Crisis as a plague on organisation: Defoe and A Journal of the Plague Year
| Autor: | Deborah Knowles, C. Hindley, Damian Ruth |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Value (ethics)
Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management History Strategy and Management media_common.quotation_subject 05 social sciences General Decision Sciences Crisis management Representation (arts) Trial by ordeal Plague (disease) Organisational change Originality Management of Technology and Innovation 0502 economics and business 0509 other social sciences Positive economics 050904 information & library sciences Parallels 050203 business & management media_common |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Organizational Change Management. 32:640-649 |
| ISSN: | 0953-4814 |
| DOI: | 10.1108/jocm-03-2019-0074 |
| Popis: | Purpose The purpose of this paper is to enrich the understanding of current models of organisational response to crises and offer additional perspectives on some of these models. It is also intended to confirm the value of fiction as a truth-seeking and hermeneutic device for enriching the imagination. Design/methodology/approach The study uses Daniel Defoe’s 1722 novel A Journal of the Plague Year to draw parallels between his portrayal of the London Great Plague of 1665 and the management of modern-day crises. Defoe uses London’s ordeal of the Great Plague to advise those subjected to future crises. Through his representation of plague-ridden streets, Defoe shows stakeholders acting in ways described in current crisis management literature. Findings The authors note how the management of the Plague crisis was unsuccessful and they challenge the very idea of managing a true crisis. The authors are able to illustrate and offer refinements to the Pearson and Clair (1998) and Janes (2010) models of crisis management as well as confirming the value of their constructs across a lapse of centuries. Research limitations/implications Although it is an examination of a single novel, the findings suggest value in conceptualising organisational crises in innovative and more imaginative ways. Originality/value It confirms the heuristic value of using fiction to understand organisational change and adds value to current models. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|