The Management of Meaning in Organizations

The Management of Meaning in Organizations

Also by Slawomir Magala: CLASS STRUGGLE IN CLASSLESS POLAND CROSS CULTURAL COMPETENCE

The Management of Meaning in Organizations Sławomir Magala Professor in Organization Theory and HRM, Erasmus University, The Netherlands

Sławomir Magala 2009 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2009 978-0-230-01361-2 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion 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, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized 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 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-28492-4 ISBN 978-0-230-23669-1 (ebook) DOI 10.1057/9780230236691 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Magala, Slawomir. The management of meaning in organizations / by Magala, Slawomir. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Organizational behavior. 2. Interorganizational relations. 3. Knowledge management. 4. Organizational change. I. Title. HD58.7.M3233 2009 302.3 5 dc22 2008050875 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 09

Contents List of Illustrations Preface vii viii 1. Introduction: Can Values and Meanings be Outsourced and, if so, to Whom? 1 2. The Past Tense of Meaning (Lost and Gained in Historical Translations) 34 Phenomenology 48 Critical theory 50 Psychoanalysis 53 3. Cases in Point 59 (a) The return of religious sensemaking: the case of intelligent design 59 (b) Experts, ideologies and the media: the case of the Brent Spar oil rig 64 (c) Acceptable inequalities? The case of female IQ (gendered soul inside the academic brain) 68 4. The Present Tense of Meaning (Underground Passages between Hierarchies, the Cunning of Calculating Reason and the Return of Utopian Virtues) 77 (a) Patterning the sensemaking processes 1: the professional bureaucracy cluster and attempts to leave the pyramid behind 88 (b) Patterning the sensemaking processes 2: the commercialization of interactions and alternatives to the iron cage of ranking 117 (c) Patterning the sensemaking processes 3: reconfigurations of agency and the emergence of multimedia communications 143 v

vi Contents 5. Case in Point: Scaffolding for a Critical Turn in the Sciences of Management 173 6. The Future Tense of Meaning (Cultural Revolutions, Social Transformations and Media Rituals) 186 7. Instead of Conclusions: the Revenge of Populism and the Transformation of Angry Mobs into Mobilized Alternative Social Networks 213 Appendix 1: Track proposal for EURAM 2009, Liverpool 11 14 May 2009 221 Notes 224 Literature 245 Name Index 259

List of Illustrations 3.1 Gender, Navid Nuur. A billboard by a contemporary artist making a creative comment on dead-end streets in attempts to increase gender equality in professional bureaucracies (courtesy of the artist) 76 4.1 Pawel Althamer, apartment building in Warsaw on New Year s Eve, 1999/2000 (courtesy of the artist) 88 4.2 Krzysztof Wodiczko, Public Projections, Hirschorn Art Gallery, Washington DC and Cultural Centre in Tijuana, Mexico (courtesy of the artist) 166 6.1 Leszek Knaflewski, e-flux (courtesy of the artist) 212 vii

Preface What do we mean when we mean something? What do we make when we make sense? We manage to answer these questions because we live in an organized world. We learn who to ask for advice a philosopher, a medical doctor, a certified accountant or a creative artist. All of them practise their skills and serve the broader public. Both the content of their professional service (knowledge, wisdom, competence) and form of its delivery (organization, institution, network) change. Looking back we can trace some of the changes and their influence upon the contemporary production of meaningful knowledge. Looking down, beneath the level of official exchanges between knowledge producers we can trace some of the overlaps and borrowings. Some of the latter may be tacit, implicit, subconscious. Professionals interact and communicate. Researchers talk to managers (say, biochemists and medical doctors). Researchers talk to researchers (say, social psychologists and theoreticians of organization). Managers talk to managers (say, politicians and priests, corporate executives and NGO activists). Looking back we discover some skeletons in the house of scientifically legitimized knowledge. How come we learned to be ignorant about the role of non-western contributors to the European Renaissance from Arabia, Persia, Syria, India or China? Why do we insist that our elites speak Latin and Greek, sometimes Hebrew, but not Arabic? Does it influence our contemporary bias in dealing with the near and far orient? Looking down we discover a lively underground traffic in meanings and sensemaking, most of it either illegal or semi-legal. Are we aware that the charisma we discover in a politician was purchased on the black market of meanings? It was smuggled into the languages of social sciences and political PR from Byzantine iconic wars in early Christianity. Does it still mean the same to us? These questions may sound abstract and remote to a busy professional. I have tried to demonstrate their empirical relevance and emotional appeal. Most of our lives are spent in professional bureaucracies, which outsource meanings and recycle values. Understanding what makes them (and us in them ) tick cannot be just another esoteric exercise. It can be relevant, salient and appropriate. Can it? Can we? Yes, we can. SŁAWOMIR MAGALA KRIMPEN A/D IJSSEL/POZNAN, NOVEMBER 2008 viii