This document provides an overview of organizational theory from four theoretical perspectives: premodern, modern, late modern, and postmodern. It summarizes the key aspects of each perspective, including their origins, analytical level, view of organizations, form of rationality, and focus of theory. It also discusses themes in organization studies like the 12 P's framework, perspectives on power and influence, and tensions between theoretical codes in organizations. The document aims to frame organization as a concept and provide lenses for understanding power dynamics and diversity in organizational life.

1. WELCOME!
Betina Wolfgang Rennison
Ph.D. in management
Associate Professor in Organizational Sociology
Departement of Sociologi & Social Work
Aalborg University, Denmark
M.A.D. in Soc. Work, Module 6; ’Power relations’, Aalborg University, 26.02.2015

2. ORGANIZATION
AS A FRAME FOR

3. 1. THEORY OF ORGANIZATION:
THE 4 MAINPERSPECTIVES
2. THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES:
THE 12 P’S – focusing on Polyphony and Power
3. TENTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE:
THE 9 STRATEGIES of coping with paradoxes
4. TIMETOTHINK &TALK whenever we feel like…
PROGRAMME: THE FOUR T’S

4. METAPHORS OF ORGANIZATION

5. MULTIPLE VIEWS OF ORGANIZATION
ORGANIZATIONAS
A FUNCTIONAL
MACHINE
ORGANIZATIONAS
AN ADAPTABLE
ORGANISMORGANIZATIONAS
INTEGRATED OR
DIFFERENTIATED
CULTURE
ORGANIZATIONASA
ACTOR NETWORK
ORGANIZATIONAS
REGULATIVE,
KOGNITIVE &
NORMATIVE
INSTITUTIONS
ORGANIZATIONAS
A LEARNING
FACILITY
ORGANIZATIONASA
CHANGE PROCESS
ORGANIZATIONAS
DECISIONMAKING
ORGANIZATIONAS
POWER
ORGANIZATIONAS
COMMUNICATION

6. 1. PRE-MODERN (1900-1940’s) – FUNCTIONALISM
2. MODERN (1950-1970’s) – RATIONALISM
3. LATE MODERN (1980’s) – SYMBOLISM
4. POST-MODERN (1990’s) – DECONSTRUCTIVISM
FOUR THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES

7. PREMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
LATE MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
POSTMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
Origin-time 1900-1940’s 1950-1970’s 1980’s 1990’s
Theories Scientific Manage-
ment. Bureaucracy.
Human Relations.
Decision-theory. Con-
tingency theory. Res-
ource-dependency.
Network-theory.
Cultural-theory.
Neo-institutiona-
lism. Sensemaking.
Narrative theory.
Discourse theory.
Critical Management
Theory . [ANT, STS]
Analytical
level
Intra-organizational Inter-organizational Inter-subjective Subjective and
societal
View of
organi-
zations
Machine
Closed functional
entities directed by
rules, standard
operational
procedures and
groupdynamics
Organism
Open cooperative
soc. systems of decis-
ion and action driven
by norms of rationa-
lity, aligned to maxi-
mize performance in
a particular situation
Maps of meaning
Socially constructed
realities where webs
of meaning create
bonds of emotion
and symbolic
connection between
members/fellows
Polyfonic choir
Results of discourse
and practice regimes
and sites for multiple
voices and enacting
power relations
Form of
rationality
Formal-legal
rationality
Functional-technical
rationality
Substantive-value-
based rationality
Constitutive-
‘political ‘ rationality
Key-
concepts
Specialization.
Standardization.
Formalization.
Hierarchization.
Scientification.
Modernization.
Adaptation to con-
text (situations-varia-
bles; i.e. PEST).
Profitability.
Symbolism. Cultural
values. Customs.
Regulative, kogni-
tive, normative insti-
tutions. Narratives.
Discourse. Language
games. Regimes of
truth. Power. Subjec-
tivation. Multiplicity.
Paradox.

8. PREMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
LATE MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
POSTMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
Model of
hum.rela-
tionship
Hierarchy; vertical
structure (top-
down)
‘The best fit’
(if…then….)
(outside-in)
Community; hori-
zontal interactions
(side-by-side)
Self-governance;
internalized self-
correction (inside)
View of
humans
Legal object/
human factor
(fixed identity;
being)
Economic object/
human resource
(fixed identity,
being)
Socialized subject /
human part of a hole
(united identity;
belonging)
Individual subject /
human potential
(fluid identity;
becoming)
Concept of
power
Repressive power;
power over people
Repressive power;
power over people
Participative power;
power with people
Productive power;
power to form and
reform people
Role of
manage-
ment
Administration
(controller)
Rationalization
(optimizer)
Communication
(co-author)
Managination
(innovator)
Over-
arching
goal
Convergence.
Prediction.
Control.
Contingency.
Causality (situation-
structure).
Goodness of fit.
Coherence.
Mutual understan-
ding. Institutiona-
lization of values.
Complexity.
Appreciation of diffe-
rence. Liberation
from hegemonic
views. Giving voice to
silence.

9. PREMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
LATE MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
POSTMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
Focus of
theory
Discovering the
universal principles
that govern
organizations
Discovering the
universal principles
that govern
organizations
Describing how life
unfolds within the
org.context in rituals
and other meaning-
ful activities in order
to produce under-
standing of how
organizing happens
Deconstructing the way
organizations are
produced, shedding
light on dominating
‘regimes of truth’ and
marginalized
viewpoints. Suspicious
of all knowledge claims;
of ‘grand narratives’
determining social
norms and subject-
identity.
Onto-
logy
Objectivism;
reality is a pre-
existing unity
Objectivism;
reality is a pre-
existing unity
Subjectivism/
social construction;
reality is socially
constructed diversity
Post-structuralism/
semantic construction.;
reality is constantly
shifting and fluid
plurality
Epistemo-
logy
Positivism; univer-
sal knowledge,
developed through
facts and informa-
tion
Positivism; univer-
sal knowledge,
developed through
facts and informa-
tion
Interpretivism; parti-
cular knowledge
developed through
meaning and
interpretation
Deconstructivism;
provisional knowledge,
developed through
denial and deconstruc-
tion. License to critic.

10. ? How does social work as a concept and a practice turn up
in the different theoretical perspectives?
TIME TO THINK & TALK…
PREMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
LATE MODERN
PERSPECTIVE
POSTMODERN
PERSPECTIVE
SOCIAL
WORK
? How do you recognize the different forms in your daily work?
? In what way have you experienced clashes between the
different perspectives?
? And/or some constructive collaborations between them?

11. THE 12 P’S:
1. PURPOSE
Why does the organization exist? What purpose does it serve;
which values, visions, missions, goals or objectives does it
follow?
2. PRODUCTS
What do the organization do?Which products or services does
it offer, what are the core-business and which tasks and
projects are performed to produce it?
3. PROCEDURES
Which procedures, standards, technologies are used and which
regulative, kognitive and normative ‘institutions’ are presued?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

12. THE 12 P’S:
4. PLACE
Where is the organization geographically positioned; in which
country, region, locality – is it national or international?
What consequences do the physical surroundings have for the
organization?Which role do place, space and architecture play
for its products and people?
5. POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT
What kind of political system and state-model surround the
organization?Which expectations according to law and order,
economic profit and growth, social responsibility etc. meets
the organization? And how does it respond and live up to
those expectations?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

13. THE 12 P’S:
6. PROFESSIONS
7. Which professions and professional specialties are hired
to do the work? How to avoid ‘group-thinking’ and ‘skilled
incompetence’? How do the different professions and
professional groups/teams coordinate and cooperate?
How are any professional clashes and conflicts handled?
7. PERSONS
8. What kind of people are employed? What characterizes
them? What motivates them? How do the organization
balance between homogenity and diversity in the staff? How
do it cope with the difference of people?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

