Reworking Lacan at Work

Peter Boback Reworking Lacan at Work

Peter Boback 1 Lacan@Work

The argument

Informed by a Lacanian perspective, I diagnose a fundamental shift from the symbolic to the

imaginary register when it comes to assessing the functioning of the postmodern organization:

an imaginary matrix is about to replace the formerly symbolic order.

Having served as spaces and places for production of material goods in the industrial past

organizations nowadays are increasingly becoming stages for spectacle and theatre. An

imaginary matrix affects many organizational aspects, such as affiliation, performance,

leadership and power and shapes the culture of the contemporary organization.

And here’s my plan for the next 20 minutes: I will start with a comparative description of the modern in contrast to the postmodern organization. I will then briefly outline how I understand and use the Lacanian concepts of symbolic & imaginary (register/resp. order) and how I translate these two concepts into the context of the modern, respectively postmodern organization. You will see me proceed more in a pointillist manner rather than expose you to a logical and straightforward flow of arguments. Having navigated in and through globally operating high tech companies for the last twenty years I will use my collection of experiences and observations to give some empirical evidence to my working hypothesis.



(1)

The “postmodern organization” can be defined and described best by contrasting this new sort

of agile, flexible and fast company with the more traditional, modern firm.

If I say “modern firm” I refer to a type of organization with clearly defined functional and

hierarchical structures. These structures are relatively stable and have distinct organizational

boundaries. People in the organization have roles and responsibilities providing them with

either managerial or expert authority. Work related activities are governed by processes to

ensure discipline and control. Employees often have a lifelong affiliation with the firm –

sometimes over several generations – what helps them to foster a professional identity

through a long lasting loyal corporate membership.

Compared to this traditional organizational paradigm of the robust, stable, slowly moving

modern company the “postmodern firm” can be characterized as flexible, agile, fast.

Hierarchy is flat, organizational boundaries are blurred and constantly under reconstruction.

Roles and responsibilities are hardly defined and erratically assigned. Managerial as well as

expert authority is constantly challenged through disruptive change. People work in time

bound task forces rather than in stable teams, “thriving on chaos” rather than being ruled by

discipline and controlled by processes. Adherence to an organization becomes more

opportunistic; people join and leave companies more quickly moving more easily to “greener

pastures”. Loyalty to and lifelong jobs with one company is rather the exception than the rule.



(2)

In Lacan’s famous conceptual trinity the symbolic, the imaginary and the real are the three

orders. If the Lacanian “Real” counter-intuitively represents this inapprehensible something

“which resists symbolization absolutely” (Lacan 1961, 66) the Symbolic stands for a kind of

structural order mediated by language and symbolic action. The Imaginary is the kingdom of

perception, imagination, fantasy and hallucination.

If I translate these two concepts into the context of the modern respectively postmodern

organization then the modern organization is mainly dominated and structured as a symbolic

order whereas the postmodern organization appears as an imaginary matrix.

Let me describe this in more detail: the symbolic order of the modern organization created

a relationship between the employee and the company through both, a working contract and a

psychological contract. The psychological contract was based on reciprocity exchanging life-

long affiliation and care against loyalty. The working contract traded remuneration for work.

These contractual arrangements provided a certain stability, reliability and predictability for

both sides. There is a commitment over time, a legally regulated exchange of labor against

remuneration, a symbolic exchange of commitment and loyalty against belonging, affiliation

and caring – spanning over a professional life and sometimes over generations.

Furthermore, the symbolic order is made up of rules and regulations. These tell what has to be

done –they give permission - and say what must not be done – they formulate interdictions. A

stable architecture of organizational structures sets boundaries which define what’s in and

what’s out. Roles assign responsibilities and define who is in charge of what, who needs to

care about what and whom. And the role is where the person meets the organization. In that

sense roles connect people with each other in the organization. Leadership is exercised

through personalized authority in the manager role. A work ethics defines professional and

ethical standards for a meaningful vocational activity. So far with the modern organization.



