Well, I'm back. A draft of the book is pretty much done. For the past two weeks, I've been trying to catch up on a backlog of emails and other administrative stuff that I had neglected for more than 3 months.
Lifting my head up from my notes and books, I see that the world hasn't changed much. It still feels as if we are on the brink of a great change.
As an academic, all this change makes thinking about the world difficult. Our task as researchers and observers is very much complicated by the fact we live in a world of great change, if not disintegration. From a very selfish perspective, I find it hard to describe organizations or develop theory when everything is in flux. I think the reason for the difficulty is that the range of possibilities for the future are infinite. Relatedly, it is not clear whether the present or (near past or immediate future) represents an equilibrium condition. As a result, most of what I confront when I speak to people in organizations is a world of that is only described as changing. It is a world of shattered meanings that I believe is increasingly accompanied by social expressions, such as anomie and alienation and bewilderment.
Recent Comments