A CALL FOR PAPERS
CMS 2009 — SELF-INTEREST AND THE SELF-INTERESTED:
CYNICISM, NARCISSISM AND VANITY IN ORGANIZATION
Convenors:
Prof. Christian De Cock (University of Wales, Swansea)
Prof. Peter Fleming (Queen Mary, University of London)
Prof. Alf Rehn (Åbo Akademi University / Royal Institute of Technology)
Abstracts for the stream (of no more than 1000 words) should be submitted to no later than November 1st 2008.
Theme:
Questioning economists’ crude assumptions of self-interest was a founding gesture in organization studies. Yet, the concept of self-interest continues to lurk in the hallways of organizations and amongst those studying them. For example, the organized appeal to the ‘selfish gene’, advancing their self-interest and wanting to ‘be themselves’ at work. And don’t the scholars who theorize the lives of the organized nakedly pursue their self-interest too? They often are engaged in strategies of self-gratification, ‘academic identity’ formation, and narcissistic self-reflexivity. This leads to the public secret that the organized are self-interested actors who don’t care about organizational goals, and that those who purport to study ‘organization’ are more interested in themselves than understanding organizations. The result is a mutually reinforcing narcissism, vanity and generalized cynicism.
Narcissism, cynicism and vanity are thus spread throughout contemporary organizations. Such attitudes are perhaps not the most pleasant or productive phenomena but they may still open up interesting avenues for analysis, particularly with regards to the issue of self-interest and individualism in organizations. Are these attitudes deviant reactions that need to be dispelled? Are they rational reactions of actors who are struggling to maximise utility and hence need to be managed by skilful professionals? Are they natural and healthy forms of employee resistance sparked off by increasingly unreasonable managerial initiatives? Are they safety valves that stop workers from collectively confronting the real issues that affect their lives? Are they part of a generalized malaise that has infected western culture?
Less palpable, but just as obvious, is the fact that cynicism and vanity exist as constitutive elements in the field of organization studies. One can argue that much of contemporary theorizing can be understood as the narcissistic project of the individual scholar. Could the topics we choose to address be seen as attempts to indulge our own personal pathologies? Are increasingly complex statistical modelling procedures an excuse for many to indulge in their nerdish love of equations and computer software? Are cultural studies of organization merely an excuse for reading novels and watching television? Should forays into social theory and philosophy be seen as desperate attempts at reviving a youthful ‘true’ calling of ‘being a proper academic’?
In order to address these questions, we propose an investigation of the role self-interest, cynicism and vanity play in organization and organization studies. The themes we would like to explore include:
Theories of self-interest
Why do we find self-interest in organization and organization studies? How do we understand it? Contributors might choose to consider topics including: Clarifying the ‘self’ in self-interest; Utilitarianism and self-interest; Rational-actor theory; Darwinism, evolutionary economics and the selfish gene; Luhmann and self-reinforcing systems; Sloterdijk’s theory of cynicism; psychoanalytic treatments of self-interest; constructivist theories of the self.
Self-interest in organizations
What forms of self-interest plague organizational life? How do they work? What are the results? Contributors might like to consider the kinds of self-interest in organizational life including: cynicism; vanity; leadership and self-obsession; selfish behaviour; the effects of neo-liberalism and economic rationalism; identity politics.
Self-interested organization studies
How are contemporary studies of organization plagued by self-interest? What effects does this have? Contributors might like to consider topics including: The Academic as a self-obsessed character; Intellectual narcissism; Academic branding – ‘how to increase one’s academic brand equity?’; Intellectual sexism, academic phalluses, and male ego-centrism; Academic pomposity; The academic review process an an exercise in cynicism and vanity; Academic critique as the royal road to cynicism; Topic selection as an exercise of self-interest; Subjectivist approaches as vanity.
Reinforcing self-interest
How do the self-interest of organizations and organizational researchers reinforce each other? Contributors might like to consider topics which include: The perceived relevance of organization studies to the organized; The perceived relevance of organizational practices to organization studies; The organizational scholar as nuisance or man/woman from 'outer space' who can but waste valuable time; The student and informant as idiot or ‘pain in the ass’ who doesn’t understand the important issues; The structural and habitual barriers to engagement.
Against self-interest
Is there any way to challenge the self-interest which pervades contemporary organizations and organization theory? What would this project involve? What theoretical resources might this project draw on? What practical strategies and tactics would be used? Contributors might like to consider some of the following topics: A radical return to ‘objectivism’; A luxurious wallowing in self-interest; The consistent presence of the Other in organizational life and academic research; The importance of a shared public; Suggestions for new institutions regulating academic narcissism, including restructuring conferences, journals, universities and funding structures; Restructuring gender relations in the field; Strategies for engaging with the public.
Curious? Vainglorious? (Self-)Interested to attend?
Abstracts for the stream (of no more than 1000 words) should be submitted to no later than November 1st 2008.
Convenor bios:
Christian De Cock is Chair of Organization Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea. Prior to joining the School of Business and Economics he worked as a Research Fellow at Manchester Business School, as a Lecturer at the University of London, and as Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on creativity; the interface of organization theory with literary theory and art history; and the examination of 21st capitalism in its various guises. His work has appeared in journals such as British Journal of Management, Interfaces, Organization Studies, Omega, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Management Inquiry. He has also written several book chapters and teaching cases.
Peter Fleming is a Professor of Organization Studies at Queen Mary, University of London. He has held academic positions at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, the University of Otago (New Zealand) and the University of Melbourne (Australia). He has published research on a variety of topics including organizational resistance, industrial semiotics, power and spatiality. His other research interests revolve around corporate democracy and cynicism.
Alf Rehn is Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University (Finland) as well as SSES (Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship) Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). His research has focused on the ideological underpinnings of economic theory and moralization in management studies, and has appeared in journals such as Journal of Socio-Economics, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and Gender, Work and Organization, as well as in a number of books.