14. PERSONS – DIVERSITY DIMENSIONS

15. 1. PRIMA DONNA
Work is a calling and
the purpose is to
make a difference
2. PERFORMANCE
ADDICT
Work is a compe-
tition and the
purpose is to
perform to others
and oneself
PERSONS – ARCHETYPES OF EMPLOYEES
(H. Hein)
3. PRAGMATIST
work is work and
the purpose is to
get the job done
and do a good
days work
4. PAY CHECK
WORKER
Work is a punish-
ment and the
purpose is to
maximize net
outcome

16. PERSONS – THEORIES OF HUMAN NATURE
(D.McGregor,W.Ouchi,E.Schein)
Rational-economic man Self-actualizing man
C
O
M
P
L
E
X
M
A
N
Social man

17. COMPLEX (WO)MAN

18. ? How does your organization handle its varity of
professions, diverse groups of people and different types
of persons?
? How does your organization balance between
homogenity and diversity in the staff?
? What difference does difference make in your
organization?
TIME TO THINK & TALK…

19. THE 12 P’S:
8. PSYCHOSOCIAL WORK ENVIRONMENT
How does people feel at work? Are they satisfied? Do they flourish
or perish? How does the organization care about the employees
well-being?
9. PROCESSES OF CHANGE
Which processes of change emerges? Why do the organization
change? Which kinds of changes occur; first order (structures
/procedures) or second order (norms, identity, mental maps)?
How do the organization cope with change? How do it handle
resistance to change? How do it learn to learn? Not only
‘exploitation’ (become better at what we do), but ‘exploration’;
doing something new; continually innovate and transform itself?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

20. THE 12 P’S:
10. PARTNERS
Which partners and stakeholders do the organization interact
with? Def. of stakeholder; ”Any group or individual who can
affect or is affected by the achievement of the organizations’
objectives.” (Freemann 1984: 46).
What form of interaction?; exchange of information,
coordination irt. single cases/individuals , multidisciplinary
teams/meetings, formel partnership, co-location, finansiel
coordination etc.?
What are the values of collaboration and networking?
What are the barriers?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

21. PARTNERS – FROM HIERARCHY TO NETWORK
HIERARCHY NETWORK
Mechanic Organic
Vertical interaction Lateral interaction
Centralization Decentralization
Stability Flexibility
Homogenity Diversity
Command Communicate
Coersive rutines Adaptive relations
Clear rules Mutual responsibility
Control Trust
Economic capital; calcula-
ting, prizing, optimizing
Social capital; bonding,
bridging, linking
PYRAMID: CHAIN
OF COMMAND
NET: CHAIN
OF RELATIONS

22. PARTNERS – WEB OF NETWORK-ACTORS
Politicans
Leaders
Emplo-
yees.
Users/
clients
Media
Unions
Consul-
tants
Experts
NGO’s
Int.nat.
actors
Business’
Citizens

23. THE 12 P’S:
11. POLYPHONY - MULTIVOICE ORGANIZATION
What kind of different logics, mental models or codes of communication
frames the organization; objects and subjects? How do the codes clash?
How to combine them and use the richness of perspectives they offer?
LAW
legality
CARING
social help
HEALTH
cure
SCIENCE
knowledge
LOVE
intimicy
SPIRITUALITY
faith
ART
creativity
ECONOMY
rentability
POLITICS
power
EDUCATION
learning
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

24. 1. COMFORTABLE BLINDNESS
2. CONTRADICTORY CONTROVERSY
3. CREATIVE MISUNDERSTANDING
4. CYNICAL PARACITISM
5. COMPLEMENTARY MUTUALISM
6. CONSTRUKTIVE ALLIANCE
SIX FORMS OF CODE CONNECTION
CODEWARS

25. ? Reflect upon which different voices, logics or codes
show up in your work?
? How do they clash and connect?
? Can you think of a situation where the clash of codes
turned out to be constructive for the situation or the
work done?
TIME TO THINK & TALK…

26. THE 12 P’S:
12. POWER
”The greatest temptation on earth is not money or love,
the greatest temptation on earth is POWER! “ (Thomas Jefferson)
How does power turn up in the organization?Which net of
influences and power-relations emerges? What kind of
sources of power are referred to?Which influence tactics are
used? What implications does power have on different
matters; products, individuals, interactions? What is allowed
and forbidden, who is included and excluded in the strategic
game of power?
THEMES IN ORGANIZATIONSTUDIES

