ABSTRACT
Over the last two decades we have witnessed the decentring of the subject in social theory. Often this has been painful. In par ticular, it has been painful for the generation of sociologists who thought that they could build social theory on the foundations of a relatively stable humanist subject. Now, however, with the humanist theory of the subject overturned, we are in the process of witnessing the analogous deconstruction of the rational/strategic theory of the organization.2 Though it has been slower to get under way, this has been accompanied by a similar gnashing of theoretical teeth. For like the decentring of the subject, the process of the decentring of the organization may be character ized as a process of unlearning. It is, in other words, in large measure a question of coming to terms with the idea that what was previously taken for granted can no longer be safely assumed - something which is perhaps exciting and unnerving in roughly equal measure.
