Into the Labyrinth: Tales of Organizational Nomadism

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Article: Kociatkiewicz, J and Kostera, M (2015) Into the Labyrinth: Tales of Organizational Nomadism. Organization Studies, 36 (1). pp. 55-71. ISSN 0170-8406 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840614546154

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[email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Into the Labyrinth: Tales of organizational nomadism

Jerzy Kociatkiewicz e University of She eld [email protected]

Monika Kostera Jagiellonian University [email protected] Abstract Labyrinths and mazes have constituted signi cant spaces for tales of transformation, from prehistoric designs through the myth of the Minotaur and the pilgrimage design in Chartres cathedral to contemporary novels and pictorial representations. Labyrinths and labyrinthine designs can also commonly be found in present-day organizations. is text, based on an ethnographic study as well as on an analysis of academic discourse, explores their signi cance as symbol and as physical structure. Drawing upon the notion of transitional space, it presents labyrinths as an indelible part of human experience, an archetype, and a sensemaking tool for understanding and explaining organizational complexity. e unavoidable presence of labyrinthine structures is presented as a counterpoise to the reductionist tendency towards simpli cation, streamlining and staying on-message, allowing or demanding space for re ection, doubt and uncertainty.

Keywords archetype, labyrinth, identity, organizational space, symbolism

Entrance – as to mark the paths where they overlap and merge. e contribution of this text is located within the area Our initial engagement with this study stems from an of organizational symbolism: an understanding that interest in labyrinths and mazes sustained over many interpretation of symbols is crucial for understanding years: fascination with formal designs as well as with organizational realities (Czarniawska, 1997a; Gagliardi, more general experiences of losing and nding one's 1990; Stablein & Nord, 1985; Turner, 1986). We way, of learning and traversing complex pathways. Our propose that recognizing the labyrinth as a prevalent, reason for writing the article, however, is the wider if not o en acknowledged, organizational symbol or signi cance of the symbolism of labyrinthine structures interpretive scheme can serve as a valuable and indeed, throughout history, across cultures, and, nally, in necessary, means to broadening the discourse of organizational practice and theory. In a labyrinthine organizations in areas such as identity (Kenny, Whittle, narrative of our own we wish to express and represent & Willmott, 2011) or the narration of everyday the symbolic role of the labyrinth as one of the organizational experience. e acknowledgement of fundamental principles of organizing and storytelling the prevalence of labyrinthine shapes and structures

Article published in 2015 in Organization Studies 35/1: 55-71, DOI: 10.1177/0170840614546154. is copy includes the content of the article, but does not follow journal layout or page numbers. 2 Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera generates non-negligible problems for organizational we recount and interpret in a narrative way. analysis (not least that of undermining legitimacy of We begin our exploration by looking at the variety of the simplistic models, so ubiquitous in managerialist contexts in which the labyrinth — which we regard not discourse, as direct representations of reality), yet it not only as an allegory or a symbol but also as an archetype only enables the expression of ideas and experiences (Jung, 1968, p. 6) — remains relevant to contemporary commonly encountered but not o en voiced within practice and discourse, and locate the ways in which the mainstream discourse of what Bauman (2007) has its broader understanding and incorporation can help termed the liquid times; it may also help counteract address some of the shortcomings of the dominant some of the maladies of liquid modernity, such as managerial and organizational approaches. en we the pervasive sense of discontinuity, shallowness and present some of our empirical explorations of the idea fragmentation of life (Bauman, 2000). of the labyrinth in organizational settings, and nally Our text is located within the narrative tradition of we re ect on the enlightening uses of the labyrinth in writing social sciences (Baruch, 2008; Boje, 2001; the thinking of organizations, as well as in the making Czarniawska, 2004; Czarniawska-Joerges, 1995; them happen. e text does not proceed in a straight Gabriel, 2000; Hansen, Barry, Boje, & Hatch, 2007). line towards this conclusion because it is a labyrinth But if narratives need to have a clearly delineated plot itself. (Gabriel, 2000), then it is also true that some plots are less explicit than others, some tales seem to go in circles, e Story of the labyrinth meander and loop back on themselves. As much as contemporary hyper-rational turn in social sciences and It is not easy to even estimate when labyrinths rst elsewhere (Kociatkiewicz & Kostera, 2012a) has strived appeared: e oldest extant designs date from around to eradicate such writing and force all academic writing 3000 BCE, but it is probable that the notion of a into the neat and concise form of what is known as the labyrinth originated with an earlier lived ritual, such as journal article style, crooked tales, twisting sentences, that of a maze dance (Layard, 1936), rather than with complex plots still exist, hidden on the margins and in a drawn representation. Russell and Russell (1991) everyday experience. We believe that saw labyrinths as a primitive way of organizing space, [t]heories do not “represent” reality; theoreticians take superseded by more sophisticated practices of mapping upon themselves to represent other people and even and representation. e idea does not seem overly nature (Czarniawska-Joerges, 1995, p. 27). persuasive as labyrinth patterns, while appearing very And so, the labyrinthine aspect of organizations is early in the history of various cultures, remain common waiting to be represented, a task which we take upon throughout their subsequent developments--including, us in this text. Organization theory has much to gain notably, our own contemporary cultural settings. In from a conscious blurring of genres, especially in times contrast, Hermann Kern (2000) presented labyrinths when boundaries are being questioned (Czarniawska, as signs of cultural sophistication, indicating conceptual 1997b). Our desire is to juxtapose and consciously bring complexity. together several genres taking up the theme of labyrinth Labyrinths are commonly distinguished from mazes, and to re-inscribe them through writing the experience particularly in English language literature (this is not of organizations and organizing. surprising, as many other languages, e.g. Greek, French, Because of the signi cance of wider cultural settings to or Polish do not di erentiate between the two words). our investigations, we opt for a narrative method for our Most o en (e.g. Eco, 1986; Kern, 2000), the underlying examination of the role of the labyrinth archetype; we distinction is that of unicursality versus multicursality, rely on literature and myth, focusing on the plots and i.e. whether the pattern consists of a single path the metaphors associated with the occurrence of the or of branching passages. Visual representations labyrinth as a key element of the narrative (Czarniawska, favour unicursal labyrinths (the earliest multicursal 1999, 2004; Kostera, 2012). In addition to narrative designs appear only in the Renaissance), but textual analysis, we also present results of an ethnographic traditions from early antiquity onwards tend to stress study (Van Maanen, 1988) we carried out, focused on the possibility of losing one’s way, i.e. multicursality exploring the experiential and aesthetic (Warren, 2008) (Doob, 1990). Moreover, the very origin of the Greek aspects of labyrinthine organizational spaces. is too word labyrinthos (usually translated as some variation

