CALL FOR PAPERS FOR A SPECIAL ISSUE OF THE JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL
CHANGE MANAGEMENT

Corporate Robespierres: Ideologies of Management and Change

Juup Essers (RSM Erasmus University, Rotterdam, NL) [log in to unmask]
Steffen Böhm (University of Essex, UK) [log in to unmask]
John Roberts (Judge Business School, Cambridge University, UK)
[log in to unmask]
Alessia Contu (LUMS, Lancaster University, UK) [log in to unmask]

Theoretical approaches to the role of ideologies in management and
change have been inspired by critical theories from the Frankfurt
School onwards. Amongst the recent and most outspoken representatives
of the critical turn, Žižek's reversal of traditional conceptions of
ideology as 'false consciousness' into an un/conscious behavioural
practice of 'living a lie' has convincingly challenged Western
celebrations of the 'end of ideology' (or even history). Embedded in a
Lacanian theoretical framework (especially the ISR-triad and the
function of Master-signifiers as points de capiton to enable the
formation of stable imaginary or symbolic identities), Žižek's views
enable researchers to study the 'normal' practice of organization,
both symbolic and social, as fundamentally ideological. Organizations
can thus be perceived as ideological cover-up operations masking the
impossible-real core of our individual and social being. Organizations
are not just occasionally unfortunate enactments of misguided
fantasies (think of Enron's top management enacting Star Wars in
corporate boardrooms). Organizing is a cover-up by nature – there is
always something to hide, conceal, repress, dominate, mystify or
eradicate, while the mission of modern Organization Theory has
primarily been to hide that there is something to hide. Avoiding
confrontation with the Real is what organizing is all about.

For the study of organizational change, Žižek's fascination with the
figure of Robespierre and the period of the Jacobin Reign of Terror –
together with the reaction to its excessive violence by philosophers
such as Kant, Hegel and German Idealism in general – furnishes
interesting material for the analysis of contemporary processes and
principles of organizational change. To a significant extent, current
managerial theories, models and narratives of change are still used,
if not to submit organizational masses into comfortable meekness or
prudent silence, then at least to imbue the executors of
organizational change programs with an attitude of relentlessly
'taking charge' without feeling bad about it. According to Žižek,
Robespierre was an expert in manipulating those who witnessed the
upheaval caused by the violent change processes, implying that anybody
who showed signs of anxieties were traitors to the Cause for letting
their personal feelings overrule the General Will (Žižek, 2005,
Interrogating the Real, 225).

For Žižek, in our times the hedonistic connotations of global
capitalism come dangerously close to a comparable Robespierrian 'duty
to be happy', when our freedom to follow an ideal, any ideal – in our
roles as consumers, citizens and organizational members – is only
restricted by the superego-command to succeed, leaving behind our
fears and worries about the costs for realizing our plans, however
obvious, at the doorstep to our public lives. Today, it seems that
failing to be happy (and to use the institutions of our free,
market-driven consumer society to this effect) is the ultimate breach
of Law. In this sense our freedom is a 'forced choice', to pursue our
self-actualization to the fullest, to conquer all domains of life, to
charge ahead, progress and change continuously.

Such an ideology of (relentless) change is part and parcel of
contemporary practices of management and organizing, which often
explicitly claim to be non-ideological. Following a Žižekian analysis,
this fetishisation of change is the ideology of contemporary global
capitalism. But, then, can all practices of organization be
legitimately viewed as ideological cover-ups that try to hide
something, something that can ultimately not be totally hidden? How
can these cover-up strategies be resisted? Are organizational
practices of resistance subject to the same ideological trap? In other
words, if, according to Žižek and others, every type of organizing
involves ideological processes, where does this leave discourses and
practices of resistance and emancipation, of progressive societal and
organizational change?

Tracing such questions in contemporary spheres of organized and
managed life, we invite contributions to this special issue that
explore and respond to the following (non-exclusive) themes:
-	Theoretical analyses and critiques of Žižek's (or Lacan's)
contribution to contemporary theories of organizational change
management.
-	Engagements with theories of ideology and their relevance for the
study of management and change.
-	Reconceptualizations of the ideological deep-structure of standard
concepts, themes and narratives in recent theories of organizational
change and design ('change marketing', resistance to change,
motivation theory, organizational learning, innovation, etc.).
-	Evaluations of ideological change processes recently experienced in
so-called Transition countries (e.g. Eastern Europe).
-	Critical studies on the ethics of leadership and governance (e.g.
the issue of dirty hands, leadership roles and effectiveness, issues
of trust and transparency, the psychological contract in
organizations, etc.).
-	Studies of resistances against ideological commitment and
domination; the role of emancipatory discourses and practices in
contemporary spheres of non-capitalist organizing.
-	Empirical research papers on organizational change processes that
highlight practices of securing commitment and success.
-	Methodological analyses of the impact of ideological bias on
organizational change research.

The guest issue of JOCM will appear in mid-2008. Abstracts of proposed
papers should be submitted to Juup Essers ([log in to unmask]) by May 1,
2007. After acceptance authors are expected to submit first drafts of
their papers by September 1, 2007. Reviews will be forwarded to them
by December 1, 2007. Final, revised versions are ultimately due by
March 1, 2008.