible structure. On the other hand, as the captains of the pirate ships came to the power by passing many competitive and tough processes, they were capable of being strongly authoritarian when they have seen the need. That was making pirate organization much more complex. We see a criminal organization having some faces of democracy depending on rejection of order at one hand, and the same criminal organization could allow full authority to captain at the other hand. All these variations could be possible because of their opportunistic aim of plundering more wealth. Particularly, as mentioned above, in the chase for booty or in war, the authority of the captain was complete and without a question. But, according to the consequences of the events, captain might lose his position so suddenly and mostly pays this change with his own life. The pirates were acting entirely like a wolf-pack. As long as the dominant individual had the power, there was full obedience, and otherwise in the sign of his weakness this person might not even live. It was impossible to have such a perspective in the navy of that time, as they had a well defined rank and file structure. Such a criminal structuring was completely opposite to militaristic view of that time, because the naval structure depended on the characteristics of autocracy, full loyalty to the admiral and obedience to commands as a principle. In the merchant ships, even if the captain didn't have the full death and life powers like the navy captains, the authority of the captain was absolute, any kind of challenge to authority was impossible to think of. In order to redefine the rules of the game in such a time of chaos and turmoil, pirates formed their own way to deal with the dualistic nature of their democratic and authoritarian structure. Pirate organizations formed their own organizational contracts for this purpose. 2.3 The Organizational Contracts of the Pirates Due to their chaotic life styles and their intention to commit a crime, pirate life can be seen as a good example of anomalous life without a future. But when we examine the Golden Age of Piracy, we see that pirate ships were directed with some fundamental principles. These rules were developed to limit the authority of the elected captains, to control and restrict the powers of the quartermaster (Leeson, 2007). These rules were followed like holy commandments and it has bounded everybody in the ships. The crew acted as an authoritarian and decision-making council in the beginning of a journey or when a new captain is elected (Smith, 1996). This council determines a set of articles that have to be signed by each person. These articles reveal how the booty is delivered, compensation amount to be paid to injuries after fights, rules of the ship life (not to be drunk at fight, not to rape woman prisoners, not to bring woman to the ship, and etc.) and the punishments if the rules are broken. Although the existence of a council might seem as a democratic characteristic, suggestions of leaving personally or dissolving the pirate community were considered as fatal offenses (Little, 2005: 38). Whilst the articles might seem dissimilar from ship to ship, as a result of the interaction between pirates, the fundamental approaches and their main structures were alike. Rules followed in a ship of a specific captain could be adapted by other captains, and in time some common rules were widely seen in organizational contracts of pirate organizations. Among these rules, the ones belonging to Black Bart (Barthelomeow Roberts) (Cordingly, 1996: 130-131) are a good representation of the rules of that period; 1. All the important decisions will be given by voting. 2. The person who is stealing from the ship will be marooned.
