Publications
I work and conduct research on the topics of leadership, authority and obedience, organizational ethics and culture, systemic organizational theory, diversity research, and – especially in earlier times – the history of political concepts. Here you will find a small selection of my publications and lectures. I am happy to send further titles and information on request.
Lecture Demokratische Monarchisten? Die Organisation des Jesuitenordens
Die Organisation des Jesuitenordens: Demokratie und Organisation?! by Simon Weber Friends, May 2020
New Organizing. Wie Großorganisationen Agilität, Holacracy & Co. einführen – und was man daraus lernen kann
When larger companies introduce organizational design concepts that are currently in vogue, there is often a clear gap between the promises of these approaches and their implementation in practice. The book brings together case studies from 13 teams of authors who have examined the everyday implementation of different approaches to "New Organizing" in well-known companies: New Work, Agility, Scrum, Holacracy, Purpose. The analyses identify typical "solution problems", document common follow-up questions and outline exemplary learning processes. This reveals a wide range of intentions and strategies for introducing new organizing methods. It ranges from a close link to business challenges to hypocritical "pretend" strategies to toleration. Across all case studies, the importance of classic and fundamental leadership and organizational questions is evident: how companies try to manage their change, how they try to learn, how they try to absorb impulses – and how stability and reliability can be maintained in all of this. In essence, it is therefore less about questions of "agility" and more about shaping sustainable change in order to ensure the survival of the company.
Neue Mobilität trifft auf alte Autorität. Ein Automobilkonzern im digitalen Wandel, with Eva Schielein und Susanna Krisor, in: New Organizing. Wie Großorganisationen Agilität, Holacracy und Co. Einführen – und was man daraus lernen kann, ed. by Torsten Groth, Gerhard P. Krejci and Stefan Günter, Heidelberg: Carl-Auer Verlag 2021, 103–122.
Gehorchen und Gestalten. Jesuiten zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur in Chile (1962–1983)
Campus: Frankfurt am Main 2016
Jesuits are considered politically influential. But how independently can religious priests act who have taken a vow of obedience? Antje Schnoor sheds light on the role of the Jesuits in Chile in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in the military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet. In doing so, she impressively shows how the direction and extent of the political action of the Society of Jesus resulted from the change in the Jesuit understanding of authority and obedience. For her study, Schnoor examined the organizational structure and not only the formal but also the informal power relations in the Catholic Church. To this end, she evaluated a wide variety of source material and conducted almost 30 interviews with religious superiors, religious priests and bishops in five countries.
"Using the example of the Chilean Jesuits, Schnoor provides an extremely precise and lucid analysis of church structures and processes. At the same time, it shows the change in the organizational culture of the Society of Jesus as one of the most important actors within the church."
Veit Strassner on „Gehorchen und Gestalten“ (Translation by me, A.S:) in: SZRKG, 111, 2017.
Santa Desobediencia. Jesuitas entre Democracia y Dictadura en Chile, 1962-1983,
Ediciones Universidad Alberto Hurtado: Santiago de Chile 2019
"This is an important book. [...] Schnoor’s focus on authority, obedience, and commitment in an institutional context and her detailed account of how these played out in the deeply conflicted area of Chilean politics make this book a powerful contribution to understanding the dynamics […] of religion and politics throughout Latin America in the late twentieth century and beyond.”
Daniel H. Levine, University of Michigan, in: Latin American Politics and Society, 62/2, May 2020.
Transformational Ethics: The Concept of Obedience in Post-Conciliar Jesuit Thinking
in: Religions 2019, 10, 342
The article sheds light on the change in the concept of obedience within the Society of Jesus since the 1960s. After the Second Vatican Council, there was a so-called crisis of authority and obedience in the Catholic Church and in the religious orders. As a result, the concepts of responsibility and conscience came to the fore in the Jesuit definition of obedience. The religious concept of obedience, i.e., obedience to God, has been re-evaluated as service to people. The article analyzes how the change in the concept of obedience led to the promotion of social justice proclaimed by the Society of Jesus in 1974. By including the promotion of social justice in their central mission, the Jesuits fundamentally changed not only their self-image, but also their ethical values.
