Pandemonium: Towards a Retro-Organization Theory

"Pandemonium is a dark, gothic place, full of dangers and enchantment for all who enter its labyrinth, a retro-vision that seeks to ensnare, disarm, and disturb all who enter whatever sense they make from the many opportunities that it provides." --Stewart R. Clegg, University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, Australia "Two volumes in one, Pandemonium is a disorganisationally challenging contribution to the postmodern theory of organizations which systematically questions the underlying assumptions and values of contemporary administrative science and organization theory. The MBA will never be the same again." --Bryan S. Turner, Deakin University In this irreverent, yet highly serious book, Gibson Burrell challenges the established frameworks that have defined our understanding of organization and organizations. With a vision that extends deep into the history of Western societies, an interdisciplinary sweep that encompasses the broad domain of social and cultural theory and critical vigor that exposes the staleness of tired ideas, Pandemonium disconcerts and reinvigorates the study of organizations. Moving the field of organization theory back into the center of contemporary critical thought, Gibson Burrell brings to bear different forms of analysis: notions of discourse and genealogy, or narrative and text. Disclaiming the voices of modern, positivist science and of authorial distance, the text itself presents a metaphor for the rejection of linearity and the reassertion of organizational creativity. This is not an organizational behavior textbook, but an exploration mining new ideas and insights that take organization theory into another era.