Pandemonium

This work challenges the assumptions and values of contemporary linear organization theory. Disclaiming the voices of positivist science, the author presents a metaphor for the rejection of linearity, the reassertion of organizational creativity, and the return of humans into organization theory. `A truly bizarre and sometimes filthy historical canter through abatoirs, satyriasis and Noel Edmonds′ House Party, among other things, towards a theory of organisation′ - The Times ′The author pursues a vigorous polemic on organisational development′ - Financial Times In this irreverent and inventive book, Gibson Burrell seeks to circumvent the established frameworks which have defined our understanding of organization and organizations. He brings us tales from under the edge which enmire us in the nether side of modernist organization. By looking backwards deep into the history of Western societies, and sideways across the broad domain of social and cultural theory, Pandemonium disconcerts and invigorates the domain of the study of organizations. Through his experimental device of the two-directional text, Burrell offers multi-layered meanings and a metaphor for the rejection of linearity. This is not an organizational behaviour textbook but an exploration that will take organization theory into a new era.