Let’s come to the imaginary matrix of the postmodern organization. If the modern firm

disposes of a line organization with a stable architecture and clearly assigned roles and

responsibilities the postmodern organization operates as a global matrix with flexible and

precarious networks. This matrix is constantly under reconstruction and organizational

members need to surf the waves of constant change.

And if the psychological contract in the modern organization was based on reciprocity and an

exchange of affiliation and care against loyalty the postmodern organization replaced this

with promises: “You will work for a GREAT company“; „You will have lots of

opportunities“; „You will constantly learn and develop“ and by that increase your

employability and market value; „You have lots of autonomy; little hierarchy“ (there’s liberty

in a bossless world); „You will work hard: but it will be FUN“ (work & leisure in one)

These promises constitute a kind of hypomanic value proposition.



(3)

The culture or the “hypomanic organizational state-of-mind” of the postmodern organization

can be described by the following characteristic features: the imperative of expansion and

speed, the abolition of boundaries, volatility and – what will be my focus for now - an excited,

nervous, euphoric disposition.

Actually, euphoria is the pulse of the postmodern organization. Hypomanic in style the

postmodern organization cultivates fast, spectacular, flashy moods and emotions. The

corporate language is full of superlatives: “great“, “outstanding”, “excellence”, “world class”

have become standard terminology. Corporate communication uses pictures and icons which

are emotionally loaded and transport the invitation to feel great and special. Business events

are organized in a way as if they were pop events. Even CEOs do not refrain from

confessional statements such as “I love this company – yeah !!” The Steve Balmer video is a

striking example for it – with more than four million clicks on “You Tube”.

Hypomania can be seen as a response to a quickly changing, deregulated and globalized

world. It is a way to deal with uncertainty and unpredictability. An elated, hypomanic state-

of-mind tends to focus on the positive side – on the opportunities and chances, and represses

the negative, potentially threatening aspects. Its selective world view transforms the

ambivalences and ambiguities of a highly uncertain world into an “euphoridisiakon” letting

highly energized people and teams reach out to the stars or walk on water.



(4)

The hypomanic state-of-mind - in itself volatile and unstable - is sustained by a threefold

mobilization: psychological, ideological and iconic. These three vectors span the imaginary

matrix which embraces the subject at work in the postmodern organization.

Firstly, psychological mobilization intents to create excitement, passion and elation in work

related activities. Employees are invited to join a “winning team”, be exposed to exiting

career perspectives, benefit from extraordinary learning opportunities, thrive on a dynamic,

fast paced and flexible high performance environment making hard work feel fun. “Passion

for performance” – as Deutsche Bank advertises- is the signature of the time.

Secondly, ideological mobilization promotes a „secular religion“ of excellence and high

performance. The corporate terminology is colored by religious terms. Postmodern

communication strategies make use of language games and reuse symbolism formerly

reserved to the spheres of religion (e.g. “vision, mission, passion”) or reserved to warfare

(“war for talent”, “killer products”, “war rooms” etc.) A “secular religion” complements and

reinforces the psychological embrace.



Thirdly, the postmodern organization invests in iconic mobilization to create a strong brand.



(5)

The brand is the synthesis and crystallization point of the imaginary matrix. Postmodern

companies invest a lot of resources in branding. They do it to create an attractive, admirable,

compelling, overwhelming, amazing image. The brand is supposed to seduce the external

market, customers and investors, as it is targeted toward the own employees. Postmodern

organizations are celebrating a cult of the brand. Employees as well as customers are

supposed to benefit from the emotional value of the brand, which is supposed to uplift and

ennoble all those who are sailing under its “flag”. Branding relies on strong, emotionally

loaded pictures and icons to build messages and craft stories. Persuasive icons and

overwhelming pictures replace convincing arguments. The aim is to reach out to the deeper

psychic, the more archaic levels of the individual, to tap into the instinct economy of the

target, be it an employee or a customer. It’s the design of a compelling brand (“look and feel”)

that is supposed to shape postmodern consciousness, not the real “being”1. In that sense,

branding plays out the imaginary pre-eminence of presentation over the symbolism of

representation.

