Bourdieu's Cat: On Data Indeterminancy in the Study of Organizational Practice

Abstract

Whatever our epistemological stance, when we as researchers enter an organization we make observations of organizational life. We then craft abstract or imaginative theories from such observations. However, there exist fundamental issues with taking such observations in the first place, and which, as a consequence, confound theories based upon them. More specifically, I contend that in observing any organization, the observer: changes that organization, certainly in the immediate zone of observation, but also perhaps in spatially separated parts of the organization; cannot know that they have made the right assumptions about the organization; can know neither what mixture of states the organization was in immediately before they observed it nor to what mixture of states the organization returned to after they observed it; and can observe only one of many organizational worlds (their own). These contentions are grounded in well-rehearsed thought experiments from theoretical physics or more specifically quantum mechanics. This may seem far from organizational studies, but, these thought experiments focus upon the behavior of natural systems, particularly at the quantum level. Again this seems far from organizational studies, but, the quantum world is a major source of process thinking which has enjoyed considerable and recent application in the field of organization studies. In this paper I justify the appropriateness of using these thought experiments, explain at length the reasoning behind my contentions, and outline the implications that I believe these hold for the 'dance of individuals and organizations'.