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. Into the Labyrinth: Tales of organizational nomadism 3 of ‘the place of the two-headed axe’) is bound up linked to experience they provide a thread connecting with the palace complex in Crete and the myth of the intersubjective, external world to the ideas of the impenetrable structure housing the Minotaur. an ancestral past and a sensitivity that may bring e other famous labyrinth of antiquity, a vast palace insight and inspiration. ey may be used depict and structure in Egypt described by Herodotus (which interpret vitally important yet not ostensibly visible might or might not correspond to the ruins discovered organizational aspects and processes, such as the dark in Hawara), is not described as having either a central side of organizing (Bowles, 1991; Carr, 2002), ethical goal or a single path leading through it. Slightly more attitudes and the practice of virtues (Bowles, 1993), the recent labyrinths inscribed in many medieval Christian deep interrelatedness of organizational roles (Moxnes, cathedrals, have been understood as constructed to 1999), and culturally and morally complex aspects symbolize the soul’s arduous journey towards salvation of leadership (Kociatkiewicz and Kostera, 2012b; or the recreation of the harrowing transformation of Moxnes, 2013). Finally, management and organization death and resurrection (Doob, 1990). ey are usually as such are, on a deeper cultural level, also myths rooted unicursal, but not universally so: e design found in in archetypes, they involve participants in heroic quests; Poitiers, for example, includes branching passages and indeed, they strive to replace traditional religious beliefs dead ends, despite serving the same spiritual purpose as and consolations against life-destroying forces (Bowles, unicursal patterns. e distinction is thus di cult to 1989). In this text we are taking such a broader look, maintain with any precision, but also not relevant to but we focus on the domain of the unmanaged and our study: Our contribution is exploratory rather than unmanageable (Gabriel, 1995), always present in analytical; we endeavour to show the extent to which the margins of the normal organizational reality: the labyrinths are useful, and used, as tools and metaphors transitional space. for understanding the complexities of organizational Transitional spaces are the physical manifestations of settings. liminality: the state betwixt and between more stable states and realities (Turner, 1974; van Gennep, 1960); A Study in Transitional Space the transitory stage in rituals, especially in rites of passage (Turner, 1969); a state of blurred boundaries where the From the earliest dances and etched patterns through usual constraints of common cultural de nitions do not the myth of the Minotaur and the pilgrimage design apply. ey are the spaces set aside for enacting change in Chartres cathedral to Borges’ (1998) and Pelevin’s or transformation (Knox, O’Doherty, Vurdubakis & (2005) contemporary reappropriations of the theme, Westrup, 2007), or the inde nite spaces that allow labyrinths and mazes have constituted important sites for many interpretations and uses (Kociatkiewicz & for tales of transformation. ey play a signi cant Kostera, 2011). We set out upon this journey, following narrative and cultural role which we would like to the tradition of seeing spaces as narratives (Panayiotou focus on in this text, in particular with regard to and Ka ris, 2011; Yanow, 1998). organization and management. It is our intention to Penelope Doob (1990) distinguished between labyrinth explore the labyrinth as an archetype of transitional as a structure, characterized by the dualism of confusion space. We understand archetypes in the Jungian (1968) and complex order, and labyrinth as subjective way, as common patterns located within the collective process—the traversal that can signify liberation or a unconscious, ready to hold images, symbols and di cult progress towards enlightenment. In this latter narratives. Archetypes are a crucial component of social sense, regardless of whether the journey meets with a reality and its interpretation, though their existence is success or a failure, the labyrinth forms an archetype of o en not consciously acknowledged. In organizations, transitional space. Jacques Attali (1998) describes it as they can serve as very nearly inexhaustible resources of an ideas for inspiration and renewal, when acknowledged opaque place of paths whose routes need obey no prior and reprocessed through stories, theories, and images law. It may be ruled by chance or improbability signaling (Kostera, 2012). the defeat of pure Reason (Attali, 1998, p. xxvi). Martin Bowles (1993) speaks of archetypes as “forms e pattern may be simple or complicated; it can of apprehension which give rise to ways of thinking, contain a single path or a multitude of branching feeling, imagining and experiencing” (p.399). When

