Triumph of Emptiness

Alex Winström

1. Use the perspective developed by Mats Alvesson in “Triumph of emptiness” and critically discuss phenomena/ issues/ contents you have learned on previous courses during your education here at the department.

Our opinion is that a lot of experiences that we have had with the department can be characterized as the triumph of emptiness. The first that came to mind was the content in the introduction courses in advertising and organizational theory. There was a lot of well thought through PowerPoint presentations consisting of models and different theories. According to the lecturer these tools explain everything from why a customer buys a certain product to how the perfect structure of a company should look like. The problem with these tools, which the lecturer provides, is that they are quite irrelevant in most cases since the real world is more dynamic than a textbook example. These tools thrive in the PowerPoint reality where their distance from reality does not matter and is a perfect example of the hollowness most students encounter during their time at the university. One problem with this matter may be that the students does not care because they can write on their CV that they passed a course in marketing at a top university in Sweden, and developed a world class mind while doing so.         

Alvesson writes in The triumph of emptiness that “Higher education is perhaps better at producing degrees, documentation for CVs, and keeping young people out of unemployment for a few years than producing knowledge and people who are good at critical and abstract thinking, seeing patterns, and analysing problems.”

We think that this quote is very accurate in describing what we have encountered. There are a lot of lectures in where the content is questionable. When the textbooks talks about a 150 year old interpretation from a professor, that isn´t relevant today. A lot of students, if not everyone, are aware that they will never use it in their working life; they only have to memorize it word by word for the examination. Whether or not this is the best way we do not know. But the fact that the phenomenon Alvessons writes about in his book applies to our university, we are sure of.

2. Discuss the view presented by Alvesson. Do you agree or do you find any weak spots in his argumentation?

The view presented by Alvesson is based on three different conditions: grandiosity, zero sum games and illusionary arrangements.

To start out we will begin to discuss grandiosity. We do agree that this condition exists, in what degree depends on several factors. For example culture, environment and the person in question. We think that this condition can give us both advantages and disadvantage. If we view it from a company’s perspective, one advantage could be to motivate the employees. By giving an employer the title strategic real estate janitor instead of cleaner. They can feel more important and that they contribute to the company’s success. This can increase the motivation and work ethics of the employees. On the other hand this can also cause inflation of titles. At first it might not be seen as a problem but when it comes to the point where the title no longer reflects the job assignments it could cause problems. One such problem could be while hiring and no one applies to the position because they don't know what the position entails. There is also an example from the workers perspective where they boost their CV’s with great titles but in the end realize that they are not qualified for the position, even though they should be, according to their title. Our conclusion is that all the positive effects could possibly disappear one day if the inflation goes too far.

Next condition to be discussed is zero-sum games. We do agree that what Alvesson says about this is true and that his argumentation and observations are correct. But the zero-sum game is true with most things in life. Alvesson were not the first person to make this observation. If the one person gets the job, the second one does not. We see this today more than ever, and what are most interesting are what consequences it brings. We think that what is most accurate with Alvessons view on zero-sum games, is its connection to grandiosity. The fact that the competition for a job leads to inflation of titles and therefore grandiosity is an example of how they are naturally interconnected. This can be seen as obvious because a person will do what it takes to reach their goals. And when they are educated at a grandiose university with mates that boost their CV, of course they will do it themselves. Whether this is a suitable development, we will leave open for discussion. One thing is for sure; consumption of positional goods is not worth much for the individual until you put it in relation to the surroundings.