IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/hal-03662177.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

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

Author

Listed:
  • 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
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://hal.science/hal-03662177/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/13505076211066276?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    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)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Thomas, Rhodri & Wood, Emma, 2015. "The absorptive capacity of tourism organisations," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 84-99.
    2. Kristof Van Assche & Raoul Beunen & Stefan Verweij, 2020. "Learning from Other Places and Their Plans: Comparative Learning in and for Planning Systems," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 5(1), pages 1-5.
    3. Peter M. Bednar & Christine Welch, 0. "Socio-Technical Perspectives on Smart Working: Creating Meaningful and Sustainable Systems," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-18.
    4. Tiffany Cheng-Han Leung & Robin Stanley Snell, 2021. "Strategies for Social and Environmental Disclosure: The Case of Multinational Gambling Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(3), pages 447-467, January.
    5. Daoust, Laurence, 2020. "Playing the Big Four recruitment game: The tension between illusio and reflexivity," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    6. Mario Bogdanović, 2023. "Destructive Organizational Communication And Manipulation: Emergent Forms, Consequences And Coping In The Function Of Smarter Organizational Solutions," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 18(1), pages 65-84, March.
    7. Pina e Cunha, Miguel & Rego, Arménio & Berti, Marco & Simpson, Ace Volkmann, 2023. "Understanding pragmatic paradoxes: When contradictions become paralyzing and what to do about it," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(4), pages 453-462.
    8. Andersson, Fredrik W. & Jordahl, Henrik & Kärnä, Anders, 2021. "Ballooning Bureaucracy: Tracking the Growth of High-Skilled Administration within Swedish Higher Education," Working Paper Series 1399, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    9. Marie LEMAIRE, 2018. ""It's a Bible!" Unexpected use, misuse and non-use of CSR standards among "activist" workers," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2018-08, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    10. Christopher Baird & Thomas S. Calvard, 2019. "Epistemic Vices in Organizations: Knowledge, Truth, and Unethical Conduct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 263-276, November.
    11. Humphrey, Christopher & Gendron, Yves, 2015. "What is going on? The sustainability of accounting academia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 47-66.
    12. Eva Parga Dans & Pablo Alonso González, 2021. "The Unethical Enterprise of the Past: Lessons from the Collapse of Archaeological Heritage Management in Spain," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(3), pages 447-461, September.
    13. Mario Bogdanović1, 2022. "Destructive Organizational Communication And Manipulation: Emergent Forms, Consequences And Coping In The Function Of Smarter Organizational Solutions," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 17(3), pages 20-39, September.
    14. Sheppard, Jerry Paul & Young, Jesse, 2023. "An essential stupidity-based review of the Deepwater Horizon disaster," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 65-73.
    15. Cooper, Christine & Lapsley, Irvine, 2021. "Hillsborough: The fight for accountability," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    16. Andrew Geddes, 2014. "Relationships between Research and Policy on Migration in the European Union: A Practice-Based Analysis," EUI-RSCAS Working Papers p0363, European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre of Advanced Studies (RSCAS).
    17. Giustiniano, Luca & Cunha, Miguel Pina e & Clegg, Stewart, 2016. "The dark side of organizational improvisation: Lessons from the sinking of Costa Concordia," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(2), pages 223-232.
    18. Larrisa V. Shavinina, 2011. "What Do We Know About Managerial Talent? The Case-Study of Richard Branson as a Great Project Manager," RePAd Working Paper Series UQO-DSA-wp2102011, Département des sciences administratives, UQO.
    19. Mario Bogdanovic & Domagoj Cingula, 2015. "Dark Triad of Croatian Management Students," Central European Business Review, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2015(4), pages 30-47.
    20. Buhmann, Alexander & Fieseler, Christian, 2021. "Towards a deliberative framework for responsible innovation in artificial intelligence," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03662177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.