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Organization, Vol. 14, No. 6, 815-836 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508407082264

Liberalist Fantasies: Zizek and the Impossibility of the Open Society

Christian De Cock

School of Business and Economics, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK, c.de-cock{at}swansea.ac.uk

Steffen Böhm

Department of Accounting, Finance and Management, University of Essex, Colchester, UK, sgbohm{at}essex.ac.uk

In this paper we engage with the liberalist project in organization and management studies. The first `face' of organizational liberalism is expressed through post-bureaucratic discourses which very much define the mainstream of management thought today, highlighting the need for organizational openness which can only come through a liberation of management from the closed structures of the bureaucracy. The second face of organizational liberalism defends the bureaucratic ethos of liberal-democratic institutions and points to the Popperian concept of the `open society' that requires rational, procedural laws to reconcile conflicting values in societies and organizations, thus ensuring the existence of a plurality of ways of life. We point to the limitations of both `faces' of organizational liberalism by discussing key aspects of Slavoj Zizek's work. Zizek displaces the liberal conception of institutionally sanctioned `openness' by claiming this actually constitutes a closure and puts a challenge to us. How can we create real openness? How is a real difference possible?

Key Words: bureaucracy • capitalism • ideology • liberalism • open society • political philosophy • Zizek


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