CHANGING SPACES - THE DISRUPTIVE IMPACT OF A NEW EPISTEMOLOGICAL LOCATION FOR THE STUDY OF MANAGEMENT

This article draws on the work of the French philosopher, Michel Foucault, in order to problematize conventional approaches to the study of management and organizations that have been thought of as informed by a positive epistemology. Such a methodology encourages researchers to produce positive knowledge in the form of representations of what they consider to be the real world of management. This involves a concentration on what may be seen as the outcome of human activity in the form of second-order constructs, such as markets, demand and supply schedules. company accounts, selection techniques, or collective bargaining. Although those who conduct positive studies claim merely to report or represent the reality they observe, it is argued here that positive studies actually constitute the "subjectivity" of management through their representations. In so doing, these studies treat the subject, whether this be an individual, a group, or a class of activities (such as an organization) as if it were no different from an object in the natural sciences. But unlike those objects. "subjectivity" can never be finally fixed in knowledge. One reason for this is that once knowledge of the social world enters the public domain, the human conditions which rendered it possible are changed, thus undermining the original validity of such knowledge. Accordingly, positive knowledge is as precarious as the conditions (i.e., the social, political, and philosophical discourses and practices) that make it possible.