The notion of the postbureaucratic organization has been employed in organization theory to denote a number of movements beyond the control mechanisms of the bureaucratic organization. This article aims to use the notions of the symbolic and the imaginary, developed by the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan and applied to technology studies by Friedrich Kittler, when examining control in these two archetypical organizational configurations. The article argues that the departure from the use of written documents, scripts, and protocols and the increasing emphasis on identity, culture, ideology, and other unobtrusive forms of control can be examined in terms of being a change of emphasis from the symbolic to the imaginary register, from the register of language to the register of images.
Adler, P.S., & Borys, B. (1996). Two types of bureaucracies: Enabling and coercive . Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 61-89.
2.
Albrow, M. (1970). Bureaucracy. London: Pall Mall Press.
3.
Alvesson, M. (2004). Knowledge work and knowledge-intensive firms. Oxford, UK, andNew York: Oxford University Press.
4.
Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (2002). Identity regulation as organizational control: Producing the appropriate individual. Journal of Management Studies, 39, 619-644.
5.
Arnaud, G. (2003). A coach or a couch? A Lacanian perspective on executive coaching and consulting. Human Relations, 56, 1131-1154.
6.
Barker, J.R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
7.
Barley, S.R., & Kunda, G. (1992). Design and devotion: Surges of rational and normative ideologies of control in managerial discourse. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 363-399.
8.
Barley, S.R., & Tolbert, P. (1997). Institutionalization and structuration: Studying the links between action and institution. Organization Studies , 18, 93-117.
9.
Bendix, R. (1971). Bureaucracy. In R. Bendix & R. Guenther (Eds.), Scholarship and partisanship: Essays on Max Weber (pp. 129-155). Berkeley, MD, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press.
10.
Bolton, S.C. (2004). A simple matter of control? NHS hospital nurses and new management. Journal of Management Studies, 41, 317-333.
11.
Bracher, M. (1993). Lacan, discourse, and social change: A psychoanalytic cultural criticism. Ithaca, NY, and London: Cornell University Press.
12.
Callon, M. (2002). Writing and (re)writing devices s tools for managing complexity. In J. Law & A. Mol (Eds.), Complexities: Social studies of knowledge practices (pp. 191-218). Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.
13.
Contu, A. (2008). Decaf resistance: On misbehavior, cynicism, and desire in the workplace. Management Communication Quarterly , 21, 364-379.
14.
Cooke, B., Mills, A.J., & Kelley, E. (2005). Situating Maslow in cold war America: A recontextualization of management theory. Group & Organization Management , 30, 139-152.
15.
Courpasson, D. (2000). Managerial strategies of domination: Power in soft bureaucracies. Organization studies, 21, 141-161.
16.
Crozier, M. (1964). The bureaucratic phenomena. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
17.
De Cock, C., & Böhm, S. (2007). Liberalist fantasies: Žižek and the impossibility of the open society. Organization, 14, 815-836.
18.
Du Gay, P. (1996). Consumption and identity at work. London: Sage.
19.
Du Gay, P. (2000). In praise of bureaucracy. London: Sage.
20.
Du Gay, P. (Ed.). (2005). The values of bureaucracy. Oxford, UK, and New York: Oxford University Press.
21.
El-Sawad, A., & Korczynski, M. (2007). Management and music: The exceptional case of the IBM songbook. Group & Organization Management, 32, 79-108.
22.
Ezzamel, M., & Willmott, H. (1998). Accounting for teamwork: A critical study of group-based systems of organizational control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, 358-396.
23.
Farrell, C., & Morris, J. (2003). The neo-bureaucratic state: Professionals, managers and professional managers in schools, general practices and social work. Organization, 10, 129-156.
24.
Ferguson, K.E. (1984). The feminist case against bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
25.
Ferrin, D.L., Bligh, M.C., & Kohles, J.C. (2007). Can I trust you to trust me? A theory of trust, monitoring, and cooperation in interpersonal and intergroup relationships . Group & Organization Management, 32, 465-499.
26.
Fleming, P., & Spicer, A. (2008). Beyond power and resistance: New approaches to organizational politics. Management Communication Quarterly , 21, 301-309.
27.
Fournier, V. (1998). Stories of development and exploitation: Militant voices in the enterprise culture. Organization, 5, 55-80.
28.
Gabriel, Y. (1999). Beyond happy families: A critical reevaluation of the control-resistance-identity triangle. Human Relations , 52, 179-203.
29.
Garsten, C., & Grey, C. (1997). How to become oneself: Discourses of subjectivity in postbureaucratic organizations. Organization, 4, 211-228.
