Figure 1 Globe Theatre (Modern with one stage).

The Modern Theatre has taken the Postmodern Turn: It is now Metatheatre

Authored and compiled by David M. Boje - copyright 2002 - Please cite accordingly

How do I cite the Enron is Metatheatre Study Guides?

Document Title: Enron is Metatheatre by David M. Boje

METATHEATRE theory by David M. Boje, Ph.D. 

Metascripting and Metatheatre in that scripting (orally or in writing) happens in the fragmented decentered and in the centered one. And the script fragments and rescripting is performed in the Metatheatre of organizations. Metatheatre and metascripting has critical dramaturgical dimensions, I call the SEPTET (click on SEPTET in top menu to explore this further). The two areas are inseparable. First some definitions, then we will use them together. SEPTET means seven elements of Metatheatrics. The seven elements are: (1) Frames, (2) Themes, (3) Dialogs, (4) Characters, (5) Rhythms, (6) Plots, and (7) Spectacles.  Grace Ann Rosile and I have written a Metatheatre Intervention Manual based upon my book, Theatres of Capitalism (Boje, 2002c). In that book, I look at the Theatres of Capitalism: McDonaldization, Disneyfication, Las Vegasization, Post-11 Megaspectacle War, and Enronization.  The book is available on line until it is published by Hampton Press (San Francisco). http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/theatrics/index.htm (password is required).

Figure 2: Enron's Metatheatre on the 6th Floor; Art source Business Week (Feb 11, 2002: 35, article by Nanette Byres)

Figure 2 depicts the facade of the Enron headquarters building in downtown Houston.. The following is excerpt from Boje (2002b).

Enron is Metatheatre in 3 ways.

First, Enron is Metatheatre in how it sets out to deceive using façade and illusion. For example, each year (between 1998 and 2001), an elaborate theatre stage was constructed on Enron’s 6^th floor to simulate a real trading floor; it’s expensive theatre, $500 to set up each desk, and more for phones in this stage-crafted spectacle, and more for the 36-inch flat panel screens, and teleconference conference rooms; the entire set was wired by computer technicians who feed fake statistics to the screens. On the big day several hundred employees, including secretaries, played their rehearsed character roles, pretending to be ‘Energy Services’ traders, doing mega deals, while Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay played their starring role in the Enron Dramatis Personae to a target audience of invited Wall Street analysts, who can not tell real from fake.[i]

According to former Enron employees, on the sixth floor of the company's downtown headquarters was a set, designed to trick analysts into believing business was booming… former employee Carol Elkin said that it was all an act, and that no trades were actually made there. The people on the phones were talking to each other.[ii]

Second, Enron is Metatheatre as a way to control and motivate employees using the technology of theatre; several times a year, Enron hired choreographers and dramatists (Banerjee, 2002)[iii] to coach executives in character roles in elaborate corporate extravaganzas; executives and staff would dress in Star Wars or other costumes; executives would enter the ballroom riding Harleys or elephants to the thundering applause of employees and spouses.[iv]

In Boje (2002b) I reconstruct the metascript scene by scene, and room by room in the Metatheatre of Enron TAMARA.  

Metascripts is defined as the multiplicity of scripts, mostly unwritten ones, that constitute the micro and macro structure, behavior, social dysfunctions, and hidden costs/performance potential of complex organizations. Metascript is a multiplicity of scripts that define the field of actions, where strategies are plotted, rhythms find their time patters, characters get trained in their lines, and many feel con-scripted and imprisoned in their character roles and dialog; there are themes of working conditions for on and off stage performers, and some of the mindsets are incommensurate with other mindsets; a mess of directors, script editors, and characters learning and refusing their scripted lines compete for time on the center stage. See Metascript for more on this

