What’s so funny about sleazy greed and managerial malfeasance?

Abstract

Purpose Organization theory and management studies rely on a representational idiom to account faithfully for empirical data, but such research ideals do not always apprehend what is essential in the case at hand. Comedy and the comical remain an underutilized resource within, e.g. the critique of power imbalances and imprudent or illicit behavior in corporations, providing an entirely different set of mechanisms that do not sketch the “broad picture” but target elementary and constitutive empirical data. The purpose of this paper is to explore the possibilities for using such resources in management studies writing. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the literature addressing the Enron bankruptcy as an exemplary case wherein an analytical framework recognizing a comic outlook of life can be fruitfully applied. Additional cases are presented to substantiate the proposed model. Findings The paper advocates a broader repertoire of analytical practices in organization studies, including techniques and modes of representation used in comedy. Originality/value The paper proposes a minor literature within management studies, drawing on a performative idiom and the use of comedy techniques, including the debasing of social situations, to extend the repertoire of styles. In the end, such a minor literature may be able to grapple with the current situation, characterized by organizational absurdities that preclude the use of a representational idiom.