Organizational brilliance: on blinding visions in organizations

Abstract

Purpose

Seeing, one might say, is everything between black blindness and white blindness: between not seeing because of the absence of light and not seeing because of the blinding quality of light; between seeing nothing and “seeing” only that which produces vision (usually the sun or God). Within organizational literature, organizations have often been linked to black blindness. The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea of organizations as places of white blindness.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper finds its inspiration in Saramago's novel Blindness but it does not offer an analysis or interpretation of the novel. It seeks an understanding of contemporary organizational phenomena by freely drawing upon some of Saramago's literary achievements.

Findings

Black blindness, e.g. the absence of vision through an extreme division of labour, is an important phenomenon in organizations but white blindness is getting more prevalent. Three causes of white blindness are identified and briefly discussed: the brilliant leader, the brilliant product and the brilliant employee.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the literature on vision in and outside of organizations and crosses boundaries between a variety of disciplines, most notably leadership studies, consumer behaviour, Human Resource Management, philosophy and theology.

Citation

Spoelstra, S. (2009), "Organizational brilliance: on blinding visions in organizations", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 373-385. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810910967152