30.
Gluckman, M. (1965). Politics, law and ritual in tribal society. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
31.
Goodsell, C.T. (2004). The case for bureaucracy: A public administration polemic (4th ed.). Washington, DC: CQ Books.
32.
Goody, J. (1986). The logic of writing and the organization of society . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Grosz, E.A. (1990). Jacques Lacan: A feminist introduction. London and New York: Routledge .
35.
Hales, C. (2002). "Bureaucracy-lite" and continuities in managerial work. British Journal of Management, 13, 51-66.
36.
Harding, N. (2007). On Lacan and the "becoming-ness" of organizations/selves . Organization Studies, 28, 1761-1773.
37.
Harris, M. (2006). Technology, innovation and post-bureaucracy: The case of theBritish library. Journal of Organization Change Management, 19, 80-92.
38.
Harris, M., & Wegg-Prosser, V. (2007). Post bureaucracy and the politics of forgetting: The management of change at the BBC, 1991-2002 . Journal of Organization Change Management, 20, 290-303.
39.
Henry, J. (2006). Educating managers for post-bureaucracy: The role of the humanities. Management Learning, 37, 267-281.
40.
Hodgson, D.E. (2004). Project work: The legacy of bureaucratic control in the post-bureaucratic organization. Organization, 11, 81-100.
41.
Homer, S. (2005). Jacques Lacan. London & New York: Routledge.
42.
Höpfl, H.M. (2006). Post-bureaucracy and Weber's "modern" bureaucrat . Journal of Organization Change Management, 19, 8-21.
43.
Iedema, R. (2003). Discourses of post-bureaucratic organization. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
44.
Josserand, E., Teo, S., & Clegg, S. (2006). From bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic: The difficulties of transitions. Journal of Organization Change Management , 19, 54-64.
45.
Kallinikos, J. (2003). Work, human agency and organizational forms: An anatomy of fragmentation. Organization Studies, 24, 595-618.
46.
Kallinikos, J. (2004). The social foundations of the bureaucratic order . Organization, 11, 13-36.
47.
Kärreman, D., & Alvesson, M. (2004). Cages in tandem: Management control, social identity, and identification in a knowledge-intensive firm. Organization , 11, 149-175.
48.
Kärreman, D., Svenningson, S., & Alvesson, M. (2002). The return of the machine bureaucracy? Management control in the work setting of professionals. International Studies of Management & Organization, 32(2), 70-92.
49.
Kellogg, K.C., Orlikowski, W.J., & Yates, J. (2006). Life in the trading zone: Structuring coordination across boundaries in postbureaucratic organizations. Organization Science, 17, 22-44.
50.
Kira, M., & Forslin, J. (2008). Seeking regenerative work in the post-bureaucratic transition. Journal of Organization Change Management, 21, 76-91.
51.
Kittler, F. (1999). Gramophone, film, typewriter (G. Winthrop-Young & M. Wutz, Trans.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
52.
Kittler, F.A. (1997). Literature, media, information systems: Essays . Amsterdam: G+B Arts International .
53.
Lacan, J. (1989). Écrits: A selection. London & New York: Routledge .
54.
Lacan, J. (1998). The four fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis: The seminars of Jacques Lacan, Book XI (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York & London: Norton .
55.
Leupin, A. (1991). Introduction: Voids and knots in knowledge and truth. In A. Leupin (Ed.), Lacan and the human sciences (pp. 1-23). Lincoln, LE, and London: University of Nebraska Press.
56.
Lynch, M. (2002). Protocols, practices and the reproduction of technique in molecular biology. British Journal of Sociology, 53, 203-220.
57.
Maniha, J.K. (1975). Universalism and particularism in bureaucratizing organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 20, 177-190.
58.
Maravelias, C. (2003). Post-bureaucracy: Control through professional freedom. Journal of Organization Change Management, 16, 547-566.
59.
McCarthy, J.F. (2008). Short stories at work: Storytelling as an indicator of organizational commitment. Group & Organization Management , 33, 163-193.
60.
McSweeney, B. (2006). Are we living in a post-bureaucratic epoch. Journal of Organization Change Management, 19, 22-37.
61.
Merton, R.K. (1957). Bureaucratic structure and personality. In R. K. Merton (Ed.), Social theory and social structure (pp. 249-260). Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
62.
Mir, R.A., Mir, A., & Upadhyaya, P. (2003). Toward a postcolonial reading of organizational control. In A. Prasad (Ed.), Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis: A critical engagement (pp. 47-74). Houndsmills, UK, and New York: Palgrave.
