Phenomenologies and Organization Studies

Abstract

Phenomenologies are a major stream of philosophy. Our aim with this Handbook is to explore critically and reflexively the plurality of phenomenologies and their becoming in the context of Management and Organization Studies (MOS). We detail in the introduction the genealogy of the phenomenological moment and make a distinction between four streams of phenomenologies: phenomenology as a phenomenological moment, post-phenomenologies, ante-phenomenologies, and non-phenomenologies. Beyond many clichés about phenomenologies, we argue that phenomenologies cultivate critical perspectives, ontologies, and even, for some of them, metaphysics that make them particularly interwoven with other philosophical traditions. We draw implications for MOS as a field.

Organizing Half-Things: Knowing, Theorizing and Studying Atmospheres

“…Attuned writing ‘remakes itself in its dialogic relations with the worlds to which it attunes’ (Gibbs, 2015, p. 227). In the study of organizational space, atmospheric writing has recently been reflected as an evocative poetics of social inquiry (Beyes & Holt, 2020), echoing encouragements for more performative and creative forms and formats of presenting research (Jørgensen, 2023; Pérezts, 2022; Vannini, 2015). Poetic qualities of composition and rhythm (re)enact a situation’s ‘chaotic manifold’.…”

How Does Embodiment Enable the Acquisition of Tacit Knowledge in Organizations? From Polanyi to Merleau-Ponty

“…In this paper, we aim to fill in this gap by drawing on phenomenology. The affinity between practice-based studies and phenomenology has been noted by several organizational researchers, and we intend to build on it (Bancou, de Vaujany, Pérezts, & Aroles, 2023; Nicolini, 2012; Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2011; Tsoukas, 2023; Yakhlef, 2010; Yanow & Tsoukas, 2009). In the next section, we will primarily focus on Merleau-Ponty’s version of phenomenology, which centres on the body, to further refine Polanyi’s indwelling and show how the latter is connected to TK acquisition.…”

“…Over time, scepticism has been set aside. It is now recognized that we cannot properly account for organizational phenomena that involve ‘knowledge enacted in action’ (Barley et al, 2018, p. 280), without referring to or presupposing TK (Sandberg & Tsoukas, 2011; Tsoukas, 2023). Thus, the greater the focus on agency and related concepts that analytically foreground action (e.g.…”

“…Our point of departure is Polanyi’s (1958, 1966, 1969) pioneering work on TK; for an overview of Polanyi’s work on knowledge, see Hadjimichael, Pyrko, & Tsoukas (2023). We acknowledge its impact on organization studies and seek to build on it by drawing on phenomenology, especially the work of Merleau-Ponty (2002/1945) and his interpreters (de Vaujany, 2023; Dreyfus, 2014; Ribeiro, 2014; Yakhlef, 2010) and on phenomenologically oriented cognitive science (Gallagher, 2017; Noë, 2004, 2009). Phenomenology is particularly well suited to this task, since it focuses on the first-person experiences embodied-cum-embedded agents acquire while interacting with others and the world (de Vaujany, Aroles, & Pérezts, 2023; Holt & Sandberg, 2011; Yakhlef, 2010).…”

Crisis and Utopia: André Gorz and the end of work

“…Gollain (2016: 129) argues that an ‘existentialist reading of Marx is the ultimate source of Gorz’s efforts to conceive what might lie beyond both capitalism and socialism founded on the religion of work’ and certainly we find in his oeuvre a preoccupation with what it truly means to be human, to be free, yet part of a scientifically advanced, complex society. As well as being influenced by Sartre’s work (Gollain, 2016: 128), Gorz’s career as it developed during the 1960s was also part of the rise of so-called humanist or existential Marxism (Mercer, 2021), with the links between existential Marxism (and by extension Gorz’s work) and phenomenological sensibilities yet to be systematically explored (see De Vaujany et al, 2023).…”