Organizational Atmospheres: Foam, Affect and Architecture

Organizational Atmospheres
Christian Borch
To end this discussion, my claim is that, while each of the five dimensions
listed above may be identified (at least to some extent) in established
theories of organization, foam theory presents a different interpretation of
each dimension. Even more important, foam theory does not pay attention
merely to one or two of these dimensions, but offers a way to conceptualize
all these dimensions simultaneously. Observing organizations as foam
therefore means taking into account at once their a-centric nature, their
immunity strategies, their imitations and their spatiality. To give but a brief
illustration of how a specific organizational foam analysis could proceed,
one could take as the starting point the immunity strategies of new-hires.
In the novel The Mezzanine, Nicholson Baker suggests that new-hires have
a higher bathroom frequency than people who have been in the organ-
ization for a longer period (Baker, 1998). The reason is, speculates Baker,
that ‘the corporate bathroom is the one place in the whole office where
you understand completely what is expected of you’ (1998: 71, n. 1). Paying
attention to the behaviour in corporate bathrooms clearly follows an
a-centric view on the organization, but it also opens up for an analysis
of how the spatial atmosphere of such corporate bathrooms provide immunity
and afford specific behaviours, and how the atmospheres may be
transmitted imitatively to other parts of the organization, thereby affecting
behaviours outside the bathrooms (which is all beautifully described in
Baker’s novel).
The Spatiality of Foam
I have claimed that in particular the spatial-architectural dimension is important
to the theory of foam, and in the following I want to demonstrate
in more detail how space and architecture are analysed by Sloterdijk.
Since I have already pointed to the spatial connotations of the notion of
foam, I will now discuss three additional ways in which foam theory
addresses space and architecture. To begin with, Sloterdijk is concerned
specifically with the architectural embeddedness of foam. In his book on
foam, he provides fascinating analyses of a number of architectures, including
dwellings, stadiums and convention centres. Particularly the latter
are interesting in the present context, as they are most directly related to the
organizational realm. Convention centres are of many different kinds,
covering everything from huge buildings containing fairs that last for
several days to small conference rooms intended for brief meetings. 6
Sloterdijk finds such convention centres interesting because they signify a
distinctively modern solution to the problem of how to convene or assemble
in physical isolation (2004a: 646). Indeed, he believes, these buildings
have a characteristically contemporary character, because they offer an
architectural reflection of a society devoted to meetings (2004a: 648).
Sloterdijk here presents a diagnostic interpretation of architecture,
pointing to how it supports and makes possible temporary gatherings and
discussions among people who only assemble because of a shared topic,
231
Downloaded from
org.sagepub.com at Stockholms Universitet on March 30, 2011