Does Organizational Nonsense Make Sense? Laughing and Learning From French Corporate Cultures

Abstract

Organizational cultures can contain enduring traits that apparently make no sense. To shed some light on how and why organizational nonsense happens, I examine the case of some apparently nonsensical attributes often associated with French corporations. As nontraditional research, I propose a methodology combining cultural interpretation and production of fiction. I use humor to build ideal-typed representations through three satirical vignettes that depict elegant design generating widespread patching across organizations, working meetings becoming the ceremonial dumping of faits accomplis and absurdity being naturalized as normal organizational practice. These vignettes provide points-of-entry to examine some poorly understood aspects of French corporate cultures, interpreted with the support of arguments of historical, sociological, and institutional nature. The resulting interpretation depicts systems of groups that seek for a cordial cohabitation by continuously renegotiating their essentially ascribed positions.