Sine Ira et Studio — or Do Organizations Have Feelings?

Abstract

Silence on feelings in organizational theory is deemed a twentieth century aberra tion, at odds with earlier assumptions and also with the deeper thrust of Max Weber's interpretative sociology which gave equal weight to irrationality and rationality. Participants' accounts are used to illustrate the ubiquity of emotions in organizations. Affectivity can properly be seen, not simply as a personal quality but as a property of organizations and a key aspect of their performance.