The Possibility of Wonder and the Possibilities of Organization and Management Studies

Wonder as a primordial dimension of the human experience is the origin of every research activity. However, contemporary research in general and organizational research in particular does not start from wonder where it belongs to. Further, our current organizational world is an anti-wonder one characterized by a prevailing belief that everything is knowable in principle and the world is free of any mystery and possibility that can raise our sense of wonder. Nonetheless, organizations as the manifestations of collective human agency are the sphere of realization infinite world-making possibilities. This necessitates that organizational research must be based on wonder and exploring new possibilities. By introducing the different dimensions of wonder and its possible contributions to organizational research, this essay calls for the re-enchantment of organizational areas so that the “organization” can act as a possibility realization domain for our increasingly disenchanted world.