Metatheatre - a multiplicity of theatres (formal, informal, off and on stage) simultaneous in a TAMARA of sites; with starring and supporting cast of characters who (1) affect the quality of products and services, (2) enhance or lower productivity, and (3) constitute the concentrated and diffuse spectacles of theatrical performances experienced by employees, investors, customers and vendors. Metatheatre is defined here as the multiple and contending theatres that constitute organizations. The Metatheatre can be defined as a network of simultaneous, TAMARA-esque stage performances. In your organization you can never see all the theatre performed; it is occurring simultaneously on different stages; some you see and perform, but other acts you hear about from colleagues, vendors, and customers.  Metatheatre Intervention Method is designed to be a companion to the SEAM (Socio-Economic Approach to Management) Method (Savall, 1974, 2000; Savall, Zardett & Bonnet, 1999).

How does Metatheatre relate to Enron?

I contend that underneath Enron Metatheatre are competing Tamara-esque antenarratives, the stories-a-making, the Septet elements refusing closure. My intended contribution is to develop a critical dramaturgical theory of the trajectory dynamics of Enron’s Tamara-esque storytelling organization, tracing how official linear narrative trajectories interweave with antenarrative ensembles in Enron’s alleged LJM fraud. Click on Boje (2002a,b) below or click on the Menu at TOP of this page labeled ENRON. In the (2002 a,b) papers I focus on the more theatrical aspects of Enron’s Poetic oppressions (themes in SEPTET terms, and how LJM is accomplished in Metatheatre and metascripting (terms defined above). 

What are Enron Examples of Metatheatre?

A good example of Metatheatre is Lay’s October 17 2001 performance. Enron’s narratives were unraveling, institutions were no longer willing to suspend disbelief.  For instance, on October 17 2001(a Wednesday) the SEC requested by fax, more information concerning Fastow and the LJM partnerships. Lay traveled on the 17th to “Boston … To try to mollify about 40 investment-fund managers and securities analysts” (Witt & Behr, 2002: A01).

Enron treated them to an elegant lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel. Cued by a PowerPoint presentation, Lay led the analysts through predictions of ever-rising revenue.

What the analysts wanted to know about was the $ 1.2 billion error highlighted in that morning's paper. Instead, the Enron chairman attacked the critical press coverage, calling it an irresponsible wild goose chase. Lay vigorously defended Fastow and assured the audience there were no more losses coming from other private partnerships.

Gregory Phelps, who manages $ 1 billion in energy and utility stocks at John Hancock Advisers Inc., noticed that Lay was looking right at him.

"This is a one-time thing," Lay said, according to Phelps. "There is nothing else out there."

Lay took one or two more questions, then suddenly looked at his watch and stopped. Lay's aides said, " 'We have to go' and just hustled out of there," Phelps said later.

At 8:30 A.M.  (October 22) Lay was performing his theatre with 200 of Enron’s top-tier managers, in the Dogwood room on the 3^rd floor of Houston’s downtown Hyatt (Witt & Behr, 2002: A01):

Most hadn't yet heard about the SEC investigation, and Lay didn't mention it. Instead, he told those assembled that Enron's board and senior management were united behind Fastow. Lay wanted his executives to unite behind Fastow, too.

As Lay talked, some in the audience checked handheld BlackBerry messaging devices. News of the SEC investigation flashed. Enron's stock price flashed, too. The shares were plunging. Before the day was over, the stock would drop 20 percent, to $ 20.65

Sharp, testy questions erupted about the company's vulnerable position and Fastow and his private partnerships.

Lay tried to reassure the managers.

 "Well, we don't think we did anything wrong, but knowing what we do now, we would never do it again," Lay said, according to Robert J. Hermann, then Enron's general tax counsel.

Hermann had everything invested in Enron: his professional pride, his network of golfing buddies and his retirement savings, worth more than $ 10 million before Enron stock began to tumble.

Hermann raised his hand and said: "Ken, there is a big disconnect. How can you say we didn't do anything wrong, but would  never do it again? Is 'what we know now' is that we got caught?"

Lay glared at Hermann. "It was like I'd put my head on the tracks," Hermann later recalled.

