Grandiosity in contemporary management and education

Mats G Alvesson · Yiannis Gabriel

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Management and Organizational Studies Management Theory and Practice Organizational Learning and Leadership

Abstract

Contemporary practitioner and academic discourses of organizations and management have developed a tendency to discuss everyday organizational phenomena in overblown and remarkable ways. It is now commonplace to view organizations in terms of visions, missions, strategies, charisma, entrepreneurship, best practice and so on. A hyped-up language is becoming endemic to ordinary discussions of ordinary organizations doing ordinary things. This calls for some critical attention. One way of capturing this tendency to hype is through the idea of grandiosity that is taking over the ways mundane organizational phenomena are constructed and debated. In this essay, we argue that grandiosity is the product of the narcissism of our times, reinforced by contemporary consumerism; we suggest that grandiosity not only affects adversely critical reflection of organizations and management, but more importantly that it undermines organizational performance and learning.

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1995Simulacra and Simulation 2004Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern 2009The Restoration of the Self 1914On Narcissism: An Introduction 2019The Culture of Narcissism 1989Critique of Cynical Reason 2009Critical performativity: The unfinished business of critical management studies 2001Enchanting a Disenchanted World: Revolutionizing the Means of Consumption

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