Kafka, Weber and organization theory

Abstract

In this article, we hope to show why examining the work of the writer, Franz Kafka (1883—1924), may enhance our understanding of organizations. In doing so, his life and achievements will be compared with Max Weber's (1864—1920). We will seek to see how their backgrounds, experiences and writing, in their respective ways, can offer analytic insights for scholars of organization vis-à-vis a number of key concepts in the field, such as bureaucracy, power and authority, rationality and lastly, alienation.

The Limits of Generosity: Lessons on Ethics, Economy, and Reciprocity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis

“…We also extend and complement scholarship that has reflected on Kafka's work to better theorise organizations and organizing (e.g. Pelzer 2002;Warner 2007;Keenoy and Seijo 2010;Jørgensen 2012;Munro and Huber 2012;Hodson et al 2013;McCabe 2013).…”

“…Such efforts of confrontation have yielded important insights into organizational matters. Recent examples include reading Jaroslav Hašek's The Good Soldier, Švejk (Fleming and Sewell 2002) and Charles Bukowski's Factotum (Rhodes 2009) to develop an understanding of the subtle ways that employee resistance operates in organizations; a demonstration of how Kafka's work sheds light on issues as wide ranging as bureaucracy, power, authority, rationality, and alienation (Warner 2007;Munro and Huber 2012); and how Haruki Murakami's A Wild Sheep Chase can serve to profane leadership thinking (Sliwa et al 2012). Attention has not been restricted to the genre of the novel with the related form of the short story also having been considered.…”

“…In this field, perhaps unsurprisingly, the almost exclusive focus has been on exploring how Kafka might help us understand the dysfunctions of ''bureaucracy, power and authority, rationality and […] alienation'' (Warner 2007, p. 1019; e.g. Luban et al 1992;McDaniel 1979;Parker 2006;Warner 2007). Studies of Kafka and organizations also include Pelzer's (2002) discussion of disgust, Wasserman's (2001) interpretation of Kafka as an industrial reformer and Munro and Huber's (2012) reflection on the mythology of bureaucracy.…”

Opening up the Pandora's box of sustainability league tables of universities: a Kafkaesque perspective

“…Kafka is the literary author who was interested in all that lies underneath the formal bureaucratic structure which he explored primarily in The Trial, The Castle and In the Penal Colony (Warner, 2007). As McCabe (2013) highlights Kafka is often associated with a bleak, if not totalitarian view of organizations and society.…”

“…The most profound failings of bureaucracy more often involve treating rules as façades to cover actual operations (Hodson et al, 2013b). As Warner (2007) argues, Kafka may help us to better resist the sanitized visions of a brave new world that are being imposed on us (Parker, 2003, 11). The brave new world of university sustainability league tables represent part of a contemporary zeitgeist of what cannot be counted does no longer have value; what cannot be tabulated does not have merit.…”