The Blurry Line Between Corporation and Cult: A Retrospective Autoethnographic Study
In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees’ integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications t...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | Qualitative report 2024-04, Vol.29 (4), p.880-897 |
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| description | In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees’ integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications this has for the practice of corporate culture management. On grounds of the author’s unique, first-hand experience in both corporate and cultic environments a retrospective autoethnographic (RAE) approach was chosen to further explore the supposed resemblance. The comparison is structured along Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform and reveals that although akin to cults in all aspects corporations also fundamentally differ due to the infeasibility, at least for now, of controlling the corporate environment in totalist fashion. This might explain why so many attempts to change corporate cultures fail as these initiatives are based on the anachronistic idea that culture change can be “implemented” by somehow “inculcating” employees with “company values.” A sanitized form of brainwashing that fails in the corporate environment. |
| doi_str_mv | 10.46743/2160-3715/2024.6398 |
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| source | DOAJ Directory of Open Access Journals; Sociological Abstracts; EZB-FREE-00999 freely available EZB journals |
| subjects | Autoethnography Behavior Behavior Change Behavior Patterns Brainwashing Companies Corporate culture Corporations Cults Cultural change Employees Ethnography Figurative Language Jargon Leadership Metaphor Methods Organizational change Organizational Culture Organizational Objectives Programming Psychological Patterns Qualitative research Subcultures Surveillance Work environment |
| title | The Blurry Line Between Corporation and Cult: A Retrospective Autoethnographic Study |
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