Christopher Bennett’s scientific contributions

In this paper we assess the adequacy of the idea of community as an ideal-typical model against which realorganisations and their management might be critically evaluated. Alasdair MacIntyre’s work on practicessuggests that some forms of work activity require something more than contractual relationships withinorganisations: if he is right then perhaps we should acknowledge the importance of some notion ofcommunity at work. However, among the criticisms of the community approach are that it ignores issuesof power and the inevitable existence in organisations of interest groups based on different values andpursuing different objectives. It can also be seen as ineluctably managerialist and hence incapable ofproducing a coherent and sustainable account of organisational life. Is ‘community’ just a strategy ofsocial, political or organisational control? Does it assume a particular discourse of political subjectivity, todo with the nature of subjects who exist in communities? We assess the extent to which the idea ofcommunity at work is fatally damaged by these objections.