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. 4 Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera passages. Its traversal might involve reaching the centre, in rst person singular to emphasize their experiential crossing its expanse, or reaching a designated exit. It character, relay our ndings from participant is always enclosed by a border, usually a square or a observation (Kostera, 2007; Rottenburg, 2000) in circle. In Attali’s (1998) interpretation, focused of the the usual functioning of these spaces and focus on transforming aspects of the labyrinth, such space can experiencing labyrinths. ey also serve to highlight be equated it with the principles of nomadic travel, the possibilities and limitations of understanding aiming to understand oneself rather than to arrive at a contemporary organizations as labyrinths and, more destination. importantly, the promises and shortcomings of these First, the nomad must travel lightly. e only type of very spaces held up to the paragon of the archetypal accumulations favored are ideas, experiences, knowledge labyrinth. and relationships […] Secondly, it must never be We treat all of our material as narratives, derived from forgotten that the nomad is hospitable, courteous, open texts or from our own ethnographic explorations, and to others, and attentive to gi s and obligations […] e we interpret them on several planes, using Roman third principle commands us to remember to be on the Ingarden’s (1960) model of phenomenological reading alert. (ibid., p. 76) of texts, according to which a text should be read on By travelling the labyrinthine path a person embarks several levels, in order to uncover the di erent layers upon a powerful journey, one that may lead into of meanings and symbols. To set the stage for such completely new realms and realities; by learning to a reading, and before we delve into the passages of know oneself one loses and nds oneself anew. e physical labyrinths, we need make a short detour and transitional space of the labyrinth carries liberating review how the notion of labyrinth and maze appears power: It may be a space reclaimed by the underdogs, in other relevant textual sources. e next section, thus, or forgotten by management and reconstructed by the comprises a narrative analysis (Boje, 2001; Czarniawska, organization’s participants as a cultural sanctuary or 2004; Gabriel, 2000) of labyrinths in academic journals, symbolic retreat. It may provide a source for change with a focus on management texts. It allows us to chart beyond managerial control, a creative change available the narrative function of the labyrinth which, we argue, to self-managing and anarchic organizations. is a harmfully limited and limiting one. Does it apply also to organizations and organized settings, we wondered? In order to see where the path Talking the Labyrinth of the labyrinth may lead us, we have studied accounts of past, present, and ctional labyrinths and walked Classical literature hints at two distinct ways of numerous extant structures, including turf labyrinths experiencing labyrinths: as an observer or a builder and (Sa ron Walden, St. Agnes), hedge (Barcelona, as a wanderer (or, in a later medieval guide, a pilgrim). Vienna) and mirror mazes (Prague), ecclesiastical e observer, like Herodotus in Account of Egypt, and labyrinths (Palermo, Italian churches), and a number like the academic authors explaining organizational of labyrinthine structures that defy easy categorization, complexities, presents labyrinth in terms of its guiding such as an underground museum and exhibition space principles and distinguishing features (called Labyrinthus) in Budapest and an inventive piece [i]t has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one of public art (a station of the London underground). another, six upon the North side and six upon the All these experiences inform our study, though in South, joining on one to another, and the same wall this text we relate only two purposeful explorations surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two of contemporary labyrinthine contexts. We relate kinds of chambers, the one kind below the ground and these as ethnographic accounts (in the tradition of the other above upon these, three thousand in number, organizational ethnography and following in the of each kind een hundred. (Herodotus, 1890/2006, methodological footsteps of Czarniawska-Joerges, n.p.) 1992; Rosen, 1991; Van Maanen, 1988; Yanow, Taking the measure of the labyrinth that confronts Ybema, Wels, & Kamsteeg, 2009) of our journeys women leaders, we see that it begins with prejudices through two labyrinthine spaces: the University of that bene t men and penalize women, continues with Essex in Colchester, United Kingdom, and an IKEA particular resistance to women’s leadership, includes store in Warsaw, Poland. ese narratives, presented questions of leadership style and authenticity, and

