The Unmasking of the Other Defended on Thursday, 27 October 2005

As a result of the work of Thomas Kuhn, the attention within the field of Organisation Studies shifted towards an examination of its own paradigmatic assumptions. More specifically, it led to a critical evaluation of the dominant (so-called functionalist) paradigm and the corresponding assumptions. The result of said evaluation was the development of a sub-discipline that can best be referred to as ‘Critical Management Studies’ (CMS). Although the latter does by no means present us with a unified approach regarding the study of management and organisation, the various theoretical strands in question do share a common ideal, which can best be described as a desire to liberate the Other. Whereas the functionalist approach utterly ignores the Other and chooses to reduce the employee to a resource, which is to be maximised and exploited, the CMS-movement argues in favour of a more humane science of management, one that recognises the right of the human factor to be treated as human. The aforementioned gives rise to the following two questions: in what way(s) is the Other conceptualised within the field of Critical Management Studies? The second question is related to the desire to liberate and recover the Other within both theory and practice: is it actual the right or humane thing to do so? Here, we have the aim and purpose of this thesis: an exploration of the nature of the Other.

Keywords

Social theory, organization theory, post-structuralism, Other, Otherness, Michel Serres


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