How Much Stupidity Do Organisations Need? A Psychodynamic Perspective on Functional Stupidity

Gabriel Lomellini

doi:10.37725/mgmt.2024.9377

Gabriel Lomellini -ICN Business School, Human Resources and Organizational Behavior Department, CEREFIGE, Nancy, France https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8261-2227

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.2024.9377

Keywords: Stupidity, Psychodynamics of work, Intelligence, Subjectivity, Criticism, Eroticisation

Abstract

How much stupidity do organisations need to function effectively? The paradox coined by management researchers Spicer and Alvesson may seem baffling. According to these authors, organisations require a certain amount of uncritical obedience to function properly. The idea of ‘functional stupidity’ put forward by the authors to account for this phenomenon is no less ambiguous. In addition to overlooking the ethical implications of such a notion, it fails to provide a coherent explanation of its causes in organisations. Our proposal is based on the psychodynamics of work, founded by Christophe Dejours. We focus primarily on the subjective experience of work, which involves the worker’s body, and the way in which a whole theory of moral sense at work emerges from this experience. Adopting the form of an essay, we will support our argument with illustrative vignettes: stupidity will be interpreted here as the exact opposite of what the psychodynamics of work considers to be subjective intelligence at work, that is, ordinary sublimation. In so doing, we propose to extend the scope of the notion of organisational stupidity by adding a phenomenological, clinical and ethical dimension. We conclude by suggesting future avenues for research, through a ‘re-eroticisation’ of work.

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Author Biography

Gabriel Lomellini, -ICN Business School, Human Resources and Organizational Behavior Department, CEREFIGE, Nancy, France

Gabriel Lomellini holds a PhD in management studies from ESCP Business School. He is assistant professor at ICN Business School, in the Human Resources and Organizational Behavior Department, and also a member of the CEREFIGE research laboratory. His research and teaching focus on a multidisciplinary approach to the subjective experience of work and social phenomena, such as power, recognition, or love. He draws mainly on philosophy, psychoanalysis, and critical management studies.

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