Thinking experimentally: from Barnard's tale to the adventure of other possibilities of organizing

Abstract

We got started from our necessity to adopt a critical relationship with the tradition of what we know as organizational studies, considering that it is imperative to remember where we came from to make it possible to discern where we are going to, and to formulate alternative ways for our academic endeavors. In this essay we have put a classic - Chester Ir-wing Barnard’s The Functions of the Executive - under the spot. And we have done it by assuming a ludo-therapeutic in-stance so as not being suffocated by him. Thus, we tell a tale about a fable: the fable about the intrinsic and transcen-dental liaison between co-operation and organization, highlighting the moral aspects therein. Afterwards, we have done some reflexive thinking along our search for finding/developing perspectives which might conduct to possibilities of changes in the practice, as well as in the way we think about organizations and organizing.