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The purpose of this paper is to use media studies as a creative impulse for critical research into practices of organization.

Through an aesthetic reflection on the use of media, an experience of organization is examined as a form of postponed judgement.

Aesthetic judgement can be helpful to establish new forms of relationships, but it is questionable if organizations are willing to stimulate this form of dis‐organizing.

Media studies in organizations can lead to emphasis on communication as a form of control, or the opening up of the organization to more chatter and noise.

Using McLuhan and media studies in the context of organization studies can lead to new insights for both.

The purpose of this paper is to explore what “critical” could mean in “critical management studies” (CMS) in the current (Dutch) regime of re‐commodification.

Conflicts that typify the context, within which “criticalness” does or does not emerge, are examined. The specific circumstance of “criticalness” in organizational studies within the Dutch political and intellectual circumstance is appraised.

The critical management studies of experimentation (“essai”) can respond to de‐solidarization and the need for ethical democratic governance; but it can also lead to philosophizing without contextual engagement.

CMS has to be judged for what it tries and how it engages with its context and not the cleverness of its ideas.

CMS is examined not idealistically but in terms of current social and intellectual conditions

The purpose of this paper is to describe the influence of the technology on storytelling in an organisational setting. How do we tell each other stories in projects with digital images, and how can we convince others in this project about our way of looking at things? Images represent stories and in this context are collages of pictures and words based on digital technology. To be convincing as a storyteller requires people to be in touch with themselves through this technology, as if their imagination is the ground for the whole project.

From contemporary literature, different notions can be found that explore the impact of digital technology on work processes. Based on this literature, notions around storytelling and project work are related to change in the organisation. The question for the author in this case is about imagination as a form of storytelling. Are people still in touch with the project through the representation by techno images, or are they hallucinating about their own prospects, projecting a future over which they have little control?

The practices of interactive media organisations are studied as part of identifying storytelling based on images.

This paper is based on literature studies and its findings need to be explored in a real‐life setting.

The consequences of technical images to storytelling can be used to widen the impact of storytelling as research discipline.

The application of Flusser's theory in the field of organisation studies opens up possibilities for exploring imagination in a philosophical/technological way.

The purpose of this paper is to show that relationships between academics and professionals can gain in organizational studies by prioritizing practical wisdom, which also benefits teaching.

To explore practical corollaries of Flyvbjerg's claim that social scientists are better equipped than natural scientists to produce phronesis or practical wisdom.

Practical wisdom emerges when social scientists interact with professionals. In (relational) practice, Organizational Science scientists and practitioners develop local knowledge that cannot be taught a priori but which develops bottom up and emerges from practice. Scientists and practitioners converse, exchange interpretations and perspectives, in specific contexts. Interaction and communication with OS practitioners seems for OS professionals to be a necessary human condition to develop phronesis.

Explores implications of Flyvberg's method to critically study discourse among OS scientists and between them and OS practitioners. Examine how discourse changes on the basis of an example of phronesis.

To provide a practical contribution to the theory/practice debate.

The purpose of this research is to examine the use that critical philosophical concepts can have within management studies.

The paper introduces the notion “performativity” from the American philosopher Judith Butler and shows its fertility for organisation theory. It applies the notion to a case of the introduction of a job evaluation system within the Dutch police.

Although the notion of “performativity” has a broad range, its effects for gender are especially significant. The paper identifies what meanings are reproduced in the job evaluation system; examining what are the consequences of the system for women and how does it influence the gender division. Job evaluation, it is concluded, creates an organisational reality, which produces.

Using philosophical reflection processes of meaning making in practice are revealed and clarified. Gender bias in job evaluation is made visible.

Engagement with Judith Butler's work in critical management studies reveals how philosophical “moves” lead to concrete insights.

The purpose of this paper is to identify what the philosophy of Martin Heidegger (1889‐1976) can contribute to the training of managers.

After a short introduction focussing on philosophy and management, Heidegger's potential contribution to managers will be addressed via Safranski's book Martin Heidegger: Between Good and Evil.

It is often said that change in organizations is hard or even impossible to achieve because people are afraid of change. Safranski however shows how Heidegger considers anxiety as a gateway to change. I propose to read Heidegger's Being and Time as a handbook on management skills.

In terms of philosophy and management an unexpected juxtaposition is made and interpreted.

The purpose of this research is to explore a concept of the management of professionals that can withstand critical questioning.

A case study is analysed with use of key concepts from Polanyi.

The instrumental approach to knowledge, so frequently used in knowledge management, neglects important issues. The conventional question: “How should we organize knowledge?” neglects the question: “How should knowledge impact organization?”. With use of Polanyi's concept of knowledge, a richer interdependency between knowledge and organization can be conceived. Findings were drawn from an ethnographic case study in the IT sector to illustrate how professionals can successfully negotiate the content, meaning and development of their tasks and practices. The attempt to create a safe haven, supporting professional and personal development, illustrates how the tacit dimension has emancipatory potential.

Contributes to clarifying the richness of Polanyi's social thought and the uses of the concept of the “tacit” to organization when it is not functionally misunderstood but appreciated in its full critical force.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the manner in which storytelling has become an increasingly common part of management development, and to highlight some of the use and abuse of storytelling as a management development tool.

The paper adopts an initial warning about the way storytelling is being used, particularly by management and leadership coaches, questioning whether the term “storytelling” is an appropriate term to use for what is occurring. The notion of “storyselling” is introduced in such a context and, in so doing, stimulates critical reflection about storytelling. A summary of key ideas of other papers is also presented to assist the reader in better understanding the broader trajectories contained in the papers as a whole.

Many are now starting to question practical guidance that is emerging from organization and management literature. Multiple paradigms have yielded not complementary perspectives on management problems, but less than unambiguous voices and guidance. Storytelling has become increasingly popular because it fills a void left by the current state of the organization and management literature. The practical guidance that “preaches” how an approach worked for others in similar situations makes storytelling a big business. Often wrapped up in the rhetoric of management and leadership coaching, storytelling becomes a core educative tool – a tool that this paper, and volume, suggests needs to be carefully examined.

The paper, and the volume as a whole, represents an opportunity for readers to join with the authors in a reflexive consideration of storytelling. The paper and volume also represent a cautionary note to those who rely upon what is dubbed “storytelling” as a core educative tool.