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– most dramatically for many women – features the organization theory, Ka a’s novels present one of the challenge of balancing work and family responsibilities few literary labyrinths to have elicited considerable (Eagly & Carli, 2007, p. 70) interest in management and related academic Such perspective presents labyrinths as complex and disciplines. Martin Parker (2005) draws parallels requiring close study in order to be understood, but between Ka a’s vision and that of Max Weber, with ultimately rational and solvable and conforming to both representing clearly delineated rules. Doob (1990) collates this organisations as labyrinths with endless corridors and perspective with early visual representations of the locked doors hiding evil secrets. Or, as the places where labyrinth: universally unicursal, providing the viewer monsters are fabricated, and people themselves become with the experience of complexity and perhaps a drawn monstrous (p. 159) out process of mapping rather than of confusion In a similar reading, Iain Munro and Christian Huber and danger. If the viewer identi es with the builder, (2012) see Ka a’s labyrinths represent the mythological such a labyrinth represents complex artistry, mastery counterpart of Weber’s theory-focused examination of a di cult medium, and discipline in design and of organizational bureaucracy. For Hodson, Martin, construction. For the observer, it implies convoluted Lopez, and Roscigno (2013), Ka a provides a order, circumscription of chaos, and the di culty of critical dissection of bureaucratic dysfunctions that acquiring knowledge. complements a more positive Weberian vision and, In contrast, a rst-person perspective of the labyrinth more crucially, stands in contrast to the sanitized carries quite di erent and much more frightening readings of Weber’s model that have come to dominate connotations. Such strongly negative experience of organizational literature. It should be noted that the last the labyrinth is brought to mind by the convoluted decade saw the publication of a large number of texts narrative, organizational, and physical structures applying insights from Ka a to organization theory, in described in Franz Ka a’s two novels (both, perhaps stark contrast to his relative absence from management signi cantly, un nished at the time of the writer’s discourse in the previous decades. His labyrinths have death): e Castle and e Trial. While the words been found helpful in understanding not only of the maze or labyrinth never appear in the novels, e state apparatus (the ostensible subject of his works, as protagonists (K. and Josef K., respectively) have o en examined in e.g. Batko, 2013), but also private sector been interpreted as stumbling through labyrinthine corporations (Hodson, Roscigno, Martin, & Lopez, settings (e.g. Cornwell, 2006; Kenosian, 1995). ey 2013) and, indeed, the pervasiveness of bureaucratic both encounter incomprehensible bureaucratic systems forms in contemporary life (Warner, 2007). e theme which not only exercise inordinate amount of power of the labyrinth does not explicitly appear in all of these over them, but also overwhelm and ultimately kill them works, though they are united in presenting the image of (though the nished text does not reach this point a murky, complex, confusing, and sinister organization: in case of e Castle). ese systems are primarily this is the labyrinth without an exit, as poignantly organizational labyrinths, though they both also take symbolized by the un nished state of Ka a’s novel at physical form. e Castle itself is never visited by K. the time of his death. and, indeed, is hidden from view by mist and darkness Other labyrinths appearing, much less frequently, when K. arrives in the neighbouring village. Yet the in contemporary academic discourse in general and reader is made aware of its many departments and the organization studies texts in particular, are similarly circulation of les and messages between them. In e portrayed in an almost invariably negative way. Trial, Josef K. found himself in a literal maze as he ¬However, where Ka a’s characters di er from the went over to the stairway to get to the room where protagonists of the academic texts is in their apparent the hearing was to take place, but then stood still passivity in dealing with labyrinths – the mazes of journal again as besides these steps he could see three other articles clearly invite active approaches and favour the stairway entrances, and there also seemed to be a small resourceful. ey are usually bound up with action passageway at the end of the yard leading into a second on part of the protagonist – almost all the academic yard. (Ka a, 1925/2005, n.p.). titles mention mazes in context of associated activities Perhaps due to their un inching portrayal of performed by the reader or the study subjects within bureaucratic machinery, one of the major topics in the general context of a trip through the labyrinth (of

