Situations and Atmospheres in Organizations

Social life in organizations significantly relies on situations and atmospheres. Despite the high practical relevance, so far no attempts have been made to theoretically capture situations and atmospheres in organizations in a systematic manner. Aside from the difficulty of locating the situation or atmosphere within a dichotomy of subject and object, this seems mainly due to the complex interweaving of situations and atmospheres that is constitutive of organizations. While, for instance, architecture explores the atmospheric setting within which situations take place, organizations are themselves a social entity and in this sense coincide with the situation shared by its members. Against this background, this book examines the social dynamics in the formation of situations and atmospheres. Theoretically, the book is primarily based on the phenomenological works of Hermann Schmitz and Guido Rappe.