PART
IV: CRITICAL
THEORIES OF ORGANIZATION
Introduction to Critical Theory
Critical theory has a very different look on the nature of social reality, the nature of society and the purpose of
science. Some good beginning readings include any of the following which can be accessed directly using Ebsco (LRC library,
electronic resources) or the email version mailed to you on Wednesday:
- Deetz, Stanley. Putting the Community into Organizational Science: Exploring the Construction
of Knowledge Claims. Organization Science. Nov/Dec2000, Vol. 11 Issue 6,
p732-739. (a beginning look at some of the ideas re: critical theory, including “the cereal piece) (Ebsco)
- Deetz, Stanley, Differences in Approaches to Organization Science: Rethinking Burrell and Morgan and Their Legacy. Organization Science. Mar/Apr96, Vol. 7 Issue 2, p191-208 (Ebsco)
A few other pieces you may find of interest include his piece on dialogue
and otherness at www.colorado.edu/communication/comm4600003/Deetz-Simpson2003.pdf
and a piece o
On (not) seeing Casino labor: http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/wtwo/DeetzIABD.html
David Boje has a different way of dividing up the theory pie. This first site “What is postmodern?”
provides a basic overview of Boje’s distinction between pre-modern, modern and postmodern theory. Read over the site
and take a look at some of the linkages: http://www.horsesenseatwork.com/psl/pages/postmoderndefined.html
Be sure to look at links to frames (ways of looking at things) using http://www.horsesenseatwork.com/psl/pages/fournarrativesfs.html ; Boje’s
five frame survey at http://www.horsesenseatwork.com/psl/007.html and http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/TableBQCP.html
At the Enron site, Boje provides an interesting critical treatment of Enron. Some of the more interesting parts
of this site are his discussion of (Enron as) metatheatre http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/ENRON_critical_dramaturgical_analysis.htm and http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/enron/metatheatre.htm. Finally, Boje’s
entire book Managing in the Postmodern Work is accessible at http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/mpw.html
For additional reading re: historical roots and critical theory, look at at least some
of the following sites:
Verstehen: Max Weber's Home Page at http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Weber/Whome.htm
Karl Marx http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Marx/index.htm
Braverman http://www.faculty.rsu.edu/~felwell/Theorists/Braverman/index.htm
Critical Theory Institute’s home page provides some useful history on critical theory
and gives some interesting examples of current projects of the institute, such as projects pertaining to property and to globalization:
http://sun3.lib.uci.edu/indiv/scctr/cti.html
Organizations as Psychic Prisons
The psychic prison metaphor is a powerful image for looking at organizations that focuses
on the way in which our individual and social constructions of ourselves, the other, the organization and society come to
imprison, limit, oppress and exploit us. There are many aspects to this metaphor. The first has to do with examining our own
self of self and identity – how do we construct ourselves and in what ways do these constructions make us complicitous
in our own servitude, oppression or exploitation? Or, are we perhaps our own oppressors?
One example of this is of course body image and feminist theory has done a lot to contribute
to our understanding of the exploitative and distorted nature of popular culture images of the female body. If you are not
familiar with this literature, I wholeheartedly recommend it – let me know if you want specific references. There are
many other aspects though to look at here, including images that we have of the good employee, the good citizen, the good
spouse/parent. The issue here is not to deny the importance of holding ethical ideals. Rather, it is to critically examine
the ways in which our ideals may be distorted, making us willing subjects for exploitation.
A second avenue focuses on the organization itself and here some of the work mentioned in chapter 7 fits in
nicely. Also look at the body of work on psychodynamics – The Journal of Organizational Change Management had a special
issue in 2001 devoted to this (volume 14, issue 5) – look particularly at Adrian Carr’s piece “Understanding
emotion and emotionality in a process of change” and Astrid Kersten’s piece Organizing for powerlessness: A critical
perspective on psychodynamics and dysfunctionality (web accessible via http://www.emerald-library.com – free
trial available).
A couple of other interesting pieces include: van Maanen, John . Displacing Disney: Some Notes on the
Flow of Culture. Qualitative Sociology; Spring92, Vol. 15 Issue 1, p5-36. (an interesting example of looking at organizational
culture across cultural boundaries- see Ebsco mailing). (his better piece is the Smile Factory: Work at Disneyland – this is available on reserve in the library; I have not been able to locate
a webversion of it. Also accessible via Ebsco is Howard Stein’s (1997) piece on Death imagery and the experience of
organizational downsizing (Administration and Society, May 1997, 29, 2, pp. 222-249 – an interesting critical cultural
piece that explores how organizational downsizing is rationalized and how people process the experience.
