Rethinking Organizational Change: The Role of Dialogue, Dialectic & Polyphony in the Organization

Abstract

This book applies Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin's (1895-1975) anthropological concept of 'polyphony' to organizational change. Bakhtin's notion of 'utterances' and his distinction between 'monologue' and 'dialogue' help us to change the way that we think about organizations. The idea of dialogue is particularly important in combatting the focus on the monologues of managerialism and the rigidity of dialectics. It gives us new ways of thinking about how we can manage organizational change.