Imagine How Future Workplaces Could Be: Introducing Fictional Science to Organizational Behavior

This paper introduces the concept of fictional science to the field of Organizational Behavior. We outline its necessity and the intended benefits for the field. Organizational Behavior is a scientific discipline which has limited experience with imaginative reasoning in the field and, thus, the envisioning of what could be, and how workplaces could be designed in the future. Fictional science, as the imagined, made-up scientific thinking and argumentation, holds the possibilities for such imagination. It, therefore, offers academics and practitioners the means to postulate possible futures for workplaces and, thus, the potential to bring about positive change to workplaces. We also explain the importance of form, and the role of the literary in fictional science. The essay finishes with examples of how fictional science has been used in the past, and how it could be used in the future.