Deconstructing paradise: beneath the hegemonic illusions of harmony

Abstract

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractThis article is a radical humanist deconstruction of an ethnographic account previously reported. Our intent is to show the underlying layers of contradictions and tensions beneath the illusions of harmony that have been socially constructed. The study shows how organisation members may not be cognisant of the repressive structure that they themselves help to build, and how this structure is held together in no small way through hegemonic story-telling. The deconstruction employs not only verbatim text, but also the social stage on which it is played out. The inclusion of this additional domain of play provides an extra process of reflexivity, to guard against the dangers of the "truth trap." While a strong sense of cohesiveness and group identity is often lauded as humanising, this article also shows that domination and control can be exercised through this process of identity development, and that a common out-group "enemy" can be adopted to divert attention away from the anxieties and tensions of the current state.

“The sky's the limit”: fantasy in the age of market rationality

“…Van Loon (2001, p. 297), in turn, has argued that "the people in the organization must be genuinely afraid for its survival if they are to support radical change". Similarly, Chung et al (2001) note how organizations will intentionally construct an "enemy" so as to "divert attention away" from employee feelings of resentment over the contradictions in the institutions discourses of harmony and shared identity. Importantly according to Bartunek (1984) it matters little if this threat is real or not as long as it is present so as to reinforce organizational desires for change.…”