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'corporate democracy': Joo, 2003), with Jackall's (1988) be, inevitably turn out to be solvable by an active and Moral mazes forming the notable exception. Such resourceful subject or reader, promising success in actions include venturing into the labyrinth (of Stark dealing with the labyrinths, be it through navigation or Law: Weiser, 1995), navigating the (evolving regulatory: sni ng. Fahey & Rinaldi, 2008; WLAN management: Mathias, 2008) maze or (process: Blustain, 1998; institutional: Exploration 1: IKEA, Walking the Blenner, 1992) labyrinth (this is by far the most common verb), nding a way through the (venture Labyrinth capital: Bruno, Tyebjee, & Anderson, 1985) maze, e exploration starts on the second oor, where a big steering through the (medical: Walkinshaw, 2011) maze basket full of yellow bags is placed by the entrance. We and, hopefully, coming out of the maze (Vanderzwaag, follow the example of the visitors who all grab one the 1983). More enterprising wanderers might try their bags. hand at mapping the maze (for management: Hinkle & “Don’t get lost”, I hear a woman admonishing a child, Kuehn, 1967), leading through the labyrinth (Revanna, who, however, looks cheerful and not frightened of 2007), or guiding clients through the (long-term care: getting lost at all. e path is delineated by a wooden Opiela, 2003) maze, while less orthodox approaches oor, lit up by the bright overhead lamps, giving o can involve simplifying the (return-to-work: Shafer a warm, slightly yellowish shade of light, di erent & Graham, 1995) maze, managing through the maze from most supermarket lights that tend to be kept in (Power, 2004), sorting your way through the maze (of bluish, colder ranges. On both sides of the oor there information management: McCune, 2006) or even is a cornucopia of exhibits: light furniture on the right, helping customers sni through the fragrance maze bedclothes and pillows on the le , soon superseded by (Gupte, 2011). beds in all shapes and sizes. People stroll in the areas As can be surmised from the titles above, these occupied by the furniture, but walk rather briskly labyrinths and mazes appear most o en as a metaphor along the path, that now had shi ed from wood into for di culty. Many of the texts noted above are a grayish linoleum. Now and again I see arrows, most editorials or essays rather than research reports, and of which point forward, pasted on the oor or placed thus given to more owery rhetoric. But the metaphor somewhere overhead. Sometimes there are also passages is usually a throwaway trope, o en used as a title that is between the at exhibition areas: shortcuts, not for me, never expanded or elaborated upon in the actual text. I am here to walk the whole path, in a steady pace, not e one signi cant exception we have encountered stopping, nor meandering outside of the route, just as I is an elaborate description of the process of studying would walk a turf labyrinth. e path is curvy, it leads behavioral science, described as an exploration of a through a variety of spaces, some of which are shining constantly shi ing labyrinth (Massarik & Krueger, and metallic, holding kitchen elements, and some as 1970). Building on classical myth and carefully exploring velvety and so , even the sounds are more di used here: the metaphor, the authors convey di culty and danger, ese are the areas with the curtains and blankets. A as well as exploration and exhilaration inherent in zone hosting the restaurant is not as straightforward to study and research. is was the only academic text navigate, here both the arrows and the paths themselves that rose above banality of the most common use of the are more ambiguous, I am not sure whether the full path metaphor, mirroring Harold Bloom’s re ection that includes the restaurant or if it does not; to be on the safe [t]he labyrinthine became an image for the confusions side, I pass through. is is a much more open space of a lost life, yet that negates the image’s wealth. All than the others and there is something lacking. It takes labyrinths are illusory, in that they can be mastered, me a while to realize that the IKEA sign makes a much sometimes by cunning, other times by chance. (Bloom, more modest appearance here; it is only prominent 2009: xvii) on the posters showing the menu of the day. A gray us even such thoughtful appropriations and analyses stairwell takes me downstairs, and I easily retrieve an of the trope share the same conviction that underlies unambiguous path, leading through several exhibition the mazes used as academic platitudes: the notion areas to a vast open hall. Here the path ceases, instead that the problems mounting before the subjects, of a clear, horizontal way, the space seems to expand however unnecessary, absurd or even surreal they may

