Paradoxes of Participation: Textual Analysis and Organizational Change

This paper applies literary theory and methods to four accounts of organiza tional change. The paper furthers an understanding of change processes and demonstrates the contribution of literary approaches. With regard to the first purpose, the paper points out several paradoxes connected with organizational change. For example, although the stated aim of the programme was 'involve ment', the texts indicate a constant play between inclusion and exclusion of individuals. As for the second purpose, I argue that the texts produce and reproduce a particular interpretation of change and that literary methods reveal the social construction of organizational change.

[1]  G. Hall,et al.  The Interpretation of Dreams , 1914, Nature.

[2]  I. Richards.  The Philosophy of Rhetoric , 1936 .

[3]  K. Burke,et al.  The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action , 1941 .

[4]  T. Pollock,et al.  A Grammar of Motives. , 1945 .

[5]  W. Bion,et al.  Experiences in groups. , 1961, Human relations; studies towards the integration of the social sciences.

[6]  Owen Barfield.  Poetic Diction a Study in Meaning , 1952 .

[7]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[8]  P. Bachrach,et al.  Two Faces of Power , 1962, American Political Science Review.

[9]  P. Blau.  Exchange and Power in Social Life , 1964 .

[10]  A. Soldi,et al.  Memories, Dreams, Reflections , 1964, Mental Health.

[11]  Ernest M. Kuhinka,et al.  Collected Papers II: Studies in Social Theory. By Alfred Schutz. Edited by Arvid Brodersen. Series Phaenomenologica, Vol. 15. The Hague, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1964. 300 pp. guilders F 25.25 , 1965 .

[12]  Louis O. Mink,et al.  The Autonomy of Historical Understanding , 1966 .

[13]  Murray Edelman,et al.  The symbolic uses of politics , 1967 .

[14]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[15]  Pierre Bourdieu,et al.  Outline of a Theory of Practice , 2020, On Violence.

[16]  A. Schutz.  Collected Papers I. The Problem of Social Reality , 1972 .

[17]  G. Bateson.  Steps to an Ecology of Mind , 1972 .

[18]  A. Pettigrew.  The politics of organizational decision-making , 1973 .

[19]  C. Geertz,et al.  The Interpretation of Cultures , 1973 .

[20]  A. Sampson.  The sovereign state: The secret history of ITT , 1973 .

[21]  P. Ricoeur,et al.  The conflict of interpretations : essays in hermeneutics , 1975 .

[22]  R. Merton,et al.  The Sociology of Science: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations.@@@Einstein and the Generations of Science. , 1976 .

[23]  Bengt Abrahamsson,et al.  Bureaucracy or Participation: The Logic of Organization , 1977 .

[24]  J. Kenneth Benson,et al.  Organizations: A Dialectical View. , 1977 .

[25]  E. A. Locke,et al.  Participation in Decision-Making: One More Look , 1979 .

[26]  W. Regier,et al.  Allegories of reading , 1979 .

[27]  Paul Rabinow,et al.  Interpretive Social Science: A Reader , 1979 .

[28]  K. Knorr-Cetina.  The Manufacture of Knowledge , 1981 .

[29]  J. Lacan,et al.  Speech And Language In Psychoanalysis , 1981 .

[30]  S. Hauerwas,et al.  From System to Story: An Alternative Pattern for Rationality in Ethics , 1981 .

[31]  M. Bakhtin,et al.  The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays , 1981 .

[32]  C. Bazerman.  What Written Knowledge Does: Three Examples of Academic Discourse , 1981 .

[33]  W. Pasmore.  Overcoming the roadblocks in work-restructuring efforts , 1982 .

[34]  H. Willmott.  IMAGES AND IDEALS OF MANAGERIAL WORK: A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF CONCEPTUAL AND EMPIRICAL ACCOUNTS , 1984 .

[35]  R. Kanter.  The change masters : innovation and entrepreneurship in the American corporation , 1984 .

[36]  Linda L. Putnam,et al.  Communication and organizations : an interpretive approach , 1985 .

[37]  M. Saxton,et al.  Gaining Control of the Corporate Culture , 1985 .

[38]  Andrew R. Weiss,et al.  The New Science of Organizations , 1986 .

[39]  Danny Miller,et al.  INTERPRETING ORGANIZATIONAL TEXTS , 1987 .

[40]  Richard Harvey Brown.  Society as Text: Essays on Rhetoric, Reason, and Reality , 1987 .

[41]  J. Bartunek,et al.  First-Order, Second-Order, and Third-Order Change and Organization Development Interventions: A Cognitive Approach , 1987 .

[42]  R. J. Hollingdale,et al.  Between Literature and Science: The Rise of Sociology , 1988 .

[43]  James Clifford.  The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art , 1988 .

[44]  Productive Workplaces: Organizing for Dignity, Meaning, and Community , 1988 .

[45]  Sheldon Zedeck.  Corporate Transformation: Revitalizing Organizations for a Competitive World. , 1988 .

[46]  Russell A. Eisenstat,et al.  The Critical Path for Change: Keys to Success and Failure in Six Companies , 1988 .

[47]  James Clifford,et al.  The Predicament of Culture: Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art. , 1989 .

[48]  K. Fisher.  Managing in the high-commitment workplace , 1989 .

[49]  Joseph R. Gusfield,et al.  On Symbols And Society , 1989 .

[50]  Nancy S. Struever.  The Rhetoric of the Human Sciences , 1989 .

[51]  Joanne D. Martin.  Deconstructing Organizational Taboos: The Suppression of Gender Conflict in Organizations , 1990 .

[52]  D. Boje.  The storytelling organization: A study of story performance in an office-supply firm. , 1991 .

[53]  L. Smircich,et al.  Voicing Seduction to Silence Leadership , 1991 .

[54]  Louis N. Lane.  Magic and mystery , 1991 .

[55]  Alan L. Wilkins,et al.  On Getting the Story Crooked (and Straight) , 1991 .

[56]  The bridge over separated lands : Kenneth Burke's significance for the study of social action , 1991 .

[57]  William A. Pasmore,et al.  Participation, Individual Development, and Organizational Change: A Review and Synthesis , 1992 .

[58]  D. Yanow.  Silences in Public Policy Discourse: Organizational and Policy Myths , 1992 .

[59]  S. Deetz.  Democracy in an age of corporate colonization : developments in communication and the politics of everyday life , 1992 .

[60]  Jay R. Galbraith,et al.  Organizing for the future: the new logic for managing complex organizations , 1993 .

[61]  M. Hatch.  The Dynamics of Organizational Culture , 1993 .

[62]  Michael B. Usher,et al.  Science in action , 1993, Nature.

[63]  Karen Locke,et al.  Appealing Work: An Investigation of How Ethnographic Texts Convince , 1993 .

[64]  Peter Haidu.  The Subject of Violence: The Song of Roland and the Birth of the State , 1993 .

[65]  D. Mccloskey.  Knowledge and Persuasion in Economics , 1994 .

[66]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  Crossroads Style as Theory , 1995 .

[67]  Undisciplining Organizational Studies , 1995 .

[68]  G. Morgan.  Images of Organizations , 1997 .

[69]  E. Brunner.  The Word And The World , 2001, The Review of Politics.

[70]  J. Lacan.  The Language of Self , 2019, The Origins of Self.