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In the Shadow of Death

Robert Denhardt's Theology of Organizational Life

George Washington University

Robert Denhardt has made a unique contribution to organization theory. Drawing on depth psychology, In the Shadow of Organization (1981) lays bare the hidden religious underpinnings of organization as cultural symbol of the denial of death. In exchange for the magical, protective embrace of the organization, however, we unconsciously submit to domination and abdicate responsibility for our actions. Only by using the dynamite of "negation" and Critical Theory, argues Denhardt, can we explode the repressed truth: Our toleration of instrumentalism and domination is a form of faulty self-knowledge, of bondage to hypostatized powers. This article probes the strengths and weaknesses of Denhardt's "theology " of organizational life. It contends that Denhardt's religious orientation—once four important limitations of his Critical Theory are recognized-should be accepted into the mainstream of organization theory.

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