Nikos Kazantzakis’s phenomenology and its relevance to the study of organizations

Abstract

This paper examines Morgan's theorization of images of organizations from a phenomenological perspective using the works of Nikos Kazantzakis. The paper argues that Morgan's representation of metaphors currently favours an entitative interpretation of influence and control, undermining novel processes deeply embedded within existential nuances situated in the realm of the human experience. By focusing on Kazantzakis's phenomenology, the paper proposes that a theorization of transitionality demonstrates that a content-process struggle is rooted within a permanence-temporality struggle constantly conditioned against individuals' transitoriness of existence. Relatedness, affirmation and temporality represent three interdependent process states and each exposes self-existential tensions that regulate the directionality of one's transitions. Such transitions are thought to challenge the entitative form with which organizations are portrayed in the individual. The paper shows that a conceptualization of transitionality through Kazantzakis provides a new scope for understanding the structure of movements situated in the self and for customizing the forces of permanence and temporality.

A Figure is Worth a Thousand Words: The role of visualization in paradox theorizing

“…First, visuals have a strong performative effect when they orient our attention to what counts and what is legitimate in the literature (Meyer, Höllerer, Jancsary, & van Leeuwen, 2013; Quattrone et al, 2021), thus shaping theorizing. Second, conceptual depth is increased when scholars and their audiences gain insight not immediately communicated by textual exegesis (Avakian, 2020). Visualization facilitates aesthetic communication of highly abstract concepts (Ravasi, 2017).…”