A CALL FOR PAPERS
CMS 2009 — SELF-INTEREST AND THE SELF-INTERESTED:
CYNICISM, NARCISSISM AND VANITY IN ORGANIZATION
Convenors:
Prof. Christian De Cock (University of Wales, Swansea)
Prof. Peter Fleming (Queen Mary, University of London)
Prof. Alf Rehn (Åbo Akademi University / Royal Institute of Technology)
Abstracts for the stream (of no more than 1000 words) should be submitted to
alfrehn@mac.com no later than November 1st 2008.
Theme:
Questioning economists’ crude assumptions of self-interest was a founding gesture in
organization studies. Yet, the concept of self-interest continues to lurk in the hallways of
organizations and amongst those studying them. For example, the organized appeal to the
‘selfish gene’, advancing their self-interest and wanting to ‘be themselves’ at work. And don’t
the scholars who theorize the lives of the organized nakedly pursue their self-interest too?
They often are engaged in strategies of self-gratification, ‘academic identity’ formation, and
narcissistic self-reflexivity. This leads to the public secret that the organized are selfinterested actors who don’t care about organizational goals, and that those who purport to
study ‘organization’ are more interested in themselves than understanding organizations. The
result is a mutually reinforcing narcissism, vanity and generalized cynicism.
Narcissism, cynicism and vanity are thus spread throughout contemporary organizations.
Such attitudes are perhaps not the most pleasant or productive phenomena but they may still
open up interesting avenues for analysis, particularly with regards to the issue of self-interest
and individualism in organizations. Are these attitudes deviant reactions that need to be
dispelled? Are they rational reactions of actors who are struggling to maximise utility and
hence need to be managed by skilful professionals? Are they natural and healthy forms of
employee resistance sparked off by increasingly unreasonable managerial initiatives? Are they
safety valves that stop workers from collectively confronting the real issues that affect their
lives? Are they part of a generalized malaise that has infected western culture?
Less palpable, but just as obvious, is the fact that cynicism and vanity exist as constitutive
elements in the field of organization studies. One can argue that much of contemporary
theorizing can be understood as the narcissistic project of the individual scholar. Could the
topics we choose to address be seen as attempts to indulge our own personal pathologies? Are
increasingly complex statistical modelling procedures an excuse for many to indulge in their
nerdish love of equations and computer software? Are cultural studies of organization merely
an excuse for reading novels and watching television? Should forays into social theory and
philosophy be seen as desperate attempts at reviving a youthful ‘true’ calling of ‘being a
proper academic’?
In order to address these questions, we propose an investigation of the role self-interest,
cynicism and vanity play in organization and organization studies. The themes we would like
to explore include:
Theories of self-interest
Why do we find self-interest in organization and organization studies? How do we understand
it? Contributors might choose to consider topics including: Clarifying the ‘self’ in self-interest;
Utilitarianism and self-interest; Rational-actor theory; Darwinism, evolutionary economics
and the selfish gene; Luhmann and self-reinforcing systems; Sloterdijk’s theory of cynicism;
psychoanalytic treatments of self-interest; constructivist theories of the self.
Self-interest in organizations
What forms of self-interest plague organizational life? How do they work? What are the
results? Contributors might like to consider the kinds of self-interest in organizational life
including: cynicism; vanity; leadership and self-obsession; selfish behaviour; the effects of
neo-liberalism and economic rationalism; identity politics.
Self-interested organization studies
How are contemporary studies of organization plagued by self-interest? What effects does this
have? Contributors might like to consider topics including: The Academic as a self-obsessed
character; Intellectual narcissism; Academic branding – ‘how to increase one’s academic
brand equity?’; Intellectual sexism, academic phalluses, and male ego-centrism; Academic
pomposity; The academic review process an an exercise in cynicism and vanity; Academic
critique as the royal road to cynicism; Topic selection as an exercise of self-interest;
Subjectivist approaches as vanity.
Reinforcing self-interest
How do the self-interest of organizations and organizational researchers reinforce each other?
Contributors might like to consider topics which include: The perceived relevance of
organization studies to the organized; The perceived relevance of organizational practices to
organization studies; The organizational scholar as nuisance or man/woman from 'outer
space' who can but waste valuable time; The student and informant as idiot or ‘pain in the ass’
who doesn’t understand the important issues; The structural and habitual barriers to
engagement.
Against self-interest
Is there any way to challenge the self-interest which pervades contemporary organizations
and organization theory? What would this project involve? What theoretical resources might
this project draw on? What practical strategies and tactics would be used? Contributors might
like to consider some of the following topics: A radical return to ‘objectivism’; A luxurious
wallowing in self-interest; The consistent presence of the Other in organizational life and
academic research; The importance of a shared public; Suggestions for new institutions
regulating academic narcissism, including restructuring conferences, journals, universities
and funding structures; Restructuring gender relations in the field; Strategies for engaging
with the public.
Curious? Vainglorious? (Self-)Interested to attend?
Abstracts for the stream (of no more than 1000 words) should be submitted to
alfrehn@mac.com no later than November 1st 2008.
Convenor bios:
Christian De Cock is Chair of Organization Studies at the University of Wales, Swansea.
Prior to joining the School of Business and Economics he worked as a Research Fellow at
Manchester Business School, as a Lecturer at the University of London, and as Senior
Lecturer at the University of Exeter. His research focuses on creativity; the interface of
organization theory with literary theory and art history; and the examination of 21st capitalism
in its various guises. His work has appeared in journals such as British Journal of
Management, Interfaces, Organization Studies, Omega, Journal of Management Studies,
and Journal of Management Inquiry. He has also written several book chapters and teaching
cases.
Peter Fleming is a Professor of Organization Studies at Queen Mary, University of London.
He has held academic positions at Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, the
University of Otago (New Zealand) and the University of Melbourne (Australia). He has
published research on a variety of topics including organizational resistance, industrial
semiotics, power and spatiality. His other research interests revolve around corporate
democracy and cynicism.
Alf Rehn is Chair of Management and Organization at Åbo Akademi University (Finland) as
well as SSES (Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship) Professor of Innovation and
Entrepreneurship at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). His research has
focused on the ideological underpinnings of economic theory and moralization in
management studies, and has appeared in journals such as Journal of Socio-Economics,
Entrepreneurship and Regional Development and Gender, Work and Organization, as well
as in a number of books.