3. All the weapons and the swords will be kept clean. 4. No women will be on board. 5. The ones escaping the ship in the fight will be killed. All the 6. quarrels of the crew will be resolved on land. 7. The booty will be shared as two shares for the captain and the head of the crew, one and a half shares for the head of the armorer and the boatswain, a quarter shares for the officers and a share for the crew. 8. Injuries will be compensated; for the ones who lose arm or leg will get additional booty share regarding the severe of the injury. After signing such a contract a seaman was considered immediately as a pirate (Land, 2007: 179). These rules helped removing the causes for the failure as well as successful performing of the organization, improving efficiency, preventing cheating and having a fair and just system. Even among some of the rules there were rules about gaining a higher share dependent on individual performance. Particularly, a pirate who demonstrated an outstanding behavior or a significant courage in a fight might be paid more (Leeson, 2007: 1074). Besides, such an additional share given for the injured ones provided a sort of primitive social security. On the other hand, bandits making the rules exhibit the peculiar practical nature of these rules. As shown above, while there are classical rules regarding the conditions of the weapon or stealing, there were futuristic rules based on decision-making by voting, the order in the share system or even additional share for the injured ones. Though there might be differences among the pirate captains, with the mutual interactions of the pirates the practiced rules resembled each other. The physical punishments applied in the navy or trade ships were not included, however they might be given if there is a common decision by the pirate crew. Whilst there were death sentences, the lack of physical punishments as a discipline penalty was a noteworthy expression of the reaction to the prevailing order. Being incapable of going to places where pirates are not welcomed and being executed immediately if caught made pirate organization radicalized. And it reinforced the dictum of piracy rules and pirate life style over the pirates (Cordingly, 1996). The power of the contract has one more interesting aspect since pirate organizational contract was managing to bind a group of criminals with various diverse origins to a complex and illegal organization. In the pirate ship piracy was the only common ground as there might exist British, French, and Dutch people; a range of hunters and smugglers from the Caribbean; Spanish fugitives; African runaway slaves; Native Americans and even in some extreme cases women who normally not accepted in the ships at that time. Such diverse origins and backgrounds of seamen in the pirate ships exhibit a striking pointin the name of diversity management with an organizational perspective. Diversity management (Cox, 1994) was concentrated on managing of differences of the organization members in an efficient way. But for pirates, it was a natural factor at that time. People who could not even speak the same language and having dissimilar cultures were easily coming together in a pirate organization. Because, they required such a structure in order to reach their aim of plunder and richness. The gathering of pirates was not just inside the pirate organization, but also different pirate organizations did come together. For instance, when it is heard Henry Morgan was going to plunder Panama, many other pirates joined him and in the end, thirty-three ships and two thousand of people attacked to Panama. This attack caused great deal of harm to town and its inhabitants. Such co-operations among the pirates show their common aims are much more important than the differences they carry. However, not meeting the expectations of the pirates regarding the plunder caused serious conflicts aftermath. After Panama, the pirates had such conflict among themselves. But it is important to know that as long as there is a common goal, pirate organizations can be formed into a super-structure of pirate group. 3. THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY IN THE VIRTUAL WORLD When we look at the present, the rise of the piracy activities is observed at significant level of affecting international trade on seas. Serious amount of the piracy activity is felt especially around Somali and East Asia. Even though the piracy around the Southeast Asia region (Young & Valencia, 2003) is not observed as much as in the Somali region, prolonging of the piracy draws attention according to the statistics (Bradford, 2007: 190-191; ICC International Maritime Bureau, 2009). Even it is stated that Somalia might be considered as Tortuga of the 21st century (Angeloni, 2009). At the end of 2011, pirates were active again, and the actual figures for the year 2011 were as follows; Table : WORLDWIDE PIRACY INCIDENTS IN 2011 Total Attacks Worldwide 421 Total Hijackings Worldwide 42 Incidents Reported for Somalia Total Incidents 231 Total Hijackings 26 Total Hostages 450 Total Killed 15 Current vessels held by Somali pirates Vessels 10
