1 What Happened on the way to Postmodern? David M. Boje November 22, 2005; Revised Nov 28; February 7, 2006 Accepted for publication in QROM (Qualitative Research in Organization and Management) Journal. New Mexico State University ABSTRACT On the way to postmodern theory the revolution to reform modern capitalism fragmented into rhetoric-strands, while practice became ineffective. This article reviews three trends that contributed to this result while pointing possibilities for new qualitative research project in the fields of postmodern consumption, management and organization. The trends reviewed are postmodern fragmentation, late modern appropriations of postmodern moves, and emergent awareness of the dark-side of postmodern. The article concludes with possibilities for participatory research in ways that enact more postmodern forms of capitalist praxis. It is suggested that qualitative studies of postmodern praxis can be conducted; such as postmodern organizations that enact the dark-side of Biotechnology; consumer organizations, such as Blackspot and No Sweat that contract to non-sweatshop factories; and autoethnographic examples of how building a Harley-Davidson chopper is post-production and post- consumption. Introduction What is the postmodern approach to organizations? There is no one approach (see Table 1). Postmodern approaches fragmented into naïve postmodern (calling late modern postindustrialism or complex/adaptive organizations postmodern); more radical approaches (Baudrillard & Lyotard’s era-breaks with modernity & some of Foucault); more critical theory approaches (Jameson, Debord, & Best & Kellner, etc combine critical theory with postmodern theory). Then there are approaches I would call post- postmodern: Hybridity (Latour’s thesis that we have never been modern, instead there is hybridity of discourses, mostly modern with some postmodern); dark side of postmodern (global reterritorialization, postmodern warfare, & Biotech Century).