Vince Kaminski, the respected and normally reserved head of research, raised his hand and told Lay, "I'm in the terrible position of having to disagree with you."

"It's okay, anybody can," Lay said, according to one account. He invited Kaminski, a Polish-born mathematics whiz and expert in risk management, to speak.

Kaminski strode to the podium and accepted the microphone.

Enron should never have gotten involved in secret, high-risk deals with Fastow's private partnerships, he said. He had warned against that course back in June 1999.

"What Andy Fastow did was not only improper, it was terminally stupid," Kaminski said. "The only fighting chance we have is to come clean."

Lay looked "sort of blank," Hermann recalled. "It was like somebody getting pummeled, and he just stood there and took it."

Finally, Enron's new president, Greg Whalley, who had taken over when Jeffrey K. Skilling resigned in August, stepped in. "That's enough, Vince," he said.

Vince had several years ago told his former boss, Chief Risk Officer Richard Buy, that he would not do any more Raptor or LJM work, even "if it meant he would be fired." 

Andrew Fastow Video taped performance at Merril Lynch - There is a "videotape of the then-CFO from September of 1999, pitching Merrill Lynch & Co. executives on the benefits of investing in one of Enron's off-balance-sheet partnerships known as LJM2, which investigators believe was a mechanism Enron used to hide its debt.

The video, which Merrill provided to the subcommittee in response to a subpoena, shows an animated Fastow giving the execs the hard sell. It was so animated that the audience in the hearing room couldn't resist chuckling at the video's contents -- with the exception of the Merrill representatives, who watched stone-faced.

The tape shows Fastow at the front of a conference room, urging the attendees to get in on the exclusive deal he was offering. At the meeting in New York, Fastow boasts that his inside knowledge of Enron's finances -- a point viewed by investigators as a major conflict of interest for a principal in an off-balance-sheet partnership -- make the investment a sure bet.

"Do I know everything that's going on? Do I have to sign off on every deal that goes in there? Yes," he says. "I'm in the unique position of not having the ownership or the responsibility or obligation to sell the assets, but I know everything about them, and I've been involved in their approval and maybe in their structuring." (Cohn, 2002).

How Does TAMARA tie Metascript and Metatheatre together at ENRON?

Enron’s TAMARA is a network of stages, and Lay, a starring character, had to hurry along to another theatrical stage, a Hyatt ballroom where several thousand Enron employees were assembled as spectators.  Lay begins his performance in dramatic fashion (Witt & Behr, 2002: A01):

"Let me say right up front, I am absolutely heartbroken about what's happened," Lay said.

"Many of you were a lot wealthier six to nine months ago, are now concerned about the college education for your kids, maybe the mortgage on your house, maybe your retirement, and for that I am incredibly sorry. But we are going to get it back."

Unlike previous performances, the employees were no longer willing to suspend debrief. They became critical of Lay’s performance.

Lay read a series of questions from the audience. Nerves were frayed. Decorum had vanished. One employee had written: "I would like to know if you are on crack? If so, that would explain a lot. If not, you may want to start because it's going to be a long time before we trust you again."

On Enron trader, Jim Schwieger, challenged Lay in the question and answer session:

"Why," he asked, "is chief financial officer Andrew Fastow sharing the stage--and gainfully employed--considering that he just blown half a billion dollars mismanaging several Enron partnerships and earned $30 million doing it?"

For the rest of the antenarrative and quasi-object analysis of Enron in all its Metatheatre and Metascripting, see Boje, D. M. (2002b) Enron Metatheatre: A Critical Dramaturgy Analysis of Enron’s Quasi-Objects. Paper presented at the Networks, Quasi-Objects, and Identity: Reintegrating Humans, Technology, and Nature session of Denver Academy of Management Meetings. Tuesday August 13, 2002.
  http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/enron_theatre_LJM.htm

REFERENCES FOR METATHEARE THEORY AND METHODOLOGY. 

