Polyphony

Josh Morton and Eero Vaara

Chapter 2.25 in Elgar Encyclopedia of Strategy as Practice, 2025, pp 199-202 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: The term polyphony derives from the Greek for many and sounds and the notion of “polyphonic” is defined as “many-voiced” and “producing many sounds”. From its origins in music, polyphony stands in opposition to monophony and represents the simultaneous combination of two or more tones or melodic lines. Polyphony was later adopted by Russian philosopher and literary critic Mikhail Bakhtin to describe the world of Dostoevsky's novels where polyphony provided a metaphor for understanding patterns among those who hold beliefs and values from distinct backgrounds. In organisational and management research, scholars have adopted the way that Bakhtin described Dostoyevsky's novels in postmodern terms – as multivoiced and intertextual – and have imagined organisations to exist in this way. For instance, the concept of the “polyphonic organisation” has been used to represent the variety of different discourses that constitute organisational reality.

Keywords: Polyphony; SAP; Bakhtin; Voices; Discourse; Narrative (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
ISBN: 9781035315956
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