The inevitability of liminality in organising

Nuno Guimarães-Costa and Miguel Pina e Cunha

International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, 2013, vol. 7, issue 1, 47-63

Abstract: We explore the role of liminality, an anthropological and sociological concept, in the context of organisations. We argue that this transition-like condition of being in between is an outcome of organising, which emerges from an ongoing process of structuration. Through the identification of rites and community-like instances in the different processes that compose the act of organising we are able to retrieve what we call liminal elements. We conclude by describing in detail these liminal elements in order to provide a basis for generalisation beyond the examples covered in the paper to include any process that occurs in the context of organisations.

Keywords: liminality; organising; structuration; organisation processes; rites; communitas; liminal elements; liminal personae; anthropological concepts; sociological concepts; anthropology; sociology; transitions; communities; organisations; management concepts; management philosophy. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijmcph:v:7:y:2013:i:1:p:47-63

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