Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Human Relations
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Stein, M.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Unbounded Irrationality: Risk and Organizational Narcissism at Long Term Capital Management

Mark Stein

m.k.stein{at}reading.ac.uk

This article focuses on the near collapse of the highly prestigious hedge-fund Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) in September 1998, causing widespread fears that its demise may lead to global financial meltdown. Explanations pivoting on the idea of bounded rationality - that rationally functioning organizations may collapse because of a lack of information or the capacity to process such information - are found not to apply. The article postulates the irrational functioning of LTCM, and proposes a psychoanalytic theory of organizational narcissism as a means of explanation. This theory comprises well-explored themes of organizational narcissism such as hubris, omnipotence and omniscience, as well as newer themes of contempt, triumph, and the embeddedness of narcissism in the organization's socio-technical system. The article concludes by examining these ideas in relation to other theories of risk as well as the implications for practice.

Key Words: collapse • irrational • narcissism • organization • psychoanalysis • risk

Human Relations, Vol. 56, No. 5, 523-540 (2003)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726703056005001
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Management LearningHome page
A. Kieser and U. Koch
Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning Based on Rule Changes
Management Learning, July 1, 2008; 39(3): 329 - 347.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Human RelationsHome page
B. Vidaillet
Lacanian theory's contribution to the study of workplace envy
Human Relations, November 1, 2007; 60(11): 1669 - 1700.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Human RelationsHome page
M. Stein
Oedipus Rex at Enron: Leadership, Oedipal struggles, and organizational collapse
Human Relations, September 1, 2007; 60(9): 1387 - 1410.
[Abstract] [PDF]

Home page
 Human RelationsHome page
M. Stein
The critical period of disasters: Insights from sense-making and psychoanalytic theory
Human Relations, October 1, 2004; 57(10): 1243 - 1261.
[Abstract] [PDF]