Bureaucracy, the Holocaust and Techniques of Power at Work**

Zusammenfassung

---

The generational properties of organization theory are an increasing topic for analysis, usually in terms of what is addressed and how it is addressed. Some writers have alerted us to the importance of those social issues that are not addressed. Combining the idea of generational scholarship with the idea of those non-issues that remain unaddressed, this paper highlights how some of the events of the Second World War, which authorities agree was a generational defining and demarcating experience, have been neglected in organization theory. Nowhere is this more clearly demonstrated than in the Holocaust. Strangely, this practical experiment in organizational design and practice seems to have elided almost all interest by organization theorists, whether functionalist or critical. The paper addresses this elision and draws on the work of Goffman, Foucault and Bauman to address the very material conditions of organizational power and raise some ethical issues about the commitments of organization scholars.

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

Auszug

---

Bureaucracy, the Holocaust and Techniques of Power at Work**

For organization theorists to focus on their self-centered academic interests while ignoring their environment is wrong. It is wrong because it deprives organization theory of an extrinsic reason to exist, wrong because the issues arising in the environment are both challenging and interesting, and wrong because organization theorists might actually have something to contribute to world affairs,

William Starbuck (2003: 442)

Introduction

A few years ago the distinguished organization theorist, William Starbuck, noted that having "lost its connection to world affairs, today organization theory lacks an external mission. Yet organizations lie at the heart of major conflicts that are shaping the course of the 21st century, and in principle, organization theory could contribute significantly to human welfare" (Starbuck 2003: 439). The connection that he found to world affairs was grounded in "the emotions of everyday life" and their connection to two themes that "characterized writings about organizations. The earliest organizational writings by sociologists and economists focused on the effects of governmental bureaucracies on societies" (Starbuck 2003: 439). He goes on to note that

Following the Second World War, writers began to see bureaucracies outside the governmental context and began complaining about Organizations* rather than just bureaucracies. People had not complained about Organizations' earlier because the word Organization1 did not acquire its current meaning until around 1930. By the late 1950s, complaints about organizations had become widespread. One very influential book was Whyte's (1956) best-selling critique of American corporate society, which asserted that a troubling 'Social Ethic' gripped America. Many employees, at all levels of management and in technical specialties, were allowing their employing organizations to dominate their lives and the lives of their families. Organizations were shaping employees* personalities, were specifying employees' dress and behavior, and were cutting off employees* roots in communities by moving them and their families frequently. Another influential book was Argyris's (1957) academic critique, which documented how organizations impede employees* development and foster unhealthy personalities ... As organization theory grew larger and gained respectability, it also became more autonomous from external constraints, more organized, and more fragmented. Academics gained freedom to focus on what interested themselves. Research methodology received progressively more respect, almost to the exclusion of validity or relevance. The most prevalent forms of empiricism became stylized types that encouraged observers to remain detached from the situations observed. Subtopics within organization theory proliferated and derived their popularity from their intellec...

Siehe den Gesamtinhalt dieses Dokumentes

---