1 “Das Design, nicht das Sein bestimmt das Bewußtsein”



(6)

“Enjoy, Believe, Adore”: the invitation to a new dance in the postmodern organization.

“Enjoy, believe, adore” are three invitations to a new dance, and at the same time a kind of

trilogy of expectations the corporate animal needs to comply with to become part of the game.

Work is fun, work has to be fun. Enjoy yourself at work. Do exciting things, have a great

time. And after work – there is the after work party.

And work is more than just making money. You want to believe in something bigger and

greater if you go to work. You have to have a vision and a mission. You have to believe that

our work makes the world a better place: "Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of

your life? Or do you want to come with me and change the world?” This is the famous phrase

Steve Jobs threw into John Scully’s face to convince him to leave Pepsi and become CEO of

Apple. If in the past spiritual fulfilment was a matter of religion it has now become an

integrate part of postmodern corporate ideology. Join the church! Become part of a great

visionary project – and for sure, as a kind of side effect – get rich with it.



Adore the brand. You enjoy yourself at work as work is fun; you believe in the incredible

vision of your business. This makes you naturally a loyal follower of your company, of your

brand; identify and fuse with the brand; the brand is an adorable lifestyle statement. Let you

be led by the brand, seduced by the great vision of your business. In that sense the brand

constitutes the apotheosis of the imaginary matrix of the postmodern organization.

(7)

“Enjoy, Believe, Adore”: a new waltz of emptiness? Enjoyment as an imperative, as an

obligation has a price: elation and euphoria that fuel high performance tap into primary

psychic processes, such as arousal and excitement. This works at the expense of more slowly

paced mentalization processes, such as thinking, reflecting and symbolizing. Psycho-

dynamically speaking the “postmodern psychology @ work” represents an invitation to

regress from secondary symbolic processing as a basis for thinking and reflection to primary

processes of excitement and arousal. I would even dare to formulate the hypothesis that the

more a hypomanic psychological embrace shapes the postmodern subjectivity the more likely

it will become that we will end up with “wo/men without gravity, governed by ROMs”.

“Read-Only-Memories: Memories without Remembrance”. This new psychic economy makes

the individual more easily receptive to seducing and manipulative messages and gradually

replaces an economy of meaning by an economy of excitement and fun.

Combined with the fun imperative is a forced expectation: be enthusiastic!! There must be

something wrong with you if you don’t have fun @ work. Fun, enjoyment has become an

obligation.



(8)

“Believe” – as “enjoy”- is another new imperative, another expectation forced on the mental

constitution of the employee. To perform the expected believer role and to sustain a positive

and confident worldview puts constant motivation and mobilization for higher performance,

greater effectiveness and superior customer value on the daily agenda for everyone. A

permanent self-persuasion and self-evangelization for the vision and mission of the business,

a regular reinforcement of the corporate values has become part of the cultural day-to-day

practices. Here an example:

„I left this meeting more convinced than ever that “xyz” can and will become the greatest company in the world and for the world. We will invent for the common good. We WILL BE a winning e-company with a shining soul. I don't believe any other company can do this! And we are the lucky ones who get to be catalysts for this change, build capabilities for this change, and support this change to develop the world's most competitive and committed workforce.”

The new obligation to be positive and optimistic sanctions the sceptical, the hesitant. In this

world of the confident, of the energetic and passionate high performer there is no place for the

“unhappy that think” (“Les malheureux qui pensent” – les intellectuels, according to Paul

Valéry). An obligation for enthusiasm goes hand in hand with the interdiction of melancholy.



Needless to say that the forced and expected suspension of disbelieve creates cynicism, an

“enlightened false consciousness” as Peter Sloterdijk describes this peculiar feature of a

postmodern mentality which lets the cynic appear as a mass figure, as an average social

character.

(9)

“Iconicity & ideology reloaded”. The creation of an imaginary matrix in the postmodern

organization is supported by an inventive recycling of religious themes and symbolism in

both, its aesthetic as well as ethical make-up. The visual aesthetics and religious flavour of the

images used remind me of “catholic” imageries whereas I see the Protestant heritage in the

reuse of ideological fragments emerging in the “high performance-” and “passion for

performance’” - discourse so prominent in postmodern organizations.

