reasons neglect rationality and organizing sep 2008

[...]... an excursus into reason and rationality and its modes of expression and use in organization studies Why rationality? Having staked a claim for an analysis based on rationality, it must be acknowledged that the use of terms thus far has been loose, with reason, rationality, reasons, and reasoning having been used interchangeably Although much used and intuitively understood, rationality does not, like... organization studies may be understood as the working through in theoretical and practical terms of the dimensions of rationality; organizations as a conceptual and material space within which various dimensions and facets of reason and rationality are worked out in theories and in practice alongside and through the organization of production Rationality is explicit in early functionalist definitions of organizations,... ‘liberating’ reason and progress This, I argue, would be to misunderstand the focus and intent of his work and its place firmly within the intellectual tradition of responding to Kant’s What is Enlightenment? (Gutting 1990) Foucault’s work allows us to engage with rationality in a theoretically fruitful and ethically engaged manner It challenges us to see rationality as a form of labour and as an activity... effects and power for its inscription in rationality Rationality is one of the most subtle but neglected forms of power/knowledge relations with which we engage We need to explicate the dimensions of rationality rather than dismiss these as ‘rationalizations’ What are the power/knowledge effects of the concept of rationality and how have these been promulgated within the domain of organization studies and. .. (connaissance), and individuals’ understandings of themselves Modelling the three axes, we can understand that there are specific rationalities that underpin each of these areas: rationality that informs a savoir; rationality as a localized or specific connaissance that informs rational behaviour in particular contexts; and rationality that informs the way in which the subject is to understand himself or... ‘rational’ Thus, the term has within it rationality, and its links to certainty, and reasonableness, which for Toulmin (2001) involves living without certainties As we shall see, the rational/reasonable tension informs its history and use.3 It is with the common place and intuitive understanding of reason as the ‘furnishing of accounts’ that I begin my initial comments and the starting point for my argument... formal or instrumental rationality is what is ‘specific and peculiar’ about Western social order (Lash and Whimster 1987; Horowitz and Maley 1994) Weber’s analysis subsequently structured debate It informed analyses of the Frankfurt School and their depictions of the dominance of an instrumental rationality, the legacy of the Enlightenment as the triumph of zweckrationalität (Horkheimer and Adorno 1995; Horkheimer... speech His concept of communicative rationality was to counter what was seen as the unidimensional presentation of reason, the instrumental rationality of Weber’s analysis (Habermas 1984, 1987) FOUCAULT AND RATIONALITY 7 Discourse is not solely a matter of power and self-interest The devaluation of rationality denies the emancipatory potential of reason (Bernstein 1994; Brand 1990; Cooke 1997; Meehan 1995)... means–end concept of rationality is so prevalent that it has become taken for granted This does not, and cannot, exhaust our understanding Here, I argue that rationality should be seriously engaged with as a concept and that all facets of this multifaceted concept need to be explored As a means of addressing rationality, I argue that Foucault’s work provides both an entrée into its analysis and a template... Conclusions 87 PART II EMBEDDED RATIONALITY Introduction 90 5 Institutional rationality 95 The rationalization of value spheres 95 The institution of reason 97 Institutional theory and rationalized myths 101 Institutional logics 107 Rationality institutionalized? 109 Institutional rationality ? 110 Conclusions 112 6 Contextual rationality 113 Hidden from reason: A Romantic legacy 113 Rationality versus community .