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. Into the Labyrinth: Tales of organizational nomadism 7 into a three-dimensional labyrinth of huge wooden meandering shape of the path, doubling up upon itself racks and shelves, on which uniformly brown packages across the two oors of the store, recalls, much as it did are piled. I decide to walk through the main alley, in my experience of walking it, the temptation-strewn a er having explored just one of the sideways. Beyond journey of the pilgrim depicted in medieval cathedral the hall there is a boisterous space, lled with smaller labyrinths. containers over owing with colourful small objects such as glass bowls, candles, candleholders, small chairs, Exploration 2: University of Essex mats. People are milling around them, as if unsure whether to proceed to the nishing line, demarcated by Colchester Campus, Living the gates and cash registers. I have not li ed anything into Labyrinth, my IKEA bag so I do not need to stand in one of the e university complex, built in the 1960s, and longish queues but I am slowed down by the necessity to expanded numerous times in the following years, was put away the bag and to squeeze past the casher and the also reportedly inspired by the medieval architecture: buyers. As I exit, I see the food counters ahead of me, that of the Florentine town San Gimignano. e with an abundance of Swedish jelly sweets and chocolate inspiration is not immediately apparent to our eyes, boxes, happily piled and brightly lit up in the otherwise though prevalently brutalist architecture lends the grayish space. I also notice a distinctly framed square on campus a fortress-like appearance. Large portion of the the oor between where I stand and the food. It is just campus forms a multilevel, interconnected and, yes, one of the many gray linoleum tiles, but as if deliberately labyrinthine structure where losing one’s way seems standing out and inviting to be stepped upon. I do so, an inevitable part of traversing the winding corridors. carefully, and as both my feet meet the tile I look up Various sections are painted in di erent colours, and feel enlightened. Just as when I had been setting the which we believe originally served to di erentiate nal step in the middle of one of the turf labyrinths, I between spaces occupied by di erent departments, feel I have achieved something important, this symbolic but subsequent growth, relocation, and reorganization path had led me towards a greater wisdom, but of what, of the divisions mean that currently there is no link I do not know. However, I feel I deserve a reward so I between the colour of the corridor and the function of buy myself a bag of Swedish sweets. It is when I come adjoining rooms. Many corridors meet at oblique angles home that evening that I begin to understand what making orientation all the more di cult. Rooms are the enlightenment was about: I begin to see IKEA numbered, but there is a variety of room-numbering products in my at, I notice them as I never did before, schemes operating in di erent sections of the campus I am secretly and profoundly aware of each IKEA logo complex. University webpage guide to nding one’s I encounter, not just in my home, but, for several days, way around the campus includes general advice such as also in other places: in my workplace, in public spaces... “[a]lways nd the oor level rst” (University of Essex, [ g. 1 around here] 2013, n.p.). is rule, it should be noted, is not entirely While one of us was walking the IKEA labyrinth in useful, as passage between di erent building complex search of enlightenment, the other was pondering over is possible only on select levels. e website also o ers its design: I walked the recommended customer route concise explanation of some of the room numbering through the store, counting noting down my steps and systems found around the complex (of which there are turns which I later recreated as an electronic map (see several). e most common one is described thus: gure 1). e map, although presenting a simpli ed If the number has three elements the room is in the record, is based uniquely on the actual distances Computing Service/Hexagon area around Square measured by the steps and directions I have taken. It 4. An "S" in the number indicates the room is to the is an embodied and not an intellectual testimony. e south of the square, an "N" to the north. e middle path reveals a largely unicursal design, although my number indicates the oor the room is on. For example, notes depict the route as lled with distractions and 4SW.5.12 is on level 5, on the south side of Square 4 small side passages. e way through proved easy to and room 12 in this area. If the rst element includes follow and readily signposted most of the time, except "NW" the room is in the Essex Business School/History for two areas: the restaurant and the main storage hall building. e entrance to this building is indicated by where signs were either absent or contradictory. e

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“4N”; for example, 5NW.6.12 is on level 6 of the Essex only of the personal courage and resourcefulness of the Business School/History building and is room 12 in main protagonist, but also of his gaining the ability to this area. (ibid., n.p.) escape the labyrinth by using the ingenious solution e description ignores some of the idiosyncrasies devised by Ariadne: a ball of yarn allowing him to of the system, such as the rst number denoting the record his movement and then to retrace his steps to the location of a notional outdoor square (numbered 1 to exit. During our study of the campus, re-escape plans 5) that the room is near, or the existence of a newer posted on some of the walls were o en used as local building addressed as 2S2, but it witnesses the general maps (they covered only the immediate area) allowing governing principle: Rooms are numbered according some orientation. Since our leaving, the university has to their position on a three-dimensional grid rather introduced new computer and smartphone so ware than to the way one should go about reaching them. allowing plotting routes between di erent rooms on the Consequently, newer additions to the campus complex campus, and promising, in a future update, to provide could not be accommodated to the same system, and real-time navigation. We do not, however, expect the thus require other instructions, such as: new so ware to eliminate labyrinthine peregrinations: If the number has two elements and the second element as Martin Pops (1974, p. 99) rightly noted, “[t]he ball of has two digits, the room is in the Link building/Biology twine is both labyrinth and clewline.” area and the rst number shows the oor. (Note: some of these room numbers are expressed as a single element, Making Sense of the Labyrinth eg "038".) (ibid., n.p.) As a consequence, nding an unfamiliar room, and e linguistic trawl through the textual mazes of the sometimes even a familiar one, can prove a problem, academic journals and the two experiential vignettes and the campus can be quite accurately envisaged as a presented above show quite di erent labyrinths of multicursal labyrinth, much like the Cretan structure organization and a variety of possibilities of traversing built by Daedalus and famously traversed by eseus. them and of accounting for one’s travels. We recounted ere are other similarities apart from its ba ing our analytical attempts to follow the o en misleading design: e Minotaur’s prison was a public building, metaphorical signposts of academic discourse, the and has o en been depicted (particularly in medieval meditative and meandering path through a furniture iconography) as a three-dimensional, forti ed structure store, and the overview of a complex university (Doob, 1990). Yet the mythical labyrinth’s importance structure. Together, they provide us with some basis stems from the story woven around it, not from its for a wider re ection on the relevance of labyrinth architectural features, and so we should look at the experience and labyrinthine thinking for organization campus primarily as a site of experience. It is a space and management theory. encompassing many destinations, where di erent e observer’s descriptions can emphasize the size, wanderers traverse the passages in search of their own majesty, or ingenuity of the presented labyrinth, speci c goals. One of us worked at this university while but invariably fail to reproduce the confusion, preparing the rst version of this text and gure 2 disorientation, and sheer di culty of its traversal. records his journey through the labyrinth in the space of is is, as we have noted in describing academic one workday. e gure illustrates certain complexity, use of the labyrinth as metaphor, a perspective of yet it charts the course of a person familiar with all the avoiding the ambiguity and uncertainty accompanying visited destinations—it does not plot any experience transformative experiences: an attempt to witness the of getting lost (but then, maps rarely do), nor the full labyrinth and remain unchanged. extent of the structure. For the builder, the labyrinth is also a structure that [ g. 2 around here] does not a ect his or her identity. Its design can be As a university, this labyrinth is also at least potentially a construed as a test of skill (a challenge that Daedalus site of transformation (Milchman & Rosenberg, 1997), of myth was never able to resist), it might be expected a labyrinth where reaching the spatial goal serves a to deeply a ect its future visitors or inhabitants (Le preamble to the personal quest where success is by no Corbusier’s megalithic buildings come to mind here), means assured. Of course, the myth of eseus tells not but not the builder or his/her dependents. us, the IKEA store can o er winding passages for the shoppers