27. EIGHT SOURCES OF POWER

28. NINE INFLUENCE TACTICS

29. POWER OVER POWER WITH POWER TO
Repressive Participative Productive
Command-and-control power
or a hard coercive power
Persuade-and-influence po-
wer or a soft co-optive power
Empower-and-facilitate power
or a constitutive power
Individual possession Joint property Strategic games between liber-
ties; power depend on freedom
Created by actors dominating
other actors
Created in relations of equal
actors
Created in the chainprocesses
of acting upon an action
An ego-logical process to
change what others do
An eco-logical process to
shape what others want
A process of subjectivation to
form the way individuals form
and reform themselves
Target Companion Reflexive, ethical subject
Sovereign: Master/Servant Pastor: Shepherd/Herd Assistent coach: ‘Self on self’
Suppression, powerlessness
and obedience
Emancipation and
domination-free dialogue
Opposition and liberated
counterpower
Government; calculated
direction of human conduct
through rules and instructions
Governance; leading of actors
in network through shared
values/goals, negotiation and
mutual adaption
Governmentality; steering via
autonomous individuals that
steer themselves, facilitated by
regimes of practices, program-
mes and self-technologies

30. ”The skillful leader does not rely on personal force;
he controls his group not by dominating but by expressing it.
He stimulates what is the best in us, he unifies and concentrates
what we feel… [and] he never gets away from the current of
which he and we are both an integral part.The person who
influences me most is not he who does great deeds
but he who makes me feel I can do great deeds.”
“Leadership is not defined by the exercise of power but by the
capacity to increase the sense of power among those led.
The most essential work of the leader is to create more leaders.”
PARTICIPATIVE POWER – IN FOLLETTS WORDS
Mary Parker Follett (1868-1933)

31. ”We must cease once and for all to describe the effects of power in
negative terms: it ’excludes’, it ‘represses’, it ‘censors’, it ‘abstracts’,
it ‘masks’, it ‘conceals’. In fact, power produces; it produces reality;
it produces domains of objects and rituals of truth.”
”Power is exercised only over free subjects, and only in so far as they
are ’free’. By this we mean individual or collective subjects who are
faced with a field of possibilities in which several kinds of conduct,
several ways of reacting and modes of behavior are available.”
”Power must be as something which circulates, or rather as something
which only functions in the form of a chain. It is never localised here or
there, never in anybody’s hands, never appropriated as a commodity
or piece of wealth. Power is employed and exercised through a net-like
organisation.”
PRODUCTIVE POWER – IN FOUCAULTS WORDS
Michel Foucault (1926-1984)

32. ”Government [as governmentality] compasses not only how we
exercise authority over others, or how we govern abstract entities
such as states and populations, but how we govern ourselves
…Government concerns not only practices of government but
also practices of the self. To analyse government is to analyse
those practices of the self… those practices that try to shape,
sculpt, mobilize and work through the choices, desires,
aspirations, needs, wants and lifestyles of individuals and groups.
This is a perspective, then, that seeks to connect questions of
government, politics and administration to the space of bodies,
lives, selves and persons.”
(Michell Dean)
GOVERNMENTALITY – IN SHORT…

33. To steer is to steer the way others steer themselves – offering them
freedom and technologies to manage that freedom in a responsible
manner. Self-technology rest on an autonomous person capable of
monitoring and regulating various aspects of their own conduct.
”Occupy oneself with oneself” or ”cross swords with oneself”
(Foucault) thereby making oneself accountable for one’s own actions
and transformations.
To receive oneself
(assigned respon-
sibility from the
outside)
To give oneself to oneself
(take responsibility
at your own initiative)
SELF-TECHNOLOGY
– to form a self that (re)forms itself

