Geoff A Goldman, Marius Pretorius
Abstract
Politics has become maimed with deception (a.k.a bullshit) of various kinds and forms. Invisible to but a few observers, its existence is expanding outside this favourable context to enter organisations, academia and more. Many observe the ‘bullshit’ presented to them, but few can ‘call it out’. With both deductive and inductive (narrative) inputs, this paper exposes the requirements of such deceptive communication to qualify as bullshit and proposes the units, relations, boundary conditions and systems states required for a framework to be formulated. It acknowledges the bullshit and the bullshittee but focuses on the bullshitter to enhance understanding of bullshitting as a process. The framework presented proposes that bullshit requires evidence of four constructs, namely incompetence, disregard for the truth, underlying agendas, and the intent to deceive as framework determinant units. Compared to other forms of deceptive communication, it sheds light on establishment of new questions that arise as bullshit becomes clearer to academic researchers. New challenges are exposed that should be faced as bullshit becomes more pronounced in the organisational realm.