Deleuze and organisations : a double capture

Abstract

Why is it that some organisations resist much-needed change, even when change is self-evident? Why do organisations and organisational actors keep on following the same processes, rules, and strategies, even when existing organisational procedures and routines no longer seem to work? How can we account for organisational transformation, or the lack thereof? ‘We’ here does not refer to academics or researchers. It refers to organisational researchers and practitioners. In other words, how can I, as both researcher and manager, simultaneously, account for—and facilitate—the organisational transformation of the company (Sigma) where I work? The objective of this research is not (only) a conceptual understanding of organisational transformation. It is not about transformation, rather, it aims at an actual transformation. Aiming at understanding and performing transformation, this research experiments with the encounter between Sigma and the different domain of philosophy. I connect the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze’s work with the organisation I work for as a senior manager. I traverse both worlds, concepts (theory) and practices, and observe the effect of their encounter. Stated differently, this research experiments with a specific type of relationship between different elements and traces its transformations. The experiment entails observations (ethnographic fieldwork into organisational practices), the creation of concepts, and active interventions in the object of study, Sigma. Differently stated, the experiment involves what I refer to as exploration, reflection and crafting. Exploration involves detecting the affects produced by the encounter with Sigma and Deleuze’s text; a multiplicity of intensities or impressions is created. Reflection means the coming together of these impressions in a new concept of Sigma as thought experiment. Crafting entails the actualisation or embodiment of the concept in concrete practices and discourses. This is arguably a new method. It emerges from the encounter with Deleuze’s work. Similarly, a new reading of Deleuze’s work (I consider him a philosopher of organisation) and a transformed organisation (Sigma) emerge from their encounter. The key arguments that this thesis puts forward is that transformation happens when a specific type of relationship becomes embodied. I call this relationship ‘double capture’ or ‘nomadic traverse’. Which is conceptualised and practised throughout the thesis and the research. The key to transformation are these ‘double capture’ relationships. In this regard, the thesis expands the experiment also to the relationship with the reader--aiming at enacting a transformation rather than just reading about it. Focusing on ‘double capture’ relationships has proven transformative. Arguably, through ‘double capture’ relationships the organisation implicated in the experiment (Sigma), the field of organisation studies, Deleuzian studies, and the reader might be transformed. Undoubtedly, the research transformed from an experiment aiming at organisational transformation to my personal transformative journey, which paradoxically also entails a collective transformation