A reviewer's introduction toStaging the new romantic hero in the old cynical theatre: On managers, roles and change in Poland

Abstract

The idea that organizational behavior theories are dominated by American cultural assumptions is old news (Hofstede, 1980). Unfortunately, this important insight has done little to foster the integration of theories from other cultural perspectives into mainstream organizational behavior. Rather, it has been comfortably marginalized as the study of cultural differences, leaving most published research and theory still dominated by American ethnocentrism. It is a sad fact that the internationalization of organizational and management theories has done considerably more to enrich our store of anecdotes than it has to broaden fundamental organization and management theory. The problem is a formidable one. Nevertheless, one reason for this continuing theoretical ethnocentricity is that Anglo-American rational empiricism has unquestioned dominance in our best academic journals. Thus, I was pleased when the editors of the Journal of Organizational Behavior asked my assistance in reviewing and introducing the following article. Our objective was to bring a work of theory deriving from rather different cultural experiences to the attention of demanding readers steeped in rational empiricism. In my research on the transforming organizations of the formerly communist countries, I have developed a great respect for the theoretical insights of my central and eastern European colleagues, and what can only be called a sheer delight in their style. Unfortunately, the very indirection and witty personal asides that make such insights so compelling when delivered over the dinner table render them unfit for print in a respected Western social science journal. The editors of JOB have commendably decided to provide a vehicle for sharing these insights in this occasional special section. The following article, 'Staging the new romantic hero in the old cynical theatre' by Professors Kostera, Proppe and Szatkowski, draws on the Romantic heritage of Polish culture to introduce the study of managerial rationalizations via the metaphor of the search for a self-image as a romantic hero. In this regard, Polish managers are hardly unique. Yet while metaphors of organization are familiar from Morgan's (1986) work, there has not been much concern with organizational participants' personal uses of metaphors in the maintenance of positive selfimages at work. Why should the study of the rationalizations that organizational participants strive to develop and sustain be so new to us? Don't most managers strive to create romantic myths about themselves? How else to explain the perennial attractiveness of military and sports metaphors, despite ample evidence that complex business and nonprofit enterprises operate quite differently than do battlefields and playing fields? Don't managers generally seek to enhance their esteem in their own eyes and the eyes of others? How else to explain their deep interest in status symbols like titles, parking places, and corner offices? While certain symbolic features of managers'