Critical practices in organizations

Martin Messner*, Stewart Clegg, Martin Kornberger

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract / Description of output

This article deals with the phenomenon of criticism in organizations. Existing organizational literature, where it has addressed criticism, mostly tends to see it as an extraordinary phenomenon. By contrast, in this article, the authors argue that criticism may also originate from strongly embedded and more ordinary practices. Thus, there is a theoretical need for considering those critical practices that are structurally and/or formally institutionalized within the organization. They reflect the organizational status quo and promote a reproduction of existing structures of power/knowledge. Drawing on ideas from practice theory, institutional theory, and Foucault's analytics of power/knowledge regimes, the authors introduce a typology that distinguishes forms of criticism according to the degree to which they are coupled with particular organizational practices, their rationalities, and corresponding power relations. They then focus on those forms of criticism that are strongly linked to organizational practices and illustrate the ambiguous effects of such an "organization of criticism."

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)68-82
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Management Inquiry
Volume17
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jun 2008

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • criticism
  • practice theory
  • Foucault
  • institutionalization
  • power/knowledge

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