Organizations are caught in cliches. This means that they do not think for themselves anymore, but rather simply copy pre-existing ideas. This is giving rise to a world which pretends to be knowable, predictable and mouldable, one in which cliches like efficiency, transparency, means-ends rationality, and the strong leader are used without further thought or critique. This is the reason why organizations come into conflict with themselves, and which causes a seemingly unresolvable crisis. Film, however, can show us a totally different world. It has a subversive potency that can wake up the viewer, making them think again, allowing them to see a world which cannot be perceived anymore. It can show the world as it really is again, and can enable us to break through cliches. This book adopts a unique viewpoint on organizations, through its use of film. With the help of philosophers like Deleuze, Heidegger and Sloterdijk, filmmakers like the Coen Brothers, Cronenberg, Antonioni and Tarkovsky and films like The Big Lebowski, eXistenZ, Stalker and Playtime, a world is revealed and explored. It shows the decisive role played by architecture, and why managers are manipulative and impotent at the same time.

This is a book about mirrors, philosophy, art and organization. It arises from the recognition that we are caught in the mirror. We are under its spell and enchanted by its reflections. Mirrors direct us without our awareness, largely because we do not perceive them as mirrors. This is problematic because mirrors are everywhere.This book explores a philosophy of mirrors, one that investigates the art of painting, cartoons, architecture, music, photography and film, as well as belching and boozing robots, `geil' photographers, monkish cells, cesspools, hairy auditions and clauding. Throughout, the book uses, mutilates and expands the thoughts of philosophers like Heidegger, Sloterdijk, Deleuze, Serres, Baudrillard and Ranciere.The philosophic journey offered here results in new insights and unique viewpoints, which open up the hidden, secretive world of mirrors and help us to engage in unexplored and exciting relations with them, offering a critical challenge to contemporary organization theory.