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. Into the Labyrinth: Tales of organizational nomadism 9 and less visible shortcuts for the sta and knowledgeable Speed and incessant acceleration have been argued to visitors, and when Daedalus was thrust into his own be the currently dominant dogma (Baudrillard, 1992; labyrinth by King Minos, he devised wings allowing Virilio, 2005), an addiction that turns every day into a him and Icarus to avoid trudging through the maze. race. Carl Honoré, in his book In praise of slow (2004) It is only the wanderer who can expect to experience argues that this inhuman pace makes our experiences the labyrinth, and to be a ected (perhaps even super cial, takes a toll on our relationships, and drives transformed) by the encounter. Even then, the lure us towards an existential emptiness. Peter Case, Simon of the quick x is nearly irresistible: e thread of Lilley, and Tom Owens (2006) also criticize speed – Ariadne or the way nding app promises to eliminate in the context of organizing. ey do not believe that confusion, though the cost is rarely made clear. eseus speed is good or necessary for organizations; on the easily found his way out with the help of the thread, but contrary, both the environment and our humanity things only went downhill from there. His romance demand that we slow down. Slowness is an essential with Ariadne never ourished, and his eagerness to go feature and condition of enjoyment. straight to the nish drove his father to suicide ( eseus, Most generally, then, the labyrinthine space slows ushed with his success forgot to change the sails of down organizations and our thinking about them. his ship – a prearranged signal supposed to show the But also, being a transitional space, it leads from one success or failure of his mission; his despondent father relatively stable state to another. We have encountered killed himself before the ship docked). In organization several such possible moves in our explorations. In theory, the search for a quick x (Case & Gosling, the academic discourse labyrinths serve a narrative 2011) or a simple, linear solution (Burrell, 1996) function, providing a concretized representation of the tends to lead to problematic, if not outright deadly, complexity of the protagonist's task or journey, and thus results. Organizational life is complex, contextual, and underscoring the achievement involved in successfully changing –understanding and confronting it requires completing the tasks. But it is a very super cial patience, perseverance, the ability to fail and to learn reinterpretation of the labyrinths of myth, history, and from failure and inconclusive results as much as the literature, whose signi cance derives largely on their great successes and achievements. Indeed, as Karl Weick transformative quality: e archetypal labyrinth is a pointed out (1995), success stories are rarely useful path of profound change. material for learning: Too clear a path towards victory In many of the articles we have analyzed, the labyrinth obfuscates contingencies, doubt, and ambivalence that stands for all that is absurd, unnecessary, undesired in necessarily accompany di cult situations and complex, contemporary organizations, the transition through labyrinthine organizational processes. A model, which is o en impossible to avoid, but only because algorithm or, indeed, a oorplan can serve only as a start the organization in question is not su ciently rational, of the interpretive and sensemaking process necessary straightforward or, indeed, reasonable. All these texts for traversing any labyrinth. It is no coincidence that imply that life would have been better if these spatial Odysseus, the greatest navigator of classical myth, never entanglements were done away with once and for all: drew a map of his meandering journey home to Ithaca. only then a full organizational rationality would be able to blossom. Travels through Transitional Space at negative view of the labyrinth in much of the academic writings is understandable, and it does e textual analysis and experiential journeys through represent a strand of the mythical understanding of organizational spaces have showed us several possible the concept: wandering dark and murky corridors uses of the transitional space that is realized through the can be dangerous as well as confusing. And the labyrinth, either as a linguistic tool, a metaphor, or as a labyrinth’s centre may well house a terrifying spatial construct, also a metaphor in the etymological monster, the confrontation with whom requires skills sense: a vehicle for transport that makes moving quite di erent than those needed for traversing the possible. In contrast to most vehicles in use in modern winding passageways. In the world of contemporary societies, such as cars, trains, or airplanes, this one serves management, the organizational labyrinth has become not to make us go faster, but to slow us down. It is not as something of the shadow side of ordered e ectiveness, absurd an idea as it may seem at rst glance. or the dark, unwanted, and rejected aspects of what the

