Boredom and Organization Studies

Rasmus Johnsen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Even if people may always have been bored, ‘boredom’ as a phenomenon is not a universal feature of human existence. Rather it is deeply connected to organization as a reaction to the gradual emergence in Western culture of the management and administration of time. As an acquired capacity of those able to tell and endure time in an organized manner, boredom is a perceived loss of meaning inferred by the lived experience of a discrepancy between the involvement with transient means in everyday life and their value in a larger vision of existence. But boredom also signifies a concurrent protest against such a loss, which potentially leads new possibilities with it. In this essay, I explore the connection between boredom and organization, focusing on these two interrelated aspects of the phenomenon: how boredom can be understood as an experience of a loss of meaning, but also how this loss itself can be viewed as an imperative towards meaning that remains the source of new forms of organizing.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOrganization Studies
Volume37
Issue number10
Pages (from-to)1403-1415
ISSN0170-8406
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2016

Keywords

  • Boredom
  • Human relations and practices
  • Industrialization
  • Organization
  • Organizational studie
  • Temporality

Cite this

Johnsen, Rasmus. / Boredom and Organization Studies. In: Organization Studies. 2016 ; Vol. 37, No. 10. pp. 1403-1415.
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Johnsen, R 2016, 'Boredom and Organization Studies', Organization Studies, vol. 37, no. 10, pp. 1403-1415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616640849

Boredom and Organization Studies. / Johnsen, Rasmus.

In: Organization Studies, Vol. 37, No. 10, 2016, p. 1403-1415.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

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Johnsen R. Boredom and Organization Studies. Organization Studies. 2016;37(10):1403-1415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840616640849

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