What is it about?
The French philosopher Henri Bergson is often cited in accounts that focus on organizational process. However, the use of his work in this way is often partial and neglects the reification of processes into products. This suggests that we need to look at the relationship between product and process, rather than an exaggerated focus on process alone.
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Why is it important?
Existing work tends to use only a small part of Bergson's work, rather neglecting his distinction between instinct, intuition and intelligence in human action. Process perspectives are gaining some importance, but Bergson does not offer unalloyed support to them. Rather reading him through the lens of critical realism suggests some alternative applications.
Perspectives
This article was prompted by the interest in Bergson on the part of one of my doctoral students, who was applying the ideas to organizational strategy. In order to help his work, I needed to read Bergson and, in so doing, I realised that there was much more in his work than I had encountered in the articles and books that I had consulted. I do not pretend that what I have presented is a complete synthesis of Bergson and critical realism. I remain unconvinced by the vitalism in Bergson, although I can see how his elan vital might be mapped on to what science now tells us about DNA. But I do think that his work on intuition/intelligence is thought provoking when set against work by, for example, Margaret Archer on reflexivity.
Dr Alistair Mutch
Nottingham Trent University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The limits of process: On (re)reading Henri Bergson, Organization, August 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1350508415622698.
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