34. POLICY-FIELD TECHNOLOGY DIFFERENCEOF STEERING
Education-policy Students logbook, educational-
plan, test, card game on conduct
Accomplished learning /
Planned learning and progress
Personnel-policy,
HRM
Personality tests, appraisal
interviews, career-development-
plan
Professional and personal development
so far / Further development in the future
Health-policy
(‘bio-power’)
Campaigns (e.i. ‘KRAM’), preven-
tive health interviews, rehabilitati-
onprojects, exercise-at-the-job-
programmes , pedometers…
Unhealthy and unfit body /
Healthy and fit body
Elderly-policy Welfare-technologies; robot seal
(‘Paro’), robot hoover, intelligent
toilet, telemedicine, ‘exoskeletons’
‘Objects’ in need of help /
Independent self-caring subjects
Employment
policy
Individual jobplan irt. three
matchgr; a. ‘available for work’,
b. ‘deployable’, or c. ‘temporary
passive’
Passive recipient of welfare benefits /
active jobsearcher in a workfare society
Integration
policy
Immigrant-contracts, tests and
citizenship-declarations
Unassimilated stranger living in a parallel
society / Assimilated citizen
Social-policy Client-interviews and contracts for
the socially disadvantaged
Help needy defeatist /
Committed self-improver

35. SELF-TRANSFORMATION
Technologies of the self…
“allow individuals by themselves or with the help
of others, to perform a certain number of operations
on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, behaviors
and mode of existence, in order to transform themselves
to obtain a certain state of happiness, purity, perfection,
or immortality.“ (Michel Foucault)

36. FOUR ASPECTS OF ETHICAL SELFMANAGEMENT
1. ONTOLOGY (substance):
What we seek to act upon; the governed/ethical substance
(the soul, the body, the mind…) in order to change the situation
2. ASCETICS (work)
How we govern this substance; the governing/ethical work
(methods, procedures, technologies…)
3. DEONTOLOGY (subject)
Who we are/become when we are governed in such a manner;
our ‘mode of subjectification’, or the governable/ethical subject
(i.e. active jobsearcher in a workfare society, or assimilated citizen)
4. TELEOLOGY (telos)
Why we govern or are governed, the ends or goals sought,
what we hope to become or the world we want to create;
the telos or aim of governmental/ethical practices
Michell Dean

37. A productive power and a ethical selfmanagement, which seeks;
- to free and stimulate the potential of individuals in order to create
active, competent and self-responsible citizens/ clients/employees.
- to get individuals to reflect on their own thinking and behavior so the
individual become better to control himself and manage his life, his
freedom.
- to get individuals to continuously review and improve themselves:
”…the target nowadays is not to discover what we are but to refuse
what we are… and to build up what we could be .” (M. Foucault)
- to make the individual able to realize and develop themselves in such
a way that he / she at the same time creates value (for themselves,
the group, the company, the society).
TELOS OF GOVERNMENTALITY

38. 4-DOUBLE LOGIC OF RESPONSIBILITY
1. Responsibility for responsibility:
The individual (citizen/client/employee) is expected to be
proactive and assertive.
2. Self-responsibility:
The individual is expected to act according to her life-situation and
take control over her own risks; illness, old age, low skills, unemploy-
ment, overweight etc.
3. Responsibility for the hole:
The individual is in her self-governance expected to take
responsibility for others – for the consequences of her actions in
relation to the overall context.
4. Responsibility for others taken responsibility:
As a facilitator the professional is expected to support with
information and guidance – to withdrawl and steer at a distance…

39. ”An analytics of government takes as its central concern how we govern
and are governed within different regimes, and the conditions under which
such regimes emerge, continue to operate, and are transformed.”
This implies four dimensions to be studied (Gilles Deleuze):
1. VISIBILITY (mapping/spacing/illustrating):
Which forms of visualization are used; pie charts /tables/graphs,
architectural drawings, physical space or room arrangements
– in order to ‘picture’ who and want is to be governed in what way?
PYRAMID NET PANOPTICON SYNOPTICON
FOUR ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS - Michell Dean

40. 2. TECHNOLOGY (acting/’techne’):
Which specific ways of acting, intervening and directing turn
up, relying upon which technical means; mechanisms,
procedures, instruments or technologies?
Advanced liberal regimes of government uses;
A. Technologies of agency [self-technologies], which seek to
enhance and improve our capacities for participation,
agreement and action.
B. Technologies of performance in which these capacities are
made calculable and comparable so that they might be
optimized.
FOUR ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS - Michell Dean

