The Person as Object in Discourses in and Around Organizations

Abstract

Natural persons (i.e., real people as opposed to “corporate or organizational persons”) have come to be treated—often implicitly but sometimes quite explicitly—as mere objects (or in other cases not treated or mentioned at all) in some of the more popular and influential ways of talking about “doing business.” Although we recognize that certain dimensions of this problem are not new, this article deliberately focuses on the dark side of the current push toward greater efficiency, competitiveness, and so-called customer responsiveness in the world of work by highlighting specific examples from public discourse in and about organizational life. We provide illustrations of the person as object in five categories of organizational activity: organizational operations, labor and employment, marketing and customer service, corporate governance and investor relations, and competition and market globalization.