Nikos Kazantzakis’s phenomenology and its relevance to the study of organizations

This paper examines Morgan’s theorization of images of organizations
from a phenomenological perspective using the works of Nikos
Kazantzakis. The paper argues that Morgan’s representation of metaphors
currently favours an entitative interpretation of influence and control,
undermining novel processes deeply embedded within existential
nuances situated in the realm of the human experience. By focusing on
Kazantzakis’s phenomenology, the paper proposes that a theorization of
transitionality demonstrates that a content–process struggle is rooted
within a permanence–temporality struggle constantly conditioned against
individuals’ transitoriness of existence. Relatedness, affirmation and
temporality represent three interdependent process states and each
exposes self-existential tensions that regulate the directionality of one’s
transitions. Such transitions are thought to challenge the entitative form
with which organizations are portrayed in the individual. The paper shows
that a conceptualization of transitionality through Kazantzakis provides a
new scope for understanding the structure of movements situated in the
self and for customizing the forces of permanence and temporality.