Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies PDF
Preview Repositioning Organization Theory: Impossibilities and Strategies
Repositioning Organization Theory Repositioning Organization Theory Impossibilities and Strategies Steffen Böhm © Steffen Böhm 2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-4363-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2006 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-52227-9 ISBN 978-0-230-50141-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230501416 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Böhm, Steffen, 1973– Repositioning organization theory : impossibilities and strategies / Steffen Böhm. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Organization. 2. Management. 3. Knowledge management. 4. Organizational effectiveness. 5. Organizational behavior. I. Title. HD31.B6125 2005 658′.001–dc22 2005051216 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 For my parents, Ingeborg and Matthias Contents Acknowledgements viii Part I Introduction 1 1. Positioning Organization Theory 3 Part II Philosophy 27 2. Dialectics? A Note on the Politics of Thought 29 3. The Political Event: Of Destruction 42 4. The Political Event: Of Deconstruction and Impossibility 52 Part III Organization 69 5. Positioning Organization: The Hegemony of Management Knowledge 71 6. Depositioning Organization: The Politics of Resistance 104 7. Repositioning Organization: Impossibilities of ‘The Movement’ 138 Part IV Conclusions 177 8. Repositioning Organization Theory 179 Notes 193 References 202 Index 222 vii Acknowledgements This book is the product of a long journey. Over the years I have met many exceptional people on this journey: people who have inspired me, who have made me think and who have taught me to read and write. While it would be impossible to name everybody here who has helped, in some way or another, to make this book happen, I would like to express my gratitude to some people specifically. First, my special thanks go to Gibson Burrell and Karen Dale who super- vised my PhD project at Warwick, on which this book is largely based. They were a great support in what sometimes were difficult times. I owe them a lot. I would also like to thank Peter Fleming, Phil Hancock, Campbell Jones, Martin Parker, Damian O’Doherty and André Spicer for their detailed readings of earlier manuscripts of this book. I greatly appreciate the time and effort they have put into their critical but affirmative readings of this text. I feel that their comments have greatly improved this text, although all mistakes and insufficiencies are obviously mine. Thanks are also due to Christian De Cock, Chris Land, Iain Munro and Torkild Thanem for the many discussions that have helped to form the ideas explored in this book. A big hug to Emma Dowling, Jeremy Gilbert, Yasmin Khan, Jo Littler, Tadzio Müller, Rodrigo Nunes, Emilia Palonen, Oscar Reyes, Sian Sullivan, Zoe Young and many others who I have been working with on various academic activist and social forum events in the past three years. Their emotional and political support and inspiration has meant a lot to me. Some special thanks go to Maria Ceci Misoczky who was such a kind host during my visit to the 2005 World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Between September 2001 and January 2002 I was visiting the Department of Management, Philosophy and Politics at Copenhagen Business School as a Marie Curie Fellow and have since then returned to Copenhagen many times. There, my special thanks go to Thomas Basbøll, Søren Buhl Pedersen, Christine Frandsen and particularly Martin Fuglsang and Bent Meier Sørensen whose enthusiasm has had a great influence on me. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the Essex Management Centre, which has proved to be such an intellectually stimulating place. Thanks are also due to those Essex students and staff who have participated in so many exciting and energizing workshops and political events on the Essex campus in the past two years. I have drawn a lot of energy from these events. viii Acknowledgements ix I would also like to mention Alessia Contu, Bob Cooper, Rolland Munro, Tony O’Shea, Sverre Spoelstra, René ten Bos, Sam Warren and Akseli Virtanen, who have all contributed, in their own different ways, to my intellectual journey over the past few years. Finally, my heartfelt thanks go to my parents, Ingeborg and Matthias, who have made this journey possible in so many ways. My love and biggest thanks go to Vicky for her tremendous support during all those years. London, May 2005
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