Lacan and Organization

239 p.Libro ElectrónicoThe work of Jacques Lacan has become an influential source to most disciplines of the social sciences, and is now considered a standard reference in literary theory, cultural studies and political theory. While management and organization studies has traditionally been preoccupied with questions of making corporations more efficient and productive, it has also mobilized a strong and forceful critique of work, management and capitalism. It is primarily as a contribution to this tradition of critical scholarship that we can see the work of Lacan now emerging.La obra de Jacques Lacan se ha convertido en una fuente de influencia para la mayoría de las disciplinas de las ciencias sociales, y ahora se considera una referencia estándar en la teoría literaria, estudios culturales y la teoría política. Mientras que los estudios de gestión y organización ha sido tradicionalmente preocupado por las cuestiones de lo que las empresas más eficientes y productivos, sino que también ha movilizado una fuerte crítica y contundente del trabajo, la gestión y el capitalismo. Es sobre todo como una contribución a esta tradición de los estudios críticos que podemos ver la obra de Lacan surgiendo.Contributors ix Preface xiii Carl Cederström and Casper Hoedemaekers 1 Lacan and Organization: An Introduction 1 2 Lacan at Work 13 3 Symbolic Authority, Fantasmatic Enjoyment and the Spirits of Capitalism: Genealogies of Mutual Engagement 59 4 The Unbearable Weight of Happiness 101 5 For the Love of the Organization 133 6 You Are Where You Are Not: Lacan and Ideology in Contemporary Workplaces 169 7 Danger! Neurotics at Work 187 8 Lacan in Organization Studies 21

Desiring Agency

In this paper we explore the relation between agency and the (pathological) inclinations that lurk beneath the agent’s acts. We draw on the work of Jacques Lacan to argue that an adequate understanding of agency demands attentiveness to desires, the unconscious and the intimate relation between the subject and the Other. Based on some of the key features of the Lacanian subject we suggest agency to be (1) symbolic, (2) imaginary, or (3) ethical. This typology of agency, we argue, has far-reaching implications for social analysis in which we include the project of critical management studies

Liberalisation, surveillance and suicide at La Poste

This article examines how the contradictory dynamics of freedom and control that characterise neoliberal capitalism are played out on lived experiences of work in the context of the newly liberalised and restructured French postal services (La Poste). At La Poste, liberalisation was framed as a great emancipatory project that would reinvigorate a moribund state-owned company, remove regulatory constraints, deepen economic freedoms and strip away deadening bureaucracy. Yet, whilst liberalisation freed La Poste of regulatory controls, it was accompanied by an intensified surveillance and control of everyday working life. The new control measures were not limited to external working practices and structures, but sought to capture the individual worker’s personality, communication and values and harness them towards the company’s redefined commercial goals. Drawing on critical scholarship on neoliberal capitalism and labour, the article shows that when capitalist rationality extends beyond working activity and encroaches on complex, intimate and vulnerable dimensions of the person, this can have dangerous human consequences. At La Poste, liberalisation triggered a profound crisis across the company, transforming it into an ‘entreprise en souffrance’ characterised by escalating levels of psychological distress, chronic stress and a series of employee suicides

The Other Side of Technology: Lacan and the Desire for the Purity of Non-Being

Against the deeply ingrained belief that technology is instrumental and neutral, this thesis argues that our relation to technology is inextricably bound up with fantasies. But what is the nature of these fantasies and where do we find them? Are they strictly reserved to the domain of Science Fiction, or can we also find them in more mundane contexts, like the business organization? These are some of the central questions of the present study. Combining the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan with dominant perspectives within information systems research, this thesis offers an alternative perspective on technology in which fantasy, and not least a fantasy of non-being, plays a central role. With support from an empirical case study these points are further contextualized and conceptually developed. The arguments that follow from this investigation have far-reaching consequences for studying information technology (IT), suggesting a turn towards more affective components involved in IT implementation and use

OESP-paradigmet som ett komplext adaptivt system

Problem: Under senare år har mer organiska idéer präglat det strategiteoretiska tänkandet. En ansats till att dels vidareutveckla de organiska tankegångarna och dels sammanföra rådande strategiparadigm till en enhetlig modell har gjorts av Farjoun (2002). Modellen som blev resultatet kallas OESP-paradigmet och bär med sig likheter med vad som kallas ett komplext adaptivt system. Men genom att anta OESP-paradigmet som ett komplext adaptivt system följer också vissa implikationer. Dessa konsekvenser förklaras med hjälp av delar från komplexitetsteorin. Syfte: Genom att anta arbetet av Farjoun som en bra plattform för att förstå den moderna strategiteorin, är syftet för detta arbete att skapa en djupare förståelse av OESP-paradigmet med hjälp av komplexitetsteorins vokabulär. Metod: Det kontinuerliga sammanfogandet av delar från komplexitets-teorin med OESP-paradigmet har följt en hermeneutisk process. På så sätt kan OESP-paradigmet tjäna som text och komplexitetsteorin som förförståelse. Och genom en alternering mellan texten (OESP-paradigmet) och förförståelsen (komplexitetsteorin) skapas en djupare innebörd av texten. Slutsatser: Genom att anta OESP-paradigmet som ett komplext adaptivt system måste det enligt termodynamikens andrahuvudsats följa en irreversibel utveckling. Dessutom bör OESP-paradigmet förstås ur en komplexitetsteoretisk kontext, för att därigenom förstå en organisations tillstånd utifrån sitt avstånd till jämvikt. Utvecklingen av organisationen kommer till stor del att påverkas av initiala tillstånd och brus, och desto längre organisationen befinner sig från jämvikt, desto större betydelse får dessa två begrepp

State of Nordic Fathers

Fatherhood norms have changed considerably in the Nordic countries over the past decades. The sight of a father pushing his baby in a pram is no longer rare, and parental leave is no longer for mothers only. Yet parental leave is still not shared equally, despite parents having the right. Nordic fathers only use 10-30 percent of the total leave. State of Nordic Fathers examines why; and identifies possible avenues to increase fathers’ share of childcare and leave. 10 key findings reveal that fathers’ involvement is a key to gender equality and fathers who have taken long leave distinguish themselves in many respects from those who took none. State of Nordic Fathers is based on a survey capturing the attitudes of 7515 men and women, mostly parents, in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, on childcare work, parental leave, masculinity norms, and workplace and family relationships