The current world is absurd. Faced with climate change, health pandemics, and ever-growing inequality, it is striking how globally, governments and organizations are malingering to find effective responses to these crises, leading to absurd situations where we are facing the destruction of the planet, while humankind is not making the necessary transformation towards truly sustainable societies and workplaces.Focusing on these grand, global challenges from an absurdity and hypernormalization lens, the book aims to elucidate what is happening in contemporary society and workplaces, why there is so little improvement being made in relation to the grand global challenges, and how a more sustainable social transformation can be made in organizations. It offers a wide, yet in-depth, perspective on absurdity in society and the workplace and presents a theoretical framework, as well as in-depth case studies of sectors or organizations where absurdity manifests itself.
Presenting an overarching new perspective on society and workplaces, this book helps students and academics make sense of what is currently unfolding, and what can be done. The book therefore bridges theory, science and the everyday practice of organizational life, and how individuals working in a variety of organizations can contribute to more sustainable economies and societies.
Author(s): Matthijs Bal, Andy Brookes, Dieu Hack-Polay, Maria Kordowicz, John Mendy
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 262
City: Cham
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
1: Introduction to Absurdity and Hypernormalization in Contemporary Society and Workplaces
Introduction
Absurdity in Philosophy
Literary-, Art-, and Fiction-Based Absurdity
Complementary Perspectives on Absurdity and Its Normalization
Outline of the Book
References
2: Theoretical Foundation: A Multidisciplinary Review of Absurdity and Hypernormalization
Introduction
Absurdity
Dimensions of the Absurd
Foundations of Absurdity
The ‘Normal’
The Abnormal
The Hypernormal
What Absurdity Is Not
Absurdity Normalized: Introducing Hypernormalization
Theoretical Background of Hypernormalization
Hypernormalization in Contemporary Society
Hypernormalization Moves Beyond Normalization
Effects of Hypernormalization
Dynamics of Hypernormalization at Collective Level
References
3: Ideological Underpinnings of Absurdity and Hypernormalization
Introduction
A Psychology of the Absurd
Hypernormalization of Absurdity at the Individual Level
Advanced Stages of Hypernormalization
References
4: From Hypernormalization of Workplace Inequality to Dehumanization: A Way Out for Human Resource Management
Introduction
Inequality Theory
Inequality as a Hypernormalized Process
Inequality as a Marginalization Process
Inequality as a Sociological Process
Inequality as an Organizing Process
Contextualizing Inequality Within Autism and Employment Research
Methodology: An Autistic Jobseekers’ Peer Support Case in the UK
Thematic Findings
Theme 1: Access to Employment Framework
Theme 2: From Economic Exclusion to Social Inclusion
Theme 3: Overcoming Unemployment Barriers Through Community Belonging
Theme 4: Developing Dynamic Resilience Capability
Four Proposals: Way Out for HRM and Employment Studies
Conclusion and Recommendations
References
5: ‘Chocolates for the Director’ and Other Tales of Public Sector Absurdity
Introduction (Wstęp)
The Hat (Kapelusz)
Wolves (Wilki)
The Lift (Winda)
References
6: The Hypernormalization of Race in Contemporary Workplaces
Western Thoughts and Its Contradictions on Race
The Contradictions
Institutional Racism: Culmination to Hypernormalization
Defining ‘Systemic’
Case Supporting the Hypernormalization of Systemic Racism
Enduring Rhetoric and Structuration Theory
Enduring Rhetoric: Empirical Evidence
Conclusion
References
7: Hypernormalized Destruction: Making Sense of Why Business Organizations Are Able to Act with Impunity
Introduction
Theoretical Framework
Discourse
The Corporation
The Law
Globalization
Conclusion
References
8: Absurdity of the Climate Transition That Never Happened
Governmental Hypernormalization of Climate Inertia
Corporate Hypernormalization of Climate Inertia
A Psychology of Climate Inertia
The Absurd Climate Moment
A Way Out of Hypernormalizing Climate Inertia
Conclusion
References
9: A Way Out of Absurdity and Hypernormalization
Introduction
Individual Ways Out of Hypernormalization
Collective Responses to Hypernormalization
Problematizing
Art-Based Problematizing
Resisting
Imagining
Creative Reinterpretation
Transforming
Transforming Academia: FoWOP and the Struggle Against Neoliberal Academia
Conclusion
References
10: Moving Forward with Absurdity
Introduction
Personal Reflections on the Writing of the Book
Cautionary Notes and Future Thought and Research
Ontology and Epistemology
Obscured Absurdities
Developmental Psychology of the Absurd and Hypernormalization
Universal Reality
Hypernormalization as a Political Process
Hypernormalization and Western Modernity
Bureaucracy and Absurdity
References
Index
