Theorizing Subjectivity in Organizations: The Failure of Foucauldian Studies?

Abstract

This paper examines the promise of Foucault as a vehicle for addressing subjectivity and organizations. It questions the supposed non-essentialism and nondualism of Foucauldian work, and argues that such work has difficulties in theorizing agency, and the relation between self and discourse. Though the paper is critical of previous attacks on the anti-materialistic stance of Foucauldian work, it nevertheless suggests that Foucauldian studies have been unable to adequately theorize 'material' relations, and that they have so far provided an inadequate basis by which to develop an ethics of either individual or collective change. In developing this critique, the paper largely focuses on Foucauldian work rather than the text of Foucault himself, though some attention is paid to Volumes 1 to 3 of The History of Sexuality. Feminist work is also employed in order to illustrate the limitations of Foucault in theorizing the self and subjectivity.