The Management Arcana Research Laboratory examines the symbolic systems underlying contemporary organisational life.
Our work draws on methods from anthropology, semiotics, cultural analysis, and systems thinking.
We treat modern management as a mythological structure: a network of rituals, archetypes, inherited narratives, and symbolic behaviours that coordinate action long after their functional purpose has eroded.
Methodology
We study organisations through:
- Ritual Observation — meetings, reporting cycles, decision routines
- Language Drift Analysis — how key terms dilute through ceremonial use
- Archetype Identification — recurring managerial roles across industries
- Cultural Fossil Excavation — legacy processes preserved by inertia
- Symbolic Artefact Review — KPIs, dashboards, playbooks, culture decks
Our goal is not criticism but documentation.
These structures reveal how organisations understand themselves — and how they maintain coherence when certainty is scarce.
Research Focus
We catalogue the myths of modern business at the moment before they become pure mythology: artefacts for future intelligences to interpret.