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. 10 Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera rational organization would like to make itself to be like applies is a façade, the front that is presented by the (Bowles, 1991; Kostera, 2012). organizations, and toward them by their employees and For better or for worse, though, these rejected features managers. One has to look like a boss, present oneself are an integral part of the organizational experience. like an experienced employee, make a good impression; And as such, the labyrinth needs to be acknowledged, and repeat it over and over again, as all organizational considered, and, nally, integrated as simply ignoring the work nowadays is based on an incessant production of a labyrinthine will not make its presence disappear. is convincing impression of self. cannot be done, however, without the abandonment of e presence of a façade implies a possibly labyrinthine the dogma of hyper-rationality in the rst place. structure behind it, but such realization requires the [tab. 1 around here] acknowledgment of the darker realities beyond the e organization-sited instances of labyrinth that we shiny surface. In a permanent theatre of vanity, the have explored show two very di erent directions into shadow remains repressed, and there is neither time which its transitional power may lead. In the case of nor place for the gaining of real experience or lasting IKEA it forged a bond between the walker and the learning, as this takes time and demands mistakes to be organization, it imprinted the identity of the company made. Liquid modernity, as Zygmunt Bauman (2000) in her mind, making her aware of its impact on the space calls it, is a time of deregulation, disembodiment of surrounding her also elsewhere, outside of the enclosed relationships, rejection of stability and long term space of the shop. e University of Essex campus, the commitments, replaced by relationships of constant labyrinthine structure was intended as an epitome of bargaining and promotion of everything on the rationality and explicitness: room numbers and colours omnipresent markets, which seem to have taken over unequivocally designating destinations, connected all aspects of life. Organizations inhabiting such times design making the campus easily traversable. It failed are made up of shortcuts: in employment rules, in the utterly: e attempts at rationalization were subverted providing of labour, in notions of quality, in ethics. If by the physicality of the archetypal labyrinth. something cannot be achieved via a shortcut, it is erased Archetypes have a tendency to be strong narrative from the plans, it ceases to exist. propellers, to drive stories in one, and not other And yet it does. At the margins, in non-corporate direction, and are therefore unmanageable (Kostera, organizational spaces, in private lives, people still take 2012). e setting up of a rational system for the the road less travelled, read books they do not need for ordering of space within a path that belongs to the improving their nancial standing, fall unpro tably in domain of the archetype of the labyrinth was a risky love, even do such unpoetic things as walking the dog in endeavour. Not only it was it not successful, but it stands all but an e ective straight line. ey may not be able to out as a triumph of the irrational over the straightlined, talk about it in a language that is equally non-rational of intricacy over order. and tangled, because of the currently so pervasive nancialization of the language of public discourse A Conclusion: Opening (Martin, 2002). Reclaiming the images and symbolism of labyrinths is one of the vital, even necessary steps e labyrinth ends with a concluding step: To arrive toward a reclaiming of a human language, and with it, a there, the wanderer has to walk through the entire voice to talk about experience in terms that open minds passage, no short cut is allowed or, in many instances, and not limit them to thinking in straight lines of possible. e labyrinth is a vehicle for slowing us down. pro t and loss. Linearity kills, as Gibson Burrell (1997) is is the main piece of wisdom that we have derived pointed out. e meandering, winding, redundant from all our explorations, physical and textual. e and unnecessary complexity may save our minds from current tendency to reject the past and focus entirely dullness, and our organizations from a pro table on the present was made into a dogma by management path to death: environmental destruction, unabashed trends, emphasizing “ exibility”, taken to mean an exploitation of human beings and cultural austerity. eternal shape shi ing, acting on a perfectly fragmentized rough this text, we argue that labyrinths are present, disembedded from any notion of historical inevitable: they form an indelible part of our experience context (Sennett, 1998). Notions such as identity and and our culture, a way of understanding ambiguity, experience have lost their meaning; the only thing that complexity, detours, and delays as well as deep-felt

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is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71. 16 Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera

is copy does not follow journal layout or pagination. Originally published in 2015 in Organization Studies 36/1: 55-71.