Monika Kostera

The Anthropology of Empty Spaces

We would like to tell an anthropologic story about how we see reality and how we feel about it, with no intention to generalize our reflections. Our version of anthropology is intentionally self-reflexive and self-reflective. This text is a narrative study of the feelings of anthropologists out in the field. The anthropologic frame of mind is a certain openness of the mind of the researcher/observer of social reality (Czarniawska-Joerges 1992). On the one hand, it means the openness to new realities and meanings, and on the other, a constant need to problematize, a refusal to take anything for granted, to treat things as obvious and familiar. The researcher makes use of her or his curiosity, the ability to be surprised by what she or he observes, even if it is “just” the everyday world. Our explorations concern an experience of space. It aims at investigating the space not belonging to anyone. While “anthropologically” moving around different organizations, we suddenly realized that we were part of stories of the space we were moving in. Areas of poetic emptiness can be experienced, often in the physical sense, on the boundaries and inside of organizations.

The narrative collage as research method

This paper closely analyzes the personal narrative of Earl E. Scott, jr., a third generation low-wall coal miner from southwest Virginia, as a hero story. Low-wall mining, as Earl narrates it, is the descent into an unknown abyss, unearthing treasures brought back as boon to the above-ground world, retrieving from the underworld an energy source that, out of darkness, brings light to the world. Because I see Earl as the humble hero of his own story, I use Joseph Campbells model of the heros journey to illuminate his narrative.

Organizations and archetypes

Contents: Part I: Culture, Organizations, Inspiration 1. A Humanistic Manifesto for Sustainable Management 2. Culture and Organizational Stories 3. Archetypes in Organizations Part II: Organizational Archetypes 4. In Search of the Organizations Self 5. The Organizational Shadow 6. Anima and Animus 7. Persona: The Actor and the Mask 8. The Sage 9. The King 10. The Adventurer 11. The Trickster 12. The Eternal Child 13. Gaia 14. Cosmogony 15. Soteriology Part III: Methodological Notes 16. On the Studying of Organizational Myths and Archetypes: Methods References Index

The Good Manager: An Archetypical Quest for Morally Sustainable Leadership:

This paper explores the potential for morally sustainable leadership, i.e., leadership with an awareness of both light and dark sides contained in the role of the leader, as symbolized by the archetype of the king. A narrative enquiry aiming at the study of fictive stories authored by management theorists and practitioners from different contexts, interweaving collective individual elements, brings to light how issues of leadership goodness are related to each other and to other themes. The stories are presented as archetypical tales, that is, stories that touch profound aspects of culture and the psyche. They reveal what happens when people are asked to imagine a good manager, and how this results in tragic ironic representations, rather than tales of straightforward goodness.

Experiencing the Shadow: Organizational Exclusion and Denial within Experience Economy

This article focuses on the dark and hidden aspects of experience economy events. These aspects are framed as the shadow in the Jungian sense, i.e. an archetype of the unconscious domain. Individuals and organizations create a shadow as a side effect of attempts at control and ordering of their identity. The article presents stories based on ethnographically inspired field studies of experience economy events to show how staged experience produces an experiential shadow side. The process is problematized and reflected upon as a shadow producing side effect of identity production and management in experience economy settings. The possibilities for the integration of the shadow into the normal operation of experience economy organizations are considered with the help of images of the carnival and the archetype the fool. The acceptance of the paradoxical and strange side of such events they may be better understood and their dark side integrated.

Mythical inspirations for organizational realities

Monika Kostera: Introduction to Volume 3: Inspiring Tales M.Kostera Reflections of Medusa H.Hopfl Magnus Forslund: Heavy Metal Managing M.Forslund The superheroes H.Nilson Cats, Turtles, Grinches and Pachyderms: Mythical Inspirations for Organizational Realities in Dr. Seuss J.A.Tyler Possessed By The Organization? Dantes Inferno On Earth P.Piatowski Eve Harrington and All About Alliances K.Klincewicz Representations of the Ideal as Symbols of Subversion C.Schwabenland The Displaced World of Risk Management: Covert Enchantment in a Calculative World P.Pelzer & P.Case Divine inspiration for deities? F.Bill& A.Hytter Living between myths: experiences at Wells Fargo Bank D.Boje & L.M.Adorisio Heinz Von Stem On The Myth Of Myths - Confessions of a Master Mythmaker P.Guillet de Monthuox Leading and Learning Through Myth and Metaphor L.Fritzen Open Sesame or Pandoras Box? Concluding Remarks on Organizing, Archetypes and the Power of Mythmaking M.Kostera

Drinking from the waters of Lethe: A tale of organizational oblivion

This article is a reflection on organizational oblivion, viewed as an archetypical antonym of learning. The consequences of this kind of forgetting for organizational identity construction are described as a narrative project. We refer to the image of Lethe, an archetype of forgetting, to depict how forgetting directly affects the process of identity narrative construction. In this perspective, drinking from the waters of Lethe implies not just the loss of knowledge or memories of how things are done, but the loss of identity so that the individuals do not know who they are anymore. In this context, forgetting disrupts organizational narrative which ceases to be a coherent story and results in organizational identity loss.

Four Theatres: Moral Discourses in Polish Management

This article proposes the metaphor of four theatres for the analysis of ethical discourses in management. The authors adopt a social constructivist and pragmatist perspective and explore the performative definitions of morality that people active within Polish business have. The preliminary results of a study carried out among Polish managers are presented. The managers were asked to respond to a list of highly controversial statements. Their responses have been analysed from the point of view of the theatrical metaphors. We present case studies of companies that illustrate the various theatrical modes that we have found in our material. Finally, some implications for change are analysed.

The quest for quality: translation of a mythical idea

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the model of the translation of particularly important ideas for the organization and its context, called mythical ideas.Design/methodology/approach – The study is based on ethnographic research.Findings – It is found that change processes based on mythical ideas are especially dynamic but also very vulnerable. The consequences of failure can be vital for the organization and its environment.Originality/value – The paper explores the outcomes to which the translation of a mythical idea can lead. The findings are of value for people involved in organizational change processes.

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.