Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Organization
This Article
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in Web of Science
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Web of Science (4)
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by De Cock, C.
Right arrow Articles by Böhm, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

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

Organization, Vol. 14, No. 6, 815-836 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508407082264
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Human RelationsHome page
A. Spicer, M. Alvesson, and D. Karreman
Critical performativity: The unfinished business of critical management studies
Human Relations, April 1, 2009; 62(4): 537 - 560.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 OrganizationHome page
S. Woolgar, C. Coopmans, and D. Neyland
Does STS Mean Business?
Organization, January 1, 2009; 16(1): 5 - 30.
[PDF]

Home page
 Marketing TheoryHome page
S. Bohm and V. Brei
Marketing the hegemony of development: of pulp fictions and green deserts
Marketing Theory, December 1, 2008; 8(4): 339 - 366.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Group Organization ManagementHome page
A. Styhre
Management Control in Bureaucratic and Postbureaucratic Organizations: A Lacanian Perspective
Group Organization Management, December 1, 2008; 33(6): 635 - 656.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Management Communication QuarterlyHome page
A. Contu
Decaf Resistance: On Misbehavior, Cynicism, and Desire in Liberal Workplaces
Management Communication Quarterly, February 1, 2008; 21(3): 364 - 379.
[Abstract] [PDF]