PART I WHY ORGANIZATIONS ARE METATHEATRICAL
Chapter 1 Metatheatrics has to be managed
Metatheatre Intervention Method is designed to be a companion to the SEAM (SocioEconomic Approach to Management) Method (Savall, 1974, 2000; Savall, Zardett &
Bonnet, 1999).
The basic assumption of Metatheatre is the “organization is theatre” (Savall as cited in
Boje & Rosile, 2002) and the Metatheatre is a multiplicity of theatres; the organization is
not just one theatre; there are many simultaneous theatres.
Metatheatre is defined here as the multiple and contending theatres that constitute
organizations.
Management in its earliest definitions in France meant to be the head of an
Entertainment Company (Peron, 2002). We believe corporations and public
enterprises are still Entertainment Companies in an Entertainment Economy that
Guy Debord (1967) calls the Society of the Spectacle.
Metatheatre Intervention uses theatre concepts to diagnose corporate theatre,
SEAM method to analyze hidden costs and untapped financial potential, and
intervenes using theatre interventions (Boje & Rosile, 2002).
Enterprises are assumed to have hidden costs and untapped financial potential from
mismanaged metatheatre.
1.1 Metatheatre is multiple theatres
TAMARA is that name of a theatre play written by Krizanc (1981/1989) for
which Boje (1995) sees as the TAMARA-esque theatrical fabric of organization
life. In TAMARA, Los Angeles' longest-running play, a dozen characters unfold
their stories before a walking, sometimes running, audience. The organization is
metatheatric; there are multiple theatres in any organizations; some are front
stages, others backstage; some play in one office, while others happen at the same
time in other offices, other factories, and other countries. The Metatheatre is a
network of theatres, a TAMARA.
TAMARA the Play - The play Tamara, written by John Krizanc, was first
performed at Strachan House in Trinity-Bellwoods Park, Toronto, Ontario,
Canada on May 8, 1981. “It is Italy, January 10, 1927, in the era of
Mussolini. Gabriele d'Annunzio, a poet, patriot, womanizer, and revolutionary
who is exceedingly popular with the people, is under virtual house arrest.
Tamara [De Lempicka], an expatriate Polish beauty, aristocrat, and aspiring
artist, is summoned from Paris to paint d’Annunzio’s portrait. Instead of
remaining stationary, viewing a single stage, the audience fragments into
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small groups that chase characters from one room to the next, from one floor
to the next, even going into bedrooms, kitchens, and other chambers to chase
and co-create the stories that interest them the most. If there are a dozen stages
and a dozen storytellers, the number of story lines an audience could trace as
it chases the wandering discourses of Tamara is 12 factorial (479,001,600)”
[Source, Boje, 1995: 997].
1.2 Metatheatre can be transformed
Transformation of Metatheatre entails rescripting the “metascript” of the
organization.
Metascript is defined as the multiplicity of scripts, mostly unwritten ones,
that constitute the micro and macro structure, behavior, social
dysfunctions, and hidden costs/performance potential of complex
organizations. Examples of metascripts include a call script between
salesperson and customer, a performance program, a strategic plan, a
scenario, and the scripted performance of one executive or manager who
seeks to take control from another person with a different script.
The transformation of Metatheatre is a juxtaposition of SEAM and what we (Boje
& Rosile, 2002) call the SEPTET.
SEAM stands for Socio-Economic Approach to Management. SEAM is
defined as a method for diagnosing hidden costs and untapped revenue
potential that through researcher-intervention with organization members
can lead to a healthier relation between Socio dysfunctions (in working
conditions, work organization, communication-coordination-cooperation
[3Cs], time management, job training, and strategic initiative) with
Economic domains (Overworked people, time wasted, wasted resources,
lack of production, non-creation of revenues, risks to survival and growth,
and non-sustainable ecology practices).
SEPTET means seven elements of Metatheatrics. The seven elements are:
(1) Frames, (2) Themes, (3) Dialogs, (4) Characters, (5) Rhythms, (6)
Plots, and (7) Spectacles.
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The purpose of the Metatheatre Intervention manual is to give you concepts,
definitions, and tools that stem from the relationship we see between SEAM and
SEPTETIC Metatheatre elements.
Table 1: Model of SEAM to SEPTET Metatheatre hypothesized relationships
SEAM
Hidden
Costs
And
Untapped
Hidden
Revenues
1. Work
Organization
2. Working
Condition
3. 3Cs
4. Training
5. Timing
6. Strategic
SEPTET
1. Frames
2. Themes
3. Dialogs
4. Characters
5. Rhythms
6. Plots
7. Spectacles
Organizing
Influencing
Leading
Controlling
Planning
Managing
Metascript
Of
The
Enterprise
Table 1 displays the hypothesized relationships between SEAM and SEPTET
elements. For simplicity we show a one-to-one relationship between the six
SEAM elements and the first six of the seven SEPTET elements. However, it is
more accurate to say that all (7) SEPTET elements affect each of the (6) SEAM
dysfunction domains. For example, the Frames affect primarily the Work
Organization but also impact Working Condition, 3Cs, Training, Timing and
Strategic domains. Since we are talking about management of the metascript and
metatheatre, we also depict hypothesized relations of the SEPTET elements to
five functions of management (organizing, influencing, leading, controlling, and
planning).
Aristotle from whom we have adapted six of the seven SEPTET elements is the
author of the theatrical Poetics (350 BCE). We follow the trail of Augusto Boal
(1974/1979) in giving more postmodern interpretations to Aristotle’s six Poetic
elements of theatre (i.e. SEPTET elements 2 through 7). The first element of
SEPTET, “frames,” is adapted from Kenneth Burke’s (1937) work. Burke (1972:
23) believed ‘frames’ to be the missing element to his PENTAD model of theatre
(act, scene, agent, agency, & purpose; See Burke, 1945: 231).
We will give more formal definition of the SEPTET and SEAM elements, along
with organization examples, in subsequent chapters of the Metatheatre
Intervention Manual.
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