Anti Stupidity - Mats Alvesson;Stella Cizinsky;

Partial Excerpts (antilibrary)

Half Title

This book explores how functional stupidity – uncritical and unreflective thinking within prescribed, constrained ways – is institutionalized and why we should minimize it in workplaces

Copyright Page

2026

Table of Contents

Preface

Preface

organizations – and parts of the policies that govern them – are permeated by ill-conceived structures and practices

working life

Schools, policing, healthcare, social services, immigration and integration

many people perceive their work as meaningless. Some also see the work of others as directly counterproductive. Excessive control, requirements for questionably relevant training for qualification, destructive bureaucracy and unnecessary human improvement activities

present some explanations and suggestions for solutions to the most fundamental of this troubling development: the unwillingness and inability to think outside narrow frames or given assumptions. Our thesis is that a socially shared and accepted – and often prescribed – stupidity is taking over many companies and public organizations. We call it functional stupidity.

Stupidity that is well adapted to system requirements is characterized by a penchant for surface, a far-reaching division of labor and a lack of independent and critical thinking

1. Introduction

Stupidity on a Large Scale

municipality

headmaster

society is at large

management consultant

orgy in bullshit

In debates and in research about organization and management, annoyance is often expressed regarding the obvious stupidity in thinking and acting. Line managers and employees show frustration at senior management’s lack of interest in their views on how things really function. Extensive and contradictory rules lead to inefficiency. Time and resources are spent on strategies, policies and action plans – and are mainly used to cover one’s back at inspections and auditing

Bullshit – expressions without concrete meaning – and ritual-expressing meetings consume time and energy and produce very little effect

Bureaucracy expands at the expense of the mission and production. Expensive development and quality projects are launched and thereafter allowed to continue without much interest in whether they really work and create results beyond looking good to the uninitiated

bureaucracy in healthcare

justified by claims that it is to the benefit of the quality and safety of treatments and care. But on closer inspection there is very little evidence that this has been the case. Some studies even suggest the opposite.