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Papers by Kostas Amiridis

Research paper thumbnail of In Pursuit of the Ambidextrous Graduate: Potentiality between Exploration and Exploitation

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)

The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of The projection of time in management education

Management & Organizational History, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of The ethos of business in H.G. Wells' novel <IT>The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman</IT> (1914)

Journal of Management History, 2007

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way in which H.G. Wells' 1914 novel... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way in which H.G. Wells' 1914 novel The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman might be interpreted as an “essay” illustrating some key aspects in the articulation of the ethos of business and management in the cultural context of early twentieth century capitalism. Design/methodology/approach – Approaching the novel as a

Research paper thumbnail of Graduate Employability and the Principle of Potentiality: An Aspect of the Ethics of HRM

Journal of Business Ethics, 2012

ABSTRACT The recruitment of the next generation of workers is of central concern to contemporary ... more ABSTRACT The recruitment of the next generation of workers is of central concern to contemporary HRM. This paper focuses on university campuses as a major site of this process, and particularly as a new domain in which HRM’s ethical claims are configured, in which it sets and answers a range of ethical questions as it outlines the ‘ethos’ of the ideal future worker. At the heart of this ethos lies what we call the ‘principle of potentiality’. This principle is explored through a sample of graduate recruitment programmes from the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, interpreted as ethical exhortations in HRM’s attempt to shape the character of future workers. The paper brings the work of Georg Simmel to the study of HRM’s ethics and raises the uncomfortable question that, within discourses of endless potentiality, lie ethical dangers which bespeak an unrecognised ‘tragedy of culture’. We argue that HRM fashions an ethos of work which de-recognises human limits, makes a false promise of absolute freedom, and thus becomes a tragic proposition for the individual.

Research paper thumbnail of Managerialism and “ Infinite Human Resourcefulness ”: a Commentary on the “ Therapeutic Habitus ”, “ Derecognition of Finitude ” and the Modern Sense of Self

Journal for Cultural Research, 2007

This paper examines new managerial discourses and practices in which the dialectic of labour is r... more This paper examines new managerial discourses and practices in which the dialectic of labour is reconstructed as a series of acts of self-understanding, self-examination and 'self-work', and through which the 'self qua self' is constituted as the central object of management technologies. We interrogate concepts such as 'excellence', 'total quality', 'performance', 'knowledge', 'play at work' and 'wellness' in order to decipher the ways in which managerialism deploys what we term therapeutic habitus, and projects a new horizon of 'human resourcefulness' as a store of unlimited potentialities. We invoke management's wider historical-cultural context to situate managerialism within the framework of modernity as a cultural epoch whose main characteristic is what we term 'derecognition of finitude'. It is the modern synthesiswith the 'self' at the centre of its system of values -that provides the ground for current elaborations of subjectivity by managerialism. The paper examines how current vocabularies and practices in organisations use 'work' to rearticulate discursively the human subject as an endless source of performativity by configuring work as the site of complex and continuous self-expression. Management itself thus acquires a new discursive outline: instead of appearing as an authoritarian instance forcing upon workers a series of limitations, it now presents itself as a therapeutic formula mediating self-expression by empowering individuals to work upon themselves to release their fully realised identity.

Research paper thumbnail of Managerialism, the therapeutic habitus and the self in contemporary organizing

Research paper thumbnail of A historical-cultural approach to the study of business ethics using the modern novel: An illustration

… & Organizational History, Jan 1, 2007

The aim of this paper is to explore the fundamental relationship between ethics and business in t... more The aim of this paper is to explore the fundamental relationship between ethics and business in their tragic historical unfolding as formulated in one of H.G. Wells's lesser novels, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914). Wells directly and explicitly addresses themes concerning modern business corporations, business people, management, social responsibility and domestic life at the turn of the twentieth century. We emphasize the centrality and importance of the form and style of the modern novel as a specific expression of ethics, that is, as a product of the continuous and tragic engagement of people with the finite horizon of life against which questions of moral sources emerge.Wells's novel offers a new platform for reflection upon the cultural rationale of business institutions and management in modern society in two main directions. First, we show how he creates the context for a much necessary historical analysis required to properly re-problematize the ethical sustainability of the ideal of the 'corporation' as the centre of the economy in modernity. Secondly, we work out how he allows us to ask the crucial and perennial question of whether the pursuit of profit can ever be reconciled with the urgent ethical imperative of modernity: finding the cultural resources necessary to sustain human freedom and emancipation against the limits of a political economy of acquisitive capitalism. Such problems are not simply of historical interest; they are central, but are largely neglected in texts of 'business ethics' since they are uncomfortable for, and incompatible with, such texts' simplistic, mechanical, ahistorical and rather defensive frameworks.

