Crisis (re)constructed: Ridley Scott's Alien saga as a study of organizational collapse

Fictional narratives have been the focus of organizational research since at least the early 1990s, studied as an insight into the cultural milieu, as a reflection of organizational experiences, as a source of inspiration for members of organization, and as a representation of the sensemaking processes (Czarniawska-Joerges and Guillet de Monthoux, 1994; Hassard and Holliday, 1998). Our text builds upon all these traditions, analysing two films, related but separated by over thirty years, and their construal of a fatal organizational crisis. While all cinematography of a given period may be generally perceived as a reflection of sorts of its fears, hopes and values, the horror and science fiction genres seem to be particularly sensitive to “registers of the psychic and of the sociopolitical” (Freccero, 1999, p. 111). The films we have chosen for our analysis, Alien and Prometheus, generally classified as science fiction horror, can thus be expected to provide a singularly insightful portrayal of the anxieties (in our case, organizational ones) that they depict. The film Alien, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Sigourney Weaver, debuted to critical and commercial acclaim in 1979. Through a seemingly banal and clichéd science fiction narrative, the film explored issues of gender (Creed, 1990), body (Constable, 1999), and technology (Bukatman, 1993) in ways that proved ripe for critical academic reflection over the next three decades. What received somewhat less attention was that the movie was at its core an organizational fiction—its narrative told of a small organizational division (the seven-person crew of a commercial cargo starship) dealing with a crisis situation. It was also organizational issues that provided the main complication in dealing with the alien intruder: secret instructions left by the absent and unidentified (but hierarchically powerful) managers who, driven by corporate greed, jeopardized the safety (indeed, the very survival) of the crew for a chance of greater profit. Alien was followed by numerous sequels helmed by a variety of directors until, in 2012, Ridley Scott returned to the setting of Alien in a new film, Prometheus, starring Noomi Rapace and Michael Fassbender. This movie shares many similarities with its predecessor, notably in its most basic setup of a small spaceship crew experiencing life-threatening contact with an unknown, but hostile, lifeform, and again ask questions about basic organizational issues in the process. Yet the current context in which the film was created is markedly different, with the world transformed by events ranging from the fall of communism, through advancing globalization and privatization of the public sphere to the current financial crisis; more generally, the transition into what Zygmunt Bauman (2000) termed the liquid modernity has reshaped the organizational world (Kociatkiewicz and Kostera, forthcoming). Not surprisingly, (re)construction of the crisis and the factors contributing to institutional collapse in the newer film appear quite different than thirty years ago: the portrayed organization is torn apart by a number of conflicting (though, again, often secret) goals and agendas pursued by various crew members, and by blinkered focus on one’s own objectives to the detriment of common aims (including group survival). In this paper, we compare these two stories of organizational collapse and the milieus in which their originated (including both the academic and popular reflection on organizations as well as contemporaneous science fiction and horror films touching on similar themes), not only to provide a better understanding of the changing fears and anxieties organizations hold for their participants, but also to question the changing social construction of work organization: as a venue of shared activity, of collective sensemaking, and as a social platform for accomplishing shared as well as individual goals

Slow and Fast: An experiential storytelling dialogue about festivals

Speed has a long history of usage in managerial discourse, both as a metric of efficiency and as a point of resistance. In this text we explore its validity as a category for organizing experience, through autoethnographic exploration of participation in experience economy events. We present slow and fast as distinct modes of experiencing the same festivals, and explore the possibility of arriving at a syzygic mode uniting the two oppositions (while preserving their inherent contradictions). Finally, we reflect on the possibility of utilizing ethnographic bursts of experience as a tool for more nuanced management education

Occupying whateverland: Journeys to museums in the Baltic

Recent history of Central and Eastern Europe charts multiple occupations, liberations and re-occupations by a variety of states and regimes. Museums of recent history, located across the region, strive to both constitute a memorial shaping narratives of national identity, and to represent the past in a way both recognizable and persuasive for their predominantly international tourist visitors. These visitors come with their own preconceptions and aims towards building both a historical narrative of the past and a personal identity narrative of a cultured, engaged tourist. In this paper, we chart how the historical past is used in contemporary sensemaking processes in the museums, and how tourist interpretations cross organizational and national barriers that the museum-curated historical narratives attempt to create

France. Un changement de logique

Comment concilier logiques économiques et logiques pédagogiques ? Une telle question renvoie en fait à de nombreuses problématiques, qu’il s’agisse de s’interroger sur les effets économiques de telle ou telle politique pédagogique (et d’abord, de se demander si le système éducatif fournit les acteurs économiques nécessaires) ou de questionner les effets sur le système éducatif des contraintes ou des choix économiques. L’actualité des débats et des évolutions que connaît le système éducatif fr..

Creativity out of chaos

Creativity is said to be highly desired in post-modern and post-industrial organizations Creativity and anarchy on the one hand, and managerialism, on the other, can be seen as different forms of knowledge, two opposed ideals. In many organizational as well as societal reforms we currently observe it is the managerialist ideal that wins over the anarchic. In this paper, we wonder if people fear anarchy? We reflect on the possible reasons for the fear, and we also try to explain why we believe that anarchic organizing should not be avoided or feared

After retrotopia? The future of organizing and the thought of Zygmunt Bauman

The main body of work of Zygmunt Bauman concerns his home discipline of sociology, but his insights have been influential also in the field of organization studies. In this text, we provide an overview of the extent of this influence, providing some additional context for positioning the other contributions to this special section. Afterwards, we explore in more detail two notions central for Bauman’s late thought: that of liquidity and retrotopia. The former constitutes the root metaphor for theorizing the current global predicament. In this text, we analyse how two modes of interpreting it, using the assumptions behind Kurt Lewin’s CATS model and the alchemical tradition underpinning Carl Gustav Jung’s conception of archetypes respectively, can help us theorize the alternative modes of organizing and managing encountered in a study of contemporary alternative organizations. These insights form the starting point for our second goal: to explore Bauman’s notion of retrotopia as a potentially fruitful starting point for discussing both the deficiencies of current visions of our future society, and the possibilities and vicissitudes of developing new forms of organizing and managing. Such new forms, both as practice and as theoretical constructs, are urgently needed if we are to face the numerous, and potentially catastrophic global challenges facing our society today

Into the Labyrinth: Tales of Organizational Nomadism

Labyrinths and mazes have constituted significant spaces for tales of transformation, from prehistoric designs through the myth of the Minotaur and the pilgrimage design in Chartres cathedral to contemporary novels and pictorial representations. Labyrinths and labyrinthine designs can also commonly be found in present-day organizations. This text, based on an ethnographic study as well as on an analysis of academic discourse, explores their significance as symbol and as physical structure. Drawing upon the notion of transitional space, it presents labyrinths as an indelible part of human experience, an archetype, and a sensemaking tool for understanding and explaining organizational complexity. The unavoidable presence of labyrinthine structures is presented as a counterpoise to the reductionist tendency towards simplification, streamlining and staying on-message, allowing or demanding space for reflection, doubt and uncertainty

What to write about? The parable of Diogenes

International audienc

Inne zarządzanie jest możliwe

National audienc

Wolność wyobraźni i odpowiedzialność obserwatora

National audienceNie wątpię, że gdzieś istnieje instytucja opisywana przez autorów, z trzystopniowymi awansami, ramami czasowymi, płaską strukturą i jasno zdefiniowanymi grupami badawczymi prowadzonymi przez wyłonione w jawnych konkursach osoby po stażu podoktorskim