63.
Morris, J., & Farrell, C. (2007). The "post-bureaucratic" public sector organization: New organizational forms and HRM in ten UK public sector organizations. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 18, 1575-1588.
64.
Munro, I. (2000). Non-disciplinary power and the network society . Organization, 7, 679-695.
65.
Munro, R. (1999). The cultural performance of control. Organization Studies, 20, 619-640.
66.
Perrow, C. (1986). Complex organizations: A critical perspective . New York: McGraw-Hill.
67.
Prasad, P., & Prasad, A. (2000). Stretching the iron cage: The constitution and implications of routine workplace resistance. Organization Science, 11, 387-403.
68.
Reed, M.I. (1992). The sociology of organization: Themes, perspectives, and prospects. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
69.
Ritzer, G. (1997). Postmodern social theory. New York: McGraw-Hill.
70.
Roberts, J. (2005). The power of the "imaginary" in disciplinary processes . Organization, 12, 619-642.
71.
Robertson, M., & Swan, J. (2003). "Control-what control?" Culture and ambiguity within a knowledge intensive firm. Journal of Management Studies , 40, 831-858.
72.
Robertson, M., & Swan, J. (2004). Going public: The emergence and effects of soft bureaucracy within a knowledge-intensive firm. Organization , 11, 123-148.
73.
Rose, N. (1990). Governing the soul: The shaping of the private self. London: Routledge.
74.
Rosen, M., & Astley W.G. (1988). Christmas time and control: An exploration in the social structure of formal organizations. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 6, 159-182.
75.
Rosenthal, P. (2004). Management control as an employee resource: The case of front-line service workers. Journal of Management Studies, 41, 601-622.
76.
Roy, W.G. (1981). The process of bureaucratization in the U.S. State Department and the vesting of economic interests, 1886-1905. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 419-433.
77.
Salaman, G. (2005). Bureaucracy and beyond: Managers and leaders in the "post-bureaucratic" organization. In P. Du Gay (Ed.), The values of bureaucracy (pp. 141-164). Oxford, UK, and New York: Oxford University Press.
78.
Saravanamuthu, K., & Tinker, T. (2003). Politics of managing: The dialectics of control . Accounting, Organization and Society, 28, 37-64.
79.
Sennett, R. (1998). The corrosion of character: The personal consequences of work in the new capitalism. New York & London: Norton.
80.
Sewell, G. (1998). The discipline of teams: The control of team-based industrial work through electronic and peer surveillance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 43, 397-428.
81.
Sewell, G. (2005). "Nice work?" Rethinking managerial control in an era of knowledge work. Organization, 12, 685-704.
82.
Simon, R. (1995, March-April). Control in an age of empowerment . Harvard Business Review, 73(2), 80-88.
83.
Tannenbaum, A.S. (1968). Control in organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.
84.
Thompson, P., & Alvesson, M. (2005). Bureaucracy at work: Misunderstandings and mixed blessings. In P. Du Gay (Ed.), The values of bureaucracy (pp. 89-113). Oxford, UK, & New York: Oxford University Press .
85.
Vanheule, S., Lievrouw, A., & Verhaeghe, P. (2003). Burnout and intersubjectivity: A psychoanalytical study from a Lacanian perspective. Human Relations, 56, 321-338.
86.
von Hayek, F.A. (1944). The road to serfdom. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.
87.
Von Mises, L. (1944/1969). Bureaucracy (2nd ed.). New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House.
88.
Weber, M. (1947). The theory of social and economic organization . New York: Free Press.
89.
Weber, M. (1949). The methodology of the social sciences. New York: Free Press.
90.
Weber, M. (1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretative sociology. Berkeley, Los Angeles , and London: University of California Press.
91.
Weber, M. (1999). Essays in economic sociology (Richard Swedberg, Ed.). Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press.
92.
Weibel, A. (2007). Formal control and trustworthiness: Shall the twain never meet? Group & Organization Management, 32, 500-517.
93.
Winthrop-Young, G. (2002). Drill and distraction in the yellow submarine: On the dominance of war in Friedrich Kittler's media theory. Critical Inquiry, 28, 825-854.
94.
Winthrop-Young, G., & Gane, N. (2006). Friedrich Kittler: An introduction. Theory, Culture & Society, 23, 5-16.
95.
Žižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. New York & London: Verso .
96.
Žižek, S. (1993). Tarrying with the negative. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
97.
Žižek, S. (1995). The metastases of enjoyment. London: Verso.
98.
Žižek, S. ( 2006). How to read Lacan. London : Granta.
