Adhocracy, security and responsibility: Revisiting Abu Ghraib a decade later

Abstract

This article examines the acts of detainee abuse that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq from the standpoint of organization theory. Instead of seeing Abu Ghraib as a failure of bureaucracy, I show that the prison is emblematic of a different organizational model – adhocracy – that places greater emphasis on the delegation of improvisation and practical judgment to low-level operators. I argue that that there is an intimate connection between adhocracies and the kind of security apparatus put in place by Coalition forces in Iraq, that the space of their encounter is potentially dangerous, and that adhocracies demand a distinctive approach to questions of individual responsibility.