Hostages 172 Source: International Chamber of Commerce Commercial Crime Services, 2011 Both in the land and on the sea the restraining of the pirates are not easy, hence, they can easily get the control of the ships and make negotiations for the ransom. These pirates, significantly distinctive from the ones in the golden age, are using high technology, moving very quick with the fast boats, gaining income mostly via ransoms and not forming a radical social cohesive group living and moving altogether as the pirates in the golden age (Puchala, 2005). Even the density of the piracy activities might seem increasing today, considering that situation as a new Golden Age of Piracy would be an illusion. In a circumstance where the environmental conditions are clarified, today's pirates are formed by moving of the criminals from land to sea, therefore they are noticeably different than the pirates of the golden age. Pirates of the golden age created an idiosyncratic sea life under the shades of the great powers in a period when the borders of the world are not known definitely. Today, the similar conditions of the golden age of the piracy appear in a very different environment apart from the open seas. Internet is providing a new environment whose boundaries are not known, and there are now different great powers such as states and corporations willing to have much more control on this new frontier. For this control, organizations get formed in the internet both for legal and illegal purposes. Their organization styles are generally different than what we have known about organizing. These special times and characteristics have close resemblances to the golden age of the piracy. Simply internet means "web of the webs" and represents a world where the computers are connected to each other via multiple networks in the entire planet. In the limitless world of the internet there is space for any kind of actor either public institutions, or private companies or free individuals. As in the beginning of the golden age, the technical infrastructure provided by the Unites States of America, one of the great powers of today, presents new borders to be opened. With the development of new environmental conditions, in the relatively borderless context that we face, there are countless opportunities for new initiatives. The context is even more ambiguous than the golden age with its various aspects, because, several undefined activity is growing and along with that it is required to determine whether these activities are crime or not. The states are issuing and implementing new laws. However, since there is not an enabled power that might control the present lacuna, internet expands to a limitless field. Netizens acting organized in internet are not affected by the organizational constraints in classical sense. This prevents such activities to become a serious problem . Even though many countries are trying to implement arrangements for prohibiting access to web sites and internet, alternative practicalities are created immediately in order to overcome those arrangements. For each prevention measure there are hundreds of new approaches to bypass them. Furthermore, controlling becomes much more harder due to the very rapid processing and delivering of the electronic data by the computers; connecting of people from various places such as universities, libraries, homes, workplaces; reproduction and download of the materials having intellectual property rights without losing any quality (Hinduja, 2008: 391, Mason, 2008). Briefly, the entire world is connected to each other, and even though there might seem legal regulations exist, any kind of legal and illegal activity can be achieved via internet in the frame of these principles (Cisler 2006; Cooper and Harrison, 2001; Mason, 2008). Via the internet, companies can make several transactions primarily the financial ones, buy and sell any sort of product and service legally or illegally and digitally servable products might be downloaded and shared directly. Wide range of crimes is committed worldwide via the internet (Grabosky, 2007); a synergy comes into existence between the organized crime and the internet (Ksethri, 2005). It is assumed that such internet based crime actions will grow up with the spread of the internet all around the world (Denning, 2001). All these demonstrate how the internet cannot be controlled. Therefore, it is still a serious discussion point what kind of a control mechanism will be administered in the internet (Gigch, 2000). Yet, it is very obvious that many classical crime organizations change into a new form through the internet. People are challenging the companies, the states and even the international organizations whilst making actions against them over internet (Furnell and Warren, 1999; Klein, 2000; Tormey, 2004). Having separate motivations Internet pirates (hackers) also make several various actions by benefiting from the limitlessness of the internet. Generally termed as hackers while some of these people owing to their curiosity target to crack passwords, some of them have the motivation of giving harm to the environment and some others develop new ways of robbing or stealing. However, among these people there is also a special group who might work with some legal institutions and help to the police. Among the aims of these people are to follow the illegal hackers and to bring those to the courts (Barber, 2001). In a very similar vein, a range of anti-virus software firms or companies producing operating systems employ former hackers. Hence, they can control the reliability and safety of the produced software or systems (Roberts and Webber, 2002). Since these hackers, who previously being in different actions in the internet and seem independent, are competent of internet and software technologies, they are