In this article, we hope to show why examining the work of the writer, Franz Kafka (1883—1924), may enhance our understanding of organizations. In doing so, his life and achievements will be compared with Max Weber's (1864—1920). We will seek to see how their backgrounds, experiences and writing, in their respective ways, can offer analytic insights for scholars of organization vis-à-vis a number of key concepts in the field, such as bureaucracy, power and authority, rationality and lastly, alienation.
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