41. 3. MENTALITY (thinking/’episteme’):
Which distinctive forms of knowledge;
ways of thinking and questioning arise from and
inform the activity of governing?
What forms of thought, expertise, ideals or rationality
emerges – relying on definite vocabularies and
concepts for the ‘production of truth’?
FOUR ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS - Michell Dean

42. 4. IDENTITY (subjectifying):
Which forms of individual and collective identity are at stake?
What forms of person, self and identity are presupposed by different
practices of government and what sorts of transformation do these
practices seek?
What statuses, capacities, attributes and orientations are assumed of
those who exercise authority and those who are to be governed?
What forms of conduct are expected of them? What duties and rights
do they have? How are these capacities and attributes to be fostered?
How are these duties enforced and rights ensured?
How are certain aspects of conduct problematized? How are they then
to be reformed? How are certain individuals and populations made to
identify with certain groups, to become virtuous and active citizens,
and so on?
FOUR ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS - Michell Dean

43. IDENTIFICATION
”Regimes of government do not determine forms of
subjectivity.They elicit, promote, facilitate, foster and
attribute various capacities, qualities and statuses to
particular agents.They are successful to the extent that
these agents come to experience themselves through
such capacities, qualities and statuses. Much of the
problem of government here is less one of identity
than one of ‘identification’. ” (Michell Dean)

44. ”Government [as governmentality] is an activity that shapes the field
of action [conduct of conduct] and thus, in this sense, attempts to
shape freedom. However, while government gives shape to freedom,
it is not constitutive of freedom.The governed [persons, groups,
organizations] are free in that they are actors, i.e. it is possible for
them to act and to think in a variety of ways, and sometimes in ways
not foreseen by authorities. Government presupposes the existence of
subjects who are free in the primary sense of living and thinking beings
endowed with bodily and mental capacities. Government as the
‘conduct of conduct’ entails living human beings who can act.”
(Michell Dean)
OBLIGATION TO BE FREE

45. “Organizations and individuals who once were entangled
in the complex and bureaucratic net of the social state, are
now being set free to find their own destiny. But at the
same time they are politically controlled at a distance;
namely through the invention and the use of new so-called
trust-technologies, which can form their actions and
allegedly increase their independence at the same time.”
(N. Rose)
”On the one hand, they assert the right to be different and
underline everything that makes individuals truly
individual. On the other hand, they attack everything that
separates the individual, breaks his links with others, splits
up community life, forces the individual back on himself,
and ties him to his own identity in a constraint way.”
(M. Foucault)
CONSTRAINED FREEDOM?

46. ” …power relations are rooted deep in the social
nexus…To live in society is, in any event, to live
in such a way that some can act on the actions
of others. A society without power relations can
only be an abstraction.” (M. Foucault)
”Relations between people are unthinkable
without power because all social relations are
relations of various shades of domination,
seduction, manipulation, coercion, authority, and
so on. Power is; power always will be, and can
never not be.” (S. Clegg, D. Courpasson, N. Phillips)
POWER ALWAYS WILL BE

47. ? Think and discuss the theory of productive power and
the concept of governmentality in your organizational
setting?
? What do you think of the power of freedom
– and the power in freedom?
? What are the positive and the negative effects of the
governmentality regime?
TIME TO THINK & TALK…

48. POWER EMPOWER
CONTROL TRUST
DISTANCE PROXIMITY
CARING FOR OTHERS CARING FORYOURSELF
COLLECTIVE INDIVIDUAL
REPRESENTATIVITY AUTHENTICITY
COOPERATIVE COMPETITIVE
PEOPLE-ORIENTATION PERFORMANCE-ORIENTATION
CENTRALIZATION DECENTRALIZATION
VERTICAL HORIZONTAL
OUTSIDE INSIDE
TENTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