used by both the companies and the states with the aim of having and providing safety. This might be considered as one of the reflection of the privateer institution to the present day. In such an environment where the borders are unknown and the control is impossible the former pirate hackers become privateers for the companies and for the states in order to overcome the ambiguity. In some circumstances the aim of the actions of the hackers might be to have a position as a privateer. Furthermore, hackers communicate, share files and information via virtual communities in such a world where the borders are not drawn, even they might have a special hierarchical structure among them (Cooper and Harrison, 2001). Today, in the uncontrollable environment of the internet the political hackers are also growing in order to benefit from the chaotic structure
of the internet. For instance, there is a hackers group called anonymous making actions (hacktivism) against the governments, corporations or even the NATO in order to protest censorship, the bans on internet and support some other social campaigns such as "occupy Wall Street". (The Guardian, 2012; The New York Times, 2010). Even though criminal activity in the virtual world and bad intentioned hackers are acting unethically, there is also a shady border between legality and illegality of virtual environment. Many new concepts became subjects of ethical dilemmas and ethical debates as in the anonymous group. But one thing is for sure; the organizational structures of today can benefit from learning about past. After the time of internet boom, there was a big interest in the virtual reality. And it didn't take long to create studies on the virtual organizations and its effects (Ahuja & Carley, 1999; Hughes et al, 2001; Kotorov, 2001; Moshowitz, 1997). But the main problem in the study of the virtual organizations is due to their being examined as organizations with a new technology. This has caused a reductionist approach in understanding of the virtual organizations. Virtual organization challenge is not just a challenge in upgrading the technology. Virtuality in the organizational reality is bringing a new and complicated paradigm, that can't be understood only by trying to see the reality on the surface. In the early periods of internet boom, it seemed like a matter of organizations adapting to the new magical technology, which was called internet. As time passed, internet seemed like losing its shiny appearance. But despite the loss of shiny appearance, internet began to penetrate the lives of the people deeper. It became part of the social and organizational reality so fast. Hence, in today's world, there are virtual organizations that are organized all around the globe. But it also turns out that, conventional organizations are slowly evolving towards the new virtual structures of today, communications systems, structures of the organizations are inside a state of dynamic change. Organizations of today are in a struggle for survival in the complicated environment of today. Super powers of today have gone beyond a mere definition of states. The infrastructures of the internet began at the hands of a state like United States and still many states like China, Iran and North Korea are trying real hard to control the flow and interaction in the virtual world. There is a struggle for sovereignty in the virtual world (Ludlow, 2001). But are these superpowers really the sovereigns of the virtual domain? Sociologically and politically it may be a long debate, but according to the organizational perspective, debate is considerably short. The superpowers of the world for the businesses are the multinational corporations who are each day evolving, growing and increasing in power. The boundaries of the new world are for the new reality of these multinational corporations. In this time of a brave new world for a corporate existence, organizations are trying to cope with the change of the times. They are still managing to hold on because boundaries are new and it provides many gaps as it had provided to the pirates of the past ages. Virtual organizations of today are nowadays benefiting from the new boundaries, smaller organizations gain surprising successes; it is a golden age of virtually moving new breed of organizations that can only be compared to the pirate organizations of the Golden Age of Piracy. These organizations are generally composed of the people that are also beyond the conventional definitions. But we have to learn more about their existence, a mere extrapolation of the organizational reality of the current is not enough. We have to learn about the entropic powers of their organizational environment more, because they might become a bright shiny dream of the past and they can be removed by the colossal structures of the multinational corporations. Another alternative would be the legitimation of capitalism with this new technology discourse based on internet for the sake and future of the same multinational corporations (Fisher, 2010). Yet, this study is not aiming to act as a doomsayer of the future, we are well aware of the limitations of the metaphorical evaluation of the reality. Yet, we are just trying to provide a different tool in examining the organizational reality of today. As a reality of today, in this limitless environment we might also consider social media. Especially with the development of social media, the understanding of online and virtual organization has