Devourer of our convictions: Populist and academic organizational theory and the scope and significance of the metaphor of `revolution'

Abstract

I focus on the interpretative significance of OT theories influenced in par t by sociology and set this discussion in a historical context. Looking initially at Hamel's theorization and then the influential theories of Hammer and Champy (re-engineering), I draw out an initial analysis of the rhetoric of'revolution' in OT. I contrast these analyses with more academic examples from OT (Burrell and Morgan [1979] and Ralph Stacey's [1996, 2000] complexity theory), which discuss the contrast between different `registers' of use of the term `revolution': the metaphoric which is associated with the commonplace deployment of'revolution' (e.g. `a revolution in advertising'), and the literal which is associated with great and significant events (especially political/historical).Together these uses comprise the scope of the rhetorical deployment of the metaphor of `revolution'. I argue that organizational theories play on a dynamic of tension between these two registers both at the level of sub-text (populist literature), but also at a meta-theoretic level (for example: Burrell and Morgan 1979). I also suggest that the organic theories of complexity present an intermediary case, between these extremes. I also argue that the rise of the term `revolution' in OT resonates with the Republican conception of revolution which is associated with the 18th century forebears of contemporary western liberal democracy. A consequence of this historiographic interpretation is that the modes of reasoning present at the inception of the enlightenment, and politically advanced by Republicanism, have a methodological impact. This effect may be felt in terms of a semantic relativism which underpins the flexibility of metaphor in OT, but which is ultimately subordinate to the anchor of a neo-liberal agenda.