Organization Theory in the Age of Deconstruction: Dualism, Gender and Postmodernism Revisited

Abstract

This paper will focus on the problems and prospects for organization theory when some of its central concepts are in question under the 'weight' of the demise of an episteme of representation (Benhabib 1992). Fundamental con cepts such as 'action' and 'structure' have been examined critically over several years with the aim of removing either voluntarist or determinist and individualist or holistic tendencies (Giddens 1979; Knights and Willmott 1983, 1985). Though questioning the dualistic separation of these categories from a phenomenological or social constructionist perspective, these perspectives still presume an episteme of representation in which the categories of the dualism (subject and object) can be operationalized to represent phenomena with con crete existence in the world. Structure and agency remain in a relationship of exteriority with respect to one another (Game 1991). Organization theory, as conventionally constructed, can readily accommodate such a critique of dualism as long as the categories remain relatively durable, stable and in a relationship of exteriority to each other. However, the demise of an episteme of representation spells trouble for the durability and stability of these categories. Drawing on a range of discourses, the paper seeks to indicate a variety of solutions to the dualistic problematic ending with the work of the deconstruc tionist approaches of a limited sample of postmodern feminists.