Organization, Society and Politics

Abstract

‘Organization’ is a term that is used very widely here, consistent with its use in the leading journal in Critical Management Studies (CMS), itself titled Organization. A recent editorial in this journal embraces a generous usage conceptualizing ‘organization’ ‘as noun and verb, accomplishment and process’ (Parker, 2010: 5). Since ‘organization’ is so often used to refer to a place of work, or business, re-describing it in these broader terms is an act of politics. This is because the narrow and broader definitions of organization are expressions of inclusion and exclusion, of privilege and deprivation. Before elaborating on this and on the senses of organization as noun and as verb, it is helpful to restate the definition of organization that was developed in the introductory chapter, as an extension of the Fact that a human being is zōon politikon:

Organization as verb describes the activities of humans as political animals. As noun, ‘organization’ describes the groups and places within which such activities take place, but these groups and places result from acts of organization. As groups and places, these organizations in turn structure acts of organizing.