Research paper thumbnail of In Pursuit of the Ambidextrous Graduate: Potentiality between Exploration and Exploitation

Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 2012

Research paper thumbnail of Martin Heidegger (1889–1976)

The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of The projection of time in management education

Management & Organizational History, 2014

Research paper thumbnail of The ethos of business in H.G. Wells' novel <IT>The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman</IT> (1914)

Journal of Management History, 2007

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way in which H.G. Wells' 1914 novel... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the way in which H.G. Wells' 1914 novel The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman might be interpreted as an “essay” illustrating some key aspects in the articulation of the ethos of business and management in the cultural context of early twentieth century capitalism. Design/methodology/approach – Approaching the novel as a

Research paper thumbnail of Graduate Employability and the Principle of Potentiality: An Aspect of the Ethics of HRM

Journal of Business Ethics, 2012

ABSTRACT The recruitment of the next generation of workers is of central concern to contemporary ... more ABSTRACT The recruitment of the next generation of workers is of central concern to contemporary HRM. This paper focuses on university campuses as a major site of this process, and particularly as a new domain in which HRM’s ethical claims are configured, in which it sets and answers a range of ethical questions as it outlines the ‘ethos’ of the ideal future worker. At the heart of this ethos lies what we call the ‘principle of potentiality’. This principle is explored through a sample of graduate recruitment programmes from the Times Top 100 Graduate Employers, interpreted as ethical exhortations in HRM’s attempt to shape the character of future workers. The paper brings the work of Georg Simmel to the study of HRM’s ethics and raises the uncomfortable question that, within discourses of endless potentiality, lie ethical dangers which bespeak an unrecognised ‘tragedy of culture’. We argue that HRM fashions an ethos of work which de-recognises human limits, makes a false promise of absolute freedom, and thus becomes a tragic proposition for the individual.

Research paper thumbnail of Managerialism and “ Infinite Human Resourcefulness ”: a Commentary on the “ Therapeutic Habitus ”, “ Derecognition of Finitude ” and the Modern Sense of Self

Journal for Cultural Research, 2007

This paper examines new managerial discourses and practices in which the dialectic of labour is r... more This paper examines new managerial discourses and practices in which the dialectic of labour is reconstructed as a series of acts of self-understanding, self-examination and 'self-work', and through which the 'self qua self' is constituted as the central object of management technologies. We interrogate concepts such as 'excellence', 'total quality', 'performance', 'knowledge', 'play at work' and 'wellness' in order to decipher the ways in which managerialism deploys what we term therapeutic habitus, and projects a new horizon of 'human resourcefulness' as a store of unlimited potentialities. We invoke management's wider historical-cultural context to situate managerialism within the framework of modernity as a cultural epoch whose main characteristic is what we term 'derecognition of finitude'. It is the modern synthesiswith the 'self' at the centre of its system of values -that provides the ground for current elaborations of subjectivity by managerialism. The paper examines how current vocabularies and practices in organisations use 'work' to rearticulate discursively the human subject as an endless source of performativity by configuring work as the site of complex and continuous self-expression. Management itself thus acquires a new discursive outline: instead of appearing as an authoritarian instance forcing upon workers a series of limitations, it now presents itself as a therapeutic formula mediating self-expression by empowering individuals to work upon themselves to release their fully realised identity.

Research paper thumbnail of Managerialism, the therapeutic habitus and the self in contemporary organizing

Research paper thumbnail of A historical-cultural approach to the study of business ethics using the modern novel: An illustration

… & Organizational History, Jan 1, 2007

The aim of this paper is to explore the fundamental relationship between ethics and business in t... more The aim of this paper is to explore the fundamental relationship between ethics and business in their tragic historical unfolding as formulated in one of H.G. Wells's lesser novels, The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman (1914). Wells directly and explicitly addresses themes concerning modern business corporations, business people, management, social responsibility and domestic life at the turn of the twentieth century. We emphasize the centrality and importance of the form and style of the modern novel as a specific expression of ethics, that is, as a product of the continuous and tragic engagement of people with the finite horizon of life against which questions of moral sources emerge.Wells's novel offers a new platform for reflection upon the cultural rationale of business institutions and management in modern society in two main directions. First, we show how he creates the context for a much necessary historical analysis required to properly re-problematize the ethical sustainability of the ideal of the 'corporation' as the centre of the economy in modernity. Secondly, we work out how he allows us to ask the crucial and perennial question of whether the pursuit of profit can ever be reconciled with the urgent ethical imperative of modernity: finding the cultural resources necessary to sustain human freedom and emancipation against the limits of a political economy of acquisitive capitalism. Such problems are not simply of historical interest; they are central, but are largely neglected in texts of 'business ethics' since they are uncomfortable for, and incompatible with, such texts' simplistic, mechanical, ahistorical and rather defensive frameworks.