Franz Kafka merits special consideration among the writers of the 20th century for his portrayal of organizational life and the ambivalent character of the social institutions that ostensibly exist to help us. In this article we will draw on his works to enrich our understanding of organizations in three key respects: i) in terms of his creation of a mythology of organization; ii) by developing the concept of 'counter-mythology' to extend existing theory on narrative approaches to organization studies; and iii) drawing on these counter-mythologies to expose the limits of sensemaking in organizations. Using Kafka's counter-mythologies as a framework, this analysis reveals a bias towards plausibility in the existing sensemaking literature, in contrast to which we suggest the development of more counterinductive approaches to the study of organization.

In this article, we explore the risks associated with direct payments to users enabling them to purchase social care. These payments are intended to enable people with disabilities to make choices and increase their autonomy. However, there is little evidence in the existing literature about the risks involved in direct payments as seen by service users. In this paper, we draw on data from a qualitative study of direct payments for people with disabilities in a federal state of Germany. We interviewed 37 individuals involved in direct payment schemes including individuals receiving payments, care assistants, members of organisations providing care and the administrative officers of the local authorities between December 2011 and January 2014. In this article, we use a governmentality perspective to explore how individuals who received the payments saw and sought to manage the risks associated with the scheme. We found that while users reported that direct payments reduced the risk associated with being directly dependent on the care providers and hence increased their desired selfdetermination, they identified new risks linked to their liability for the transferred money, problems associated with their liquidity and cash flow, challenges presented by budget cuts, and sanctions resulting from violation of norms of 'appropriate use' and the difficulties of negotiating with the funders. To manage these perceived risks users indicated that they had subjected themselves to a new way of active self-control and self-management, normalising their behaviour. We note that risk to service users has been neglected in policy design and should be acknowledged more explicitly. IntroductionIn this article, we examine users' accounts of the choices and risks they face and what effects direct payments and user choice have on them. Drawing on governmentalityinspired research, we conceptualise the reactions of users as a form of active selfsubjectivation -a way of governing through freedom (Rose, 1999). To do this, we draw on data from a case study of user choice around direct payments to people with special needs, ranging from serious physical to mental impairments, in Germany. We show how, contrary to a discourse emphasising choice and freedom, risks shape part of the lifeworld of recipients of user choice. Contributing to governmentality-inspired research on risk, we explore how users in social care subject themselves through selfcontrol and self-management in this context and how risks serve as a springboard for this.

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In this paper, we demonstrate that the works of Franz Kafka provide an exemplary resource for the investigation of ''moral distance'' in organizational ethics. We accomplish this in two ways, first by drawing on Kafka's work to navigate the complexities of the debate over the ethics of bureaucracy, using his work to expand and enrich the concept of ''moral distance.'' Second, Kafka's work is used to investigate the existence of ''ethical violence'' within organizations which entails acts of condemnation and cruelty purportedly in the name of ethics. Kafka's work provides insight into the processes of moral distancing across a range of organizational contexts including highly formal as well as more informal settings. The paper enriches the concept ''moral distance'' by identifying the existence of

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to provide insight into the roles of accounting in the management of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in five German hospitals.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted three rounds of interviews, ethnographic observations of meetings and document analyses in five German hospitals between February and August 2020.FindingsThe authors found that actors repeatedly used a central set of indicators (the number of beds for COVID-19 patients) when adapting a healthcare infrastructure to the pandemic. Accounting figures allowed actors to problematize prior configurations, organize processes to make uncertainty plannable and virtualize changes to resume treating non-COVID-19 patients.Practical implicationsThe authors offer suggestions about scenario planning and interorganizational learning which have implications for healthcare practitioners.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the accounting in crisis literature by adding an organization-focused study. Adding nuance to key themes in the literature, they show how the organizations and the field level interact and how organizing locally preceded economizing. They also offer a nonbinary answer to the question of whether or not changes revert back to “normal” after a crisis event.