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Into the realm of organizational folly: A poem, a review, and a typology of organizational stupidity

Author

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  • Guilherme Azevedo

    (Audencia Business School)

Abstract

This ‘Provocation essay' is aimed at triggering reflection and fostering renewed research into organizational stupidity and its intersections with management learning. It opens with a critical poem evoking diverse aspects of our daily encounters with the idiocy, nonsense, and absurdity that pervades organizations. It continues with a more comprehensive review of the still diffuse research literature to reveal a typology of three approaches to studying organizational stupidity (systemic-mechanistic, critical-sociological and cultural-functionalist). It closes with a discussion of how stupidity detracts from reflexivity but can also play useful roles in organizations, which ultimately invites more management learning research on the topic.

Suggested Citation

  • Guilherme Azevedo, 2023. "Into the realm of organizational folly: A poem, a review, and a typology of organizational stupidity," Post-Print hal-03662177, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03662177
    DOI: 10.1177/13505076211066276
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-03662177
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mats Alvesson & André Spicer, 2012. "A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(7), pages 1194-1220, November.
    2. Sydney Finkelstein, 2006. "Why smart executives fail: Four case histories of how people learn the wrong lessons from history," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(2), pages 153-170.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational bullshit; organizational incompetence; organizational nonsense; organizational stupidity; poetry;
    All these keywords.

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