Professional blinders? The novel as an eye-opener in organizational analysis

Abstract

Scholarly textbooks often follow a logic where suitable empirical cases are selected to illustrate the theoretical and analytical points that we as scholars want to make. But what would happen if we would do the opposite: build a textbook on a novel written by a novelist for such purpose and let the theories explain the actions and emotions of fictional characters? In this article, we share and reflect upon our experiences of co-authoring a textbook in organization theory together with a professional novelist. We argue that the novel can function as an eye-opener in organizational analysis, forcing us to look beyond more static and rationalistic perspectives on organizations as well as the stereotypes of such. We build and relate our experiences to the growing literature about using fiction in scholarly work and discuss the potential of such genre-bending work when we bring in flesh and blood into the analyses.

Rethinking science communication: reflections on what happens when science meets comic art

“…It is only by reflecting on what happens in the meeting between art and science -what is made visible through comic art -that our thinking and ways of seeing and analysing are affected. This corresponds to our argument, also discussed elsewhere [Grafström and Jonsson, 2018], that by engaging in genre-blurring projects -such as involving a comic artist in a book project about research on collaboration -we can avoid "professional blinders". Our experience of the meeting between science and comic art has enabled new ways of describing, understanding and making visible both the research process and its results.…”

“…This is especially evident for the chosen comic format -the single panel comic. It may also support an iterative and interactive process of meaning making, as it creates a link between words and experiences [Cunliffe, 2002;Grafström and Jonsson, 2018]. Further, it corresponds with Brandi and Elkjaer's [2016] call for 'experimental playfulness' in management education in order to understand that living and working in organizations means different things to different people.…”

Learning empathy through literature

“…Benozzo, Koro-Ljungberg, and Adamo (2019) not only revisit organizational fiction by considering characters from television (Mad Men) and literature (Bartleby, the Scrivener), but they present their ideas using a set of, what they call, 'textual and performative writings.' Grafstrom and Jonsson (2019) extend this discussion by demonstrating the pedagogical utility of developing a textbook on organization theory that is based upon a novel. A textbook that adopts such an approach would go a long way in achieving the pillars of critical management studiesdenaturalization, non-performative intent, and reflexivity (Prasad and Mills 2010).…”

William Golding’in ‘Sineklerin Tanrısı’ İsimli Romanında Liderlik ve Güç Savaşımı

“…Yapılan araştırmalarda, örgütsel konuların örneklerle gösterilmesinin öğretimi sırasında örgütsel teoriyi açıklama ve yönetim eğitimini geliştirme aracı olarak roman ya da edebiyatın kullanılması potansiyeli ele alınmış (De Cock & Land, 2005, s. 518), edebi romanların örgütsel literatürde en yaygın olarak kullanılan kurgusal materyaller oldukları ortaya konmuş (Rhodes & Brown, 2005, s. 471) ve romanların örgüt araştırmalarında kullanılmalarının avantajları vurgulanmıştır (Grafström & Jonsson, 2019;Guillet de Monthoux & Czarniawska-Joerges, 1994;Michaelson, 2016).…”