Boje, D. M. (1995). Stories of the storytelling organization: A postmodern analysis of Disney as 'Tamara-land.' Academy of Management Journal. 38 (4), 997-1035.

Boje, D. M. (2000a). Global Theatrics and Capitalism. November 12. Web text accessed May 15, 2002 at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/global_theatrics_and_capitalism.htm 

Boje, D. M. (2000c). Theatrics of Leadership?Web text accessed May 15, 2002 at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/leader_model_boje.htm 

Boje, D. M. (2000c) X,Y,Z model of leadership and Revolutionary Pedagogy. Web text accessed May 15, 2002 at
http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/388/revolutionary_pedagogy_of_leader.htm 

Boje, D. M. (2001a). Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. London Sage.

Boje, D. M. (2002a). Critical Dramaturgical Analysis of Enron Antenarratives and Metatheatre. Plenary presentation to 5th International Conference on Organizational Discourse: From Micro-Utterances to Macro-Inferences, Wednesday 24th - Friday 26th July (London).
http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/ENRON_critical_dramaturgical_analysis.htm

Boje, D. M. (2002b) Enron Metatheatre: A Critical Dramaturgy Analysis of Enron’s Quasi-Objects. Paper presented at the Networks, Quasi-Objects, and Identity: Reintegrating Humans, Technology, and Nature session of Denver Academy of Management Meetings. Tuesday August 13, 2002.
  http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/papers/enron_theatre_LJM.htm

Boje, D. M. (2002c) Theatres of Capitalism. Book being published by Hampton Press (San Francisco). Available until publication, on line, at http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/theatrics/index.htm (password is required).

Boje, D. M. (2002d). Leadership Theatre Events. Contains guides fo Image, Invisible, and Forum Theatre
http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/388/leadership_theatre_event.htm  

Boje, D. M. (2002e). What is Situation? Feb 19, 2002. http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/388/what_is_situation.htm#septet_table_1  Contains Septet table. 

Boje, D. M. (2002f). Leadership in a Postmodern Age: Notes on Enron  December 3, 2000; revised April 2, 2002 http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/teaching/338/leadership_in_a_postmodern_age.htm 

Boje, D. M. (2002g). Exercises in Games of Power and Leadership.  February 26. http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/388/games_of_power.htm Contains definition of Oppression, examples, and self-survey of oppression. 

Boje, D. M. & G. A. Rosile (2002a). The Metatheatre Intervention Manual. To be published by ISEOR Research Institute of University of Lyon 2, France. http://business.nmsu.edu/~dboje/theatrics/ 

Boje, D. M. & G. A. Rosile (2002a). Theatrics of SEAM. Paper to be published in Journal of Organiztional Change Management Special Issue on Socio-Economic Approach to Management (SEAM), guest edited by Henri Saval.   Metatheatre paper in WORD format

Boje, D. M. ,G. A. Rosile, and Simon Malbogat (2000) "Festival, Spectacle and Carnival: Theatrics of Organizational Development and Change." Presentation to ODC division of Academy of Management, Toronto, August, 2000. 

Cohn, Laura (2002). Senators Meet a Plugged-In Andy Fastow. Business Week On Line. July 31.

Freire, Paulo (1970). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Translated by Myra Bergman Ramos. NY: The Seabury Press (A Continuum Book).  

Witt, April & Peter Behr (2002). Losses, Conflicts Threaten Survival: CFO Fastow Ousted In Probe of Profits. The Washington Post. July 31, Pg. A01

.[i]  The quasi-object of fictive-economics is a Metatheatre change in the network of theatres, and in the game of networking, in the Metascripts and in the antenarrative trajectories.

INSTRUCTIONS

CLICK AND GO TO PAGES in MENU AT TOP or in this BOX

Please contact dboje@nmsu.edu to offer suggestions that will develop the SEPTET of Leadership and Theatrics.

To Navigate this web site there are convenient menus at top (press here to go to top).

  Related Theory, Quasi-Object Analysis of Enron