Traditional Management Theory as Panoptic Discourse: Language and the Constitution of Somatic Flows

This paper examines the classical management theories of Henri Fayol and Frederick Taylor as examples of "panoptic discourse." According to Michel Foucault, panopticism has been a principle method of exercising social control during the modern era. When applied to classical organizational theory, it is possible to show how panoptic techniques constituted modern organizational space by fostering the methodical observation and normalization of human behavior. Applying the panoptic model to managerial discourse therefore allows one to understand more precisely the role management discourse has played in articulating the normative order of organizations.