Essai: on paragrammatic uses of organizational theory — a provocation

Organization Studies, Jan-Feb, 2002 by Yiannis Gabriel

'Bricolage doesn't worry about the coherence of the words or ideas it uses. For example, you are a bricoleur if you talk about penis envy or the oedipus complex and you don't know anything about psychoanalysis; you use the terms without having to acknowledge that the whole system of thought that produced these terms and ideas, i.e. Freudian psychoanalysis, is valid and "true". In fact, you don't care if psychoanalysis is true or not (since, at heart, you don't really believe in "truth" as an absolute, but only as something that emerges from a coherent system, as a kind of illusion) as long as the terms and ideas are useful to you.'

In this way, most contemporary theoreticians, no less than consultants, teachers and practicing managers are engaged in creative bricolage, using theories, concepts and ideas paragrammatically -- the very concept of bricolage is used paragrammatically, in discourses which feel neither obliged to accept nor even to acknowledge Levi-Strauss's key distinction between mythical and scientific thought, on which it was originally founded.

What then is the relationship between bricolage and paragramme? I would suggest that bricolage represents a particular type of activity or practice, whereas paragramme refers to the modus operandi of the bricoleur in relation to the materials, tools and knowledge at his/ her disposal. Thus the bricoleur does not use resources paradigmatically (as examples forming the basis for generalizations) or programmatically (as detailed plans for action), but paragrammatically, in a flexible and opportunistic way. Materials, tools and knowledge are continuously defined through the task at hand, thereby, at the same time, helping to define this task. Using a mathematical analogy, if paradigms are examples of how problems may be solved and programmes are detailed sets of instructions on how to solve problems, paragrammes are solutions, free-floating and looking for problems on which to attach themselves.

One of the benefits of looking at theories of organization, high and low, popular and sophisticated, abstract and applied, partial and total, as paragrammes for action concems management learning and pedagogy. As a teacher, one is often asked the unsettling question of what one should teach management students who come from very different cultures, with different traditions and different organizations from the ones on which most theories are based. For many years, I found this question quite awkward. The concept of paragramme, however, enables us to explain rather convincingly the value of the ideas, theories and concepts to which students are introduced. Theories are not programmes of action or solutions to problems, but may become such through creative improvization and bricolage. They represent a stock of potential solutions to future problems and a source of confidence once used in a free and flexible manner. The analogy of cooking strengthens the argument. Teaching French cuisine to Mexican or Chinese st udents may seem pointless or perverse, since the ingredients, tools and even tastes in their own cultures are quite different. Yet, the bricoleur cook, using recipes as paragrammes, can discover no end of creative possibilities, by modifying and adapting ingredients, engaging in creative substitution, and translating ideas from one context to another.