The Absurd Workplace: How Absurdity is Normalized in Contemporary Society and the Workplace

263 Pages·2022·4.931 MB·English

by  Matthijs Bal, Andy Brookes, Dieu Hack-Polay, Maria Kordowicz, John Mendy

Matthijs Bal · Andy Brookes · Dieu Hack-Polay
Maria Kordowicz · John Mendy
The Absurd
Workplace
How Absurdity is
Normalized in
Contemporary Society
and the Workplace
The Absurd Workplace
Matthijs Bal • Andy Brookes
Dieu Hack-Polay • Maria Kordowicz
John Mendy
The Absurd
Workplace
How Absurdity is Normalized
in Contemporary Society
and the Workplace
Matthijs Bal Andy Brookes
Lincoln International Business School Lincoln International Business School
University of Lincoln University of Lincoln
Lincoln, UK Lincoln, UK
Dieu Hack-Polay Maria Kordowicz
Lincoln International Business School Lincoln International Business School
University of Lincoln University of Lincoln
Lincoln, UK Lincoln, UK
Management Centre for Interprofessional Education and
Crandall University Learning, Faculty of Medicine and Health
Moncton, Canada Sciences
University of Nottingham
John Mendy Nottingham, UK
Lincoln International Business School
University of Lincoln
Lincoln, UK
ISBN 978-3-031-17886-3 ISBN 978-3-031-17887-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17887-0
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
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‘Let’s Absurdify Life’
Fernando Pessoa—the Book of Disquiet
Contents
1 Introduction to Absurdity and Hypernormalization in
Contemporary Society and Workplaces 1
2 Theoretical Foundation: A Multidisciplinary Review of
Absurdity and Hypernormalization 23
3 Ideological Underpinnings of Absurdity and
Hypernormalization 55
4 From Hypernormalization of Workplace Inequality to
Dehumanization: A Way Out for Human Resource
Management 79
5 ‘Chocolates for the Director’ and Other Tales of Public
Sector Absurdity 117
6 The Hypernormalization of Race in Contemporary
Workplaces 131
7 Hypernormalized Destruction: Making Sense of Why
Business Organizations Are Able to Act with Impunity 147
vii
viii Contents
8 Absurdity of the Climate Transition That Never Happened 175
9 A Way Out of Absurdity and Hypernormalization 201
10 Moving Forward with Absurdity 235
I ndex 255
List of Figures
Fig. 5.1 A Borsalino felt hat in the shade of marengo 122
Fig. 8.1 ‘Everyone Does Something’ Campaign Dutch Government.
(From https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/actueel/nieuws/
2019/09/09/klimaatcampagne- iedereen- doet- wat-
van- start) 184
Fig. 8.2 Wear the change campaign. (Picture taken by author) 185
ix
List of Tables
Table 4.1 Support areas and agreements for the autism group 93
Table 4.2 Methodological issues 94
Table 4.3 Comparative analysis between theorization and four
proposals 103
xi
1
Introduction to Absurdity
and Hypernormalization
in Contemporary Society
and Workplaces
Introduction
While the 2011 Occupy Wall Street Movement in New York that spurred
Occupy movements across the world protested on behalf of the interests
of the 99% of the people against the 1% elite members of society which
controlled entire economies, policy, and government (Graeber, 2013;
Jones, 2015), ten years later, we are confronted with a situation that bear
hallmarks of an even more absurd world where only eight men own as
much wealth as the poorest half of the world population (Oxfam Novib,
2022). Moreover, it is not despite, but because of the COVID-19 pan-
demic that such phenomenal wealth has been achieved by these eight
men. The absurdity of the situation is brought to the fore by the fact that
these eight individuals have been able to profit enormously from global
disaster and have doubled their wealth during the pandemic while 99%
of the global population has seen their income drop during the same cor-
responding COVID pandemic period (Oxfam Novib, 2022). To add
insult to injury, various of these world’s richest men have been primarily
occupied with competing with each other in developing commercial
space travels during the pandemic, while the possibility of leaving an
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1
M. Bal et al., The Absurd Workplace, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17887-0_1