49. BIG SMALL
ABSOLUTE RELATIVE
PROFES.OBJECTIVES PERSONAL EXPERIENCES
STANDARDIZATION INDIVIDUAL PROFILES
ESPRIT DE CORP LICENSETO CRITIQUE
CREATION DESTRUCTION
HOMOGENITY DIVERSITY
EFFICIENCY QUALITY
STABILITY FLEXIBILITY
CONTINUITY CHANGE
CONFIDENCE UNCERTAINTY
TENTIONS IN ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE

50. DE-PARADOXATION:
 FUNDAMENTALISM;
‘either-or’
 BALANCE;
‘both-and’
 DECOUBLING;
‘neither-nor’
 GAMING;
‘throwing around’
 HYPOCRISY;
‘not at all’
RE-PARADOXATION:
 REFLECTION; Thinking
analytical distance
 PROFLECTION; Doing
explorative play
 NARRATION; Telling
management of meaning
 AFFECTION; Sensing
intensity of presence
NINE STRATEGIES

51. TRANSFORMATION
3rd order reflection
Reflexive reference in
relation to learning
aptitude. "I learn to learn
and reflect on reflection
as design and desire."
DECONSTRUKTION
2nd order reflection
Complemented foreign
reference to self-reference
"I think about how I think about
how I do."
RECONSTRUCTION
1st order reflection
Processual self-reference
"I think about how I do."
CONSTRUCTION
O order reflection
Basic self-reference
"I do."
Dimensions
of reflection
Rennison 2013

52. ”That my agency is riven with paradox does not mean it is impossible.
It means only that paradox is the condition of its possibility.”
(Judith Butler)
"A first-rate intelligence is characterized by the ability to hold two
opposing ideas at the same time and still retain its functionality.“
(F. Scott Fitzgerald)
“The orthodox world of ordering, controlling and organizing is
increasingly opposed to a normalizing world of disordering, disrupting
and disorganizing... In the future, organization studies will be the study
of paradox, how to understand it, how to use it.” (Stewart Clegg)
“Paradox and absurdity keep us off balance.
In so doing they produce the humility, vitality, and creative surprise
that make life so worth living.” (Richard Farson)
PARADOX AS THE ULTIMATE P’

53. 1. THE FOURTHEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ORGANIZATION
ANDTHE DIFFERENT WORLDVIEWSTHEY CREATE
2. THE POLYPHONIC DRIVE OF ORGANIZATIONS
ANDTHE ‘CODE WARS’ IT BRINGS
3. THE PRODUCTIVE POWER IN ORGANIZATIONS
ANDTHE ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS IN HANDLING/STUDYING IT
4. THETENSIONS AND PARADOXES OF ORGANIZATIONAL LIFE
ANDTHEVARIED STRATEGIESTO COPE WITH IT
THINGS TO REMEMBER

54. ”I believe that some of the most fundamental
problems we face stem from the fact that the
complexity and sophistication of our thinking do
not match the complexity and sophistication of
the realities with which we have to deal.The
result is that our actions are often simplistic and
at times downright harmful.” (Garath Morgan)
Our challenge is to learn to deal with the
complexity by relying on the most valuable
assets we have:
- our capacity for critical thinking
- our curiosity for the new
- our caring for the richness of perspectives
that live brings…
POINT TO TAKE

55. SOME OF MY PUBLICATIONS…
 “Reflexive Management – Systemtheoretical reflection on reflection”,
Journal of Leadership and Management, vol. 3, 2015.
 “Cracking the Gender Codes – Discourses of women in management”,
Journal of Leaderhip and Management, vol. 1, 2014.
 “Cash, codes and complexity: new adventures in public management of
pay scales”, in: The Illusion of Management Control: A SystemsTheoretical
Approach to Managerial Technologies, N.Thygesen (red.), 2012, Palgrave
Macmillan.
 “Historical Discourses of Public Management in Denmark -
Past emergence and Present challenge”, Management & Organizational
History, vol. 2, no. 1, 2007: SAGE.
 “Intimacy of management – codified constructions of personalized selves”,
Philosophy of Management, vol. 6. no. 2, 2007: Reason in Practice.