Important:
Finally, remember to take a look at the world around you – select a piece of social
culture that is a part of your life (this can be anything: body imagery, food, images of romance and relationship, work, professionalism,
music, consumerism, religion, education, etc.) and apply the 3 steps of critique: 1. understanding – what is this social
construction like in terms of content and cultural practice, values, behavioral consequences; 2. evaluation – how can
we evaluate this construction in social/ethical terms? Who benefits from this construction? Why this construction and not
another? What story is told by this and what story is hidden/suppressed/masked/untold? Am I a better person through this construction?
Are others? and 3. alternatives – what alternative constructions would be possible and how would they be different?
What keeps us from creating alternative constructions? What would need to change in order for the alternative constructions
to flourish?
Boje gives a related but a bit different take on these three steps in his pieces on deconstruction –
look particularly at http://cbae.nmsu.edu/~dboje/deconstruct.html especially
the 8 step process suggested for deconstruction: duality search, reinterpret the hierarchy, rebel voices, other side of the
story, deny the plot, find the exception, trace what is between the lines, and resituate. Also look at the different deconstruction
levels described in http://cbae.nmsu.edu/mgt/handout/boje/decontypes/index.html . In addition to
the examples listed above, you can also look at the popular narratives provided by advertising: advertising gives us an interesting
glimpse of cultural construction and a good avenue for practicing deconstruction. Take a look at the following site which
provides representations of work in TV ads and look for the told and the untold narratives in the ads: http://www.lclark.edu/~soan221/repmapuniverse3.html Lastly, look
at traditional narrative: the stories you grew up with and the ways in which these stories shaped your world and sense of
self.
Organizations as Flux and Transformation and Organizations as Instruments of Domination
While the first section on critical theory emphasized the role of social construction
in creating and maintaining relations of social inequality and domination, the second and third sections are more structural
in nature. The metaphor on flux and transformation presents an image of organizations and society that allows us to come to
terms with the change as a constant and permanent feature of natural and social life. In addition to the pieces described
in chapter 8, you may also want to take a look at some of the links pertaining to complex and critical systems theory as well
as the links related to chaos theory a sampling of which is provided below. Please note that there are some theoretical crossovers
here between critical systems theory and some variants of brain/learning theory. Needless to say, you should not be looking
at and certainly not be printing all of this stuff but look at enough of it so you will get a sense of what it means to think
of organizations as truly complex, interacting and chaotic entities.
http://www.systems-thinking.org/welcome.htm
http://www.udel.edu/aeracc/sites.html
http://www.brint.com/Systems.htm
http://www.orgmind.com/chaos/chaos.html
http://www.orgmind.com/chaos/articles.html#articles
http://www.orgmind.com/chaos/living.html
http://www.cyberartsweb.org/cpace/theory/theoryov.html
http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/depts/mnss/courses/ssm/m_1frs.htm
http://www.turnpoint.org/index.html
http://sysval.org/
http://www.css.edu/users/dswenson/web/System.htm
http://www.dpsnet.com/system/example.htm
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/home.html
http://www.acm.org/sigois/auto/Main.html
http://www.informatik.umu.se/~rwhit/AT.html#ReadingRoom
http://www.rosado.net/articles-paradigm.html
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/
http://order.ph.utexas.edu/chaos/
http://www.margaretwheatley.com/writing.html
http://www.twu.ca/Leadership/meaning_lead.asp
http://www.wie.org/j22hock.asp?pf=1 (transformation)
The image of organizations as instruments of domination emphasizes the ways in which organizations are used
as tools for exploitation and domination. Morgan uses the image of the “ugly face” of the organization –
personally I think that “the masked face” may be more appropriate in that the truly ugly face rarely shows and
most of the time we are looking at pretty pictures, pretty images, and pretty narratives (think back to Boje’s piece
on Enron as metatheatre, listed above and the cereal box narratives). In addition to chapter 9 in the text, you can look at
the following examples. In the area of the global economy and global exploitation, look at the Global exchange network: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/NikeReebokChinaReport.html; http://www.globalhawaii.org/home.html and critique of
global economy http://www.timsbrain.com/Memes/Corporate_Power/Critiques_of_the_Global_Economy/ Of course,
don’t forget to look at the fast food industry as an outstanding example.
A whole related issue and one of central interest to critical theory is the way in which the academy, the institution/practice
of science, also becomes a tool of domination and the various ways in which science is used and co-opted in the practice of
domination. For those of you with an interest in law, critical legal theory and
research is particularly interesting, looking at the ways in which we can understand the law as a political tool and construction:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/topics/critical_theory.html
For a good discussion of the issue of politics in organization theory, see The
Discourse of Organization Studies: Dissensus, Politics, and Paradigms
(PDF) Another topic of continuing debate pertains
to the issue of gender in organizations and here is a link to a good discussion re: issues of gender bias in studying organizations
and the implications for the development of organization theory: Martin, P. and Collinson, D. Over the pond and across the
water: Developing the field of gendered organizations. I
(PDF)
