Stream Announcement and Call for Papers

The 6th International Critical Management Studies Conference,
13th-15th July 2009,
Warwick Business School,
The University of Warwick,
UK. 

Stream Title - Loss and Mourning in Organizational Life

Convenors:
Leanne Cutcher – University of Sydney
Philip Hancock – University of Warwick
Melissa Tyler – Loughborough University

The Idea

For Freud (1991), mourning is a necessary precondition for psychological well-being. It is, 
for him, a form of work that allows us to reconcile ourselves with loss and move 
forwards in our lives, making new attachments to new objects, people and places. In a 
more contemporary vein, Derrida (1996) considered mourning integral to the possibility 
of an inter-subjectivity that accepts the necessary transience of our relationship with, and 
to the other. From these perspectives, therefore, without the ability to mourn as part of a 
constant process of being and becoming we would be unable to establish truly ethical 
relations, condemned to constantly trying to possess the ‘other’, caught up in what would 
inevitably degenerate into an expression of tyranny. Yet despite the obvious interest such 
ideas might evoke what, more specifically, might they have to say about work, its 
organization, and management? 

The Experience

To anyone concerned with either the study or practice of management, the mantra of 
change or die is, somewhat ironically, almost a constant. Sometimes it is justified with 
reference to vulgar formulations of evolutionary science, and at other times, more 
straightforwardly, by the apparent volatility of global markets and the demands of 
technical innovation. However it is justified though, this purported need for change and its 
management has become an integral component of contemporary business rhetoric. But 
at what cost does such a mantra come for those faced with the unending loss of an 
unstable and transient past, and the demand for a reconciliation with an uncertain and 
insecure future? Is it that this compulsion to constantly reconcile ourselves to the loss of 
familiar ways of working, familiar colleagues and familiar communities, and to constantly 
embrace the new, makes unique demands not only on our capacity to mourn, but also on 
our very conception of loss and reconciliation itself. Is it that, to reappropriate Rose’s 
(1996) terminology, within contemporary organizational settings mourning has indeed 
become ‘the law’? That a constant process of mourning as overcoming is not only 
necessary in a Derridian sense, but that it has become a required aspect of company 
etiquette, one symbolic of personal commitment?
 
The Invitation

In this stream we invite papers that engage with these, and related questions, through 
the prism of mourning. That is, we ask contributors to reflect critically on the extent to 
which mourning has become an integral and necessary part of everyday organizational 
life, the conditions under which this might occur, and the consequences this might have 
for those who are subject to such a demand. This may, or may not directly relate to 
questions surrounding the management and the experience of change as alluded to 
above. It may also relate, for instance, to the ways in which management resources and 
responds to more literal processes of mourning within organizations, such as in the case 
of actual bereavement or significant material or cultural loss, or to the symbolic and 
cultural representations of mourning that organizations draw upon in a myriad of 
circumstances.

The stream will invite both empirical and theoretical contributions, as well as proposals 
for discussion sessions, roundtables etc. It will not be tied to any particular disciplinary 
perspective but will seek to encourage insights from a range of traditions including those 
of sociology, psychology, philosophy, history and anthropology among others. Issues that 
could be explored during the stream might include, but will not be limited to:

•	The theoretical purchase a concept of mourning might have for understanding 
contemporary managerial and organizational activity. 
•	Experiences of loss and reconciliation during periods of rapid organizational change 
and upheaval.
•	The psychological implications of mourning as a condition of organizational 
participation.
•	Gendered differentiations in the experience and management of loss and 
reconciliation.
•	The symbolic and aesthetic management of organizational mourning.
•	The loss of communities and associated spatial and/or temporal attachments as a 
consequence of organizational change.
•	The characteristics of polices designed to mediate loss and address processes of 
personal and organizational mourning.

The Practicalities

All submissions should comprise of a 1000 words (maximum) abstract, typed in 12 point 
font and single spaced. These should be sent to Abstracts for the stream (of no more than 
1000 words) should be submitted to [log in to unmask] no later than November 
1st 2008.

Full papers will be expected by May 1st 2009.

Website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/wbs/conf/cms2009