Overall, we can talk about a powerful blend of catholic imageries and protestant ideologies. If

the visual self-representation copies sacred motives the ideology uses secularized religious

“quotes” which are “reloaded” in the postmodern “high-performance” and “passion for

performance” – discourse that circulates in many contemporary organizations.



In that sense, postmodern communication and branding practices combine in a very creative

way picturesque “kitsch”, (flat, de-symbolized, but easily consumable pictures suitable for

fast and global circulation) with ideological “kitsch”, a commoditized belief system to boost a

high performance mentality.

This “imaginary matrix” represents a powerful and original redefinition and commoditization

of the grand religious narratives of Catholicism and Protestantism.



(10)

Summary and outlook. Let me restate my working hypothesis: there is a lot of empirical

evidence for the predominance of the imaginary in the postmodern organization. The

hypomanic state-of-mind of the postmodern organization is sustained by a threefold

mobilization: psychological, ideological and iconic. Psychologically, the postmodern

organization offers a world of exciting opportunities where work is fun; ideologically, it

accommodates the individual’s readiness and need to belief in something and provides vision,

mission and passion within a corporate belief system, a “secular corporate religion”; on an

iconic level, I observe an obsession for the “brand” – means an idolatrous admiration of the

own image reflected in the mirror of the “brand”. This threefold mobilization strategy also

serves to manage and steer the corporation. In essence a (modern) ethics of leadership is in the

process of being replaced by a (postmodern) esthetics of seduction.

All these elements strongly suggest to characterize the postmodern organization as being

shaped by the imaginary register rather than being dominated by a symbolic order. And they

invite to ask the following question: does this announce the replacement of a symbolic order

by an imaginary matrix, or does it indicate the emergence of a new symbolic order made up

by formerly imaginary elements? Are we at the eve of a new symbolic organizational order –

made from vestiges of the grand narratives of modernity? Is imaginary the new paradigm?

The new law? – Or is it just unsustainable bricolage? As the “No du père” has become

impossible in the new order – will it be “au nom de la mère” that technology will enable the

oceanic, super-connected, hyper-cultural global village and make this the new paradigm that

rules the world?

I am not sure how to answer these questions, so let me just throw them at you as food for

thought.

To come to the end and to round up my reflection on the imaginary “disorder” of the

postmodern organization I’d like to share with you a poetic comment coming from the late

18th century:

„Ein Zeichen sind wir, deutungslos,

We are a sign, not yet affected by interpretation,

Schmerzlos sind wir und haben fast

We do feel no pain and we have almost



Die Sprache in der Fremde verloren.“

lost our language in a strange place.

This is the beginning of Friedrich Hoelderlin’s poem „Mnemosyne“. Mnemosyne means

Erinnerung, Bedacht, Sorge. Remembrance, prudence, caring, attention, precaution. To me it

refers to existential human need of a caring and holding symbolic matrix of language. It

reminds us the precariousness of the human condition: we are a sign, “deutungslos” – not yet

affected by interpretation; not to be confused with “bedeutungslos = meaningless”. To

become something, someone “meaningful” we need to be affected by language.

Let’s be honest: there is an incredible illusion in the contemporary discourse around

globalization. There are many “sweet little lies” about the supposedly tremendous gains and

opportunities provided by globalized streams of information, goods and values. Is it too

audacious to make Hölderlin and his poetry a protagonist deconstructing the illusion of the

global village?

Globalization means delocalization. Means loss of language abroad, in a strange place (in der

Fremde – a l’étranger); loss of language implies a loss of capabilities to create meaning. We

are signs that need to be affected by “Deutung”, by an interpretation in order to not become –

or remain - “bedeutungslos”, means “meaningless”. We need to create and recreate a holding

environment for this work of subjectivation – for this process of becoming subject. We need

to create a home. Language – as the “house of the being” according to Heidegger – or “le

Symbolique” according to Lacan is the enabler for it.

Reworking Lacan at Work

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