evolved, developed and changed (Fuchs, 2010a). Currently, millions of people are using social media and communicating with each other. Such a virtual organization is totally different than the discussions realized in the 1990s. Based on free labor (Terranova, 2000) or immaterial labor (Cote & Pybus, 2007), social media depends upon its consumer-producers. Perhaps that is why the giant corporations are interested in such social media initiatives, putting less but getting more. However, the same social media is one of the triggers behind the Arab Spring which is also a demonstration of a chaotic environment. Hence, internet comes with unthinkable and unimagined alternatives with a gift economy (Barbrook, 2003) and with alternative media (Fuchs, 2010b) so that a new area where the struggles of power, control and resistance arise. As there are multinationals or states trying to control everything on it, there are alternative organizations rejecting the obedience and making claims for freedom. It is very unlikely to make any kind of prediction regarding the future of internet as which sovereign will dominate the field is totally unknown. The future with full of opportunities might not be dystopian, however, as golden age exhibits there might be other possibilities that we can learn from the past to change the future. 4. CONCLUSION Golden Age of Piracy contains a wide range of elements and variables in which the borders cannot be drawn and the laws cannot be determined. Study of the Golden Age of Piracy has a chance of providing unique interpretations on the different and complex organizing structures of today. We need such different approaches, because the traditional approaches of organization theory have problems in interpreting the organizational reality of today. Structures in the virtual environment create challenges that are pushing the well known and accepted approaches of fundamental organizing principles. Organizational structures prescribing flexibility, short-term partnership, networking and information sharing seem effective in this unlimited and uncontrollable environment for the moment. Analyzing the Golden Age of the Piracy is beneficial in terms of
exhibiting how such divergent organizing structures interact with each other in similar ambiguous environments. Today, owing to technological advancements a high level of ambiguity pervades in terms of environment. In the following times, we will be observing an increase in uncertainty in the environment. It is not clear what internet as an organizational environment will transform into, either to a platform for all voices with a participative democracy or to a platform where multinationals and states will control and exploit the limitlessness. Further studies on the Golden Age of Piracy should be concentrated on more specific sectors and alternative worlds in order to benefit more from such a rich historical metaphor of organizational reality. REFERENCES Ahuja, Manju K. and Carley, Kathleen M., "Network structure in virtual organizations", Organization Science, Volume 10, Number 6, Pages 741-757, 1999. Aldrich, Howard E., Organizations and environments. 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Puchala, Donald J., "Of pirates and terrorists: What experience and history teach", Contemporary Security Policy, Volume 26, Number 1, Pages 1-24, 2005. Roberts, Paula and Webber, Jenny, "Virtous hackers: Developing ethical sensitivity in a community of practice", AustralianJournal of Information Systems, Volume 9, Pages 172-177, 2002. Rogozinski, Jan, The wordsworth dictionary of pirates. Wordsworth Editions, Great Britain, 1997. Sherry, Frank, Raiders and rebels: A history of the golden age of piracy, Harper Collins E-Books, New York, 2008. Smith, Simon, "Piracy in early British America", History Today, May, Pages 29-37, 1996. Snelders, Stephen, The Devil's anarchy, Autonomedia, USA, 2005. Terranova, Tiziana, "Free labor: Producing culture for the digital economy", Social Text, Volume 18, Number 2, Pages 33-57, 2000. The Guardian, Anonymous, 2012. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/anonymous Retrieved at 10.01.2012) The New York Times, Times Topics, Anonymous (Internet group). 2010 (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/anonymous_internet_group/index.html Retrieved at 10.01.2012) Tormey, Simon, Anticapitalism: A beginner's guide. Oneworld Publications, London, 2004. Üsdiken, Behlül and Kieser, Alfred, "Introduction: History in organization studies", Business History, Volume 46, Number : 3, Pages 321-330, 2004. Wallek, Lee R., The mafia manager: A guide to success, December Pr., USA, 1991. Young, Adam J. and Valencia, Mark J., "Conflation of piracy and terrorism in Southeast Asia: Rectitude and utility", Contemporary Southeast Asia, Volume 25, Number 2, Pages 269-283, 2003. Dr. Ula? Çakar got his PhD from Dokuz Eylül University in 2007. Currently he is an assistant professor at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business. His research interests are based on ecological management, business ethics and epistemological origins of organization/management thought. Mr. Ozan Nadir Alakavuklar has been a PhD student since 2007 and currently working as a research assistant at Dokuz Eylül University Faculty of Business. His research interests are mainly based on resistance theories, critical management studies, ethics and the relationship between the businesses and the state.
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