Organizational Hauntology: Monuments as Expressions and the Source of Adoration of Organizational Ghosts

In the French philosopher Jacques Derrida’s book Spectres of Marx, the term “hauntology” appears. This neologism was built out of the word “haunt,” combined with the term “ontology” — that is, the science of being. Hence, hauntology can be rendered as “the science of beings such as ghosts.” Spirits, instead, are ghosts of the dead people, who, similarly to the spirit of Marx, do not fade into oblivion, but “maunder” among the living and influence their actions and stage their lives.

In 1992, a book was published by the American philosopher Francis Fakuyama, The End of History and the Last Man. The term “end of history” implied that after the fall of the Berlin Wall, a definitive triumph of the democratic system and liberal economy ensued that would dismantle authoritarian and totalitarian systems. Imperfect and oppressive political ideas were then replaced by a qualitatively better conception, which in itself is an impeccable form. Fukuyama’s vision can be likened to the mechanism of natural selection, in which biological organisms better suited to environment conditions supersede the weaker ones. Geo-political changes at the beginning of the 1990s laid the groundwork for such an approach.

Jacques Derrida was a critic of this conception. In the aforementioned book Spectres of Marx — published in 1993, a year after Fukuyama’s publication — Derrida presents and discusses numerous social problems, questioning the concept of “the end of history.” Nevertheless, the thought of Derrida, contained in the very title of the book, appears to be even more fundamental than the above social problems, as it is linked to the spirit of the late Karl Marx. In Derrida’s view, this spirit is ever-present, and, as if from beyond the grave, continuously haunts the representatives of Western civilization. Derrida also emphasizes that with the passage of time, this haunting would intensify, and the idea of Marxism would become even more palpable.

Putting Jacques Derrida’s point of view in conversation with management science, I would like to use the perspective of “organizational hauntology” as the epistemological background for the analysis contained in this study. Organizational hauntology is the cognitive concept, at the center of which spirit — that is, ghosts — can be encountered. Ghosts function within specific communities, such as organizations, and cause people to undertake such actions that they would not usually undertake. These actions take the form of rituals, tales, creative acts of various types, and many other activities motivated chiefly by a specific ghost. The phenomenon of these ghosts’ existence in organizations will be discussed using four examples of monuments to enterprises in Poland. It is also worth emphasizing that I will not be focusing on ghosts of people, but rather on non-people.

In many communities, ghosts were historically an integral element of life. Not only did many people believe in the ghosts’ existence; they also believed that they functioned among people by entering into various relationships. These spirits generally resided in the world of nature, in forests, meadows, and lakes — but not exclusively. They also lived in places where man lived, in their houses (Máchal, 1918) and workplaces. For example, many ghosts stayed in mines. One of the best-known was the Treasurer (Langer, 2011). He was an ambivalent ghost, but his positive nature predominated, and therefore he assisted miners in their arduous work, particularly in crisis situations, where he warned them against danger and indicated ways of escape.

Faith in the existence of the Treasurer is a thing of the past. Nonetheless, there appear rare situations when this ghost haunts contemporary mines, spreading panic among the miners and destabilizing their work. Wojciech Preidl, at the Politechnika Śląska (Silesian University of Technology) in Katowice, recounts the following incident:

I remember when in the 1990s a mine “Poland” was shattered by information that the Treasurer haunted in a guise of a dog. Even the management was filled with panic, since for three days in a row miners finishing their shifts talked with horror in their eyes about their encounters with the four-legged demon. In the end, it turned out that this ghost was an ordinary puppy

In the mines, faith in ghosts has almost completely faded at present time. Stories of this type are derisively considered as fantastic. This is linked to the “disenchantment of the world” (Weber, 2003) — that is, the process of rationalization of reality, involving the rejection of everything considered “magical” and its replacement with reasonable, rational calculations and conscious organization of social life. As a consequence of this, the magical world — and by analogy, ghosts — disappeared from the social reality of the West (Cochrane, 2009). The same applies to organizations: no ghosts or other magical phenomena exist in them, as in the case of the mines. Work is utterly rationalized, based entirely on materialistic premises.

This rationalization of the world of work and management makes it difficult for scientists to conduct research into organizations’ spirits, or “organizational ghosts” (Orr, 2014; Bednar & Brown, 2018; Hunter & Baxter, 2021), which are within the purview of this study. The uncovering of ghosts within the life of an organization requires the researcher to perceive what influences and transforms the reality of the organization — but this is also invisible, unclear, unobvious, and often unintuitive. Reflectiveness appears here to be a particularly useful skill.

In the last dozen years, research into the spirits in enterprises has become more and more popular. Researchers assume most frequently that ghosts come from the past of an organization, and that this influences their presence (Muhr & Salem, 2013; Orr, 2014; Pors 2016, 2021; Vaaben & Bjerg, 2019; Town 2021). Ghosts also disrupt the linear passage of time, causing temporal disruptions in the organization (Pors, 2016, 2021). These disruptions can concern things both real and unreal, and interfere with these perspectives (Pors 2021).

Spirits can also take on different forms. We do not talk here about physical features, but about differences in sensing whose ghosts these are. There are (1) ghosts of people (Bednar & Brown, 2018), such as former managers (MacAulay et al., 2010), or scientists who influence the work of other researchers (De Cock, O’Doherty & Rehn 2013); (2) spirits of ideas, such as the spirit of gender parity in managerial positions (Christensen & Muhr, 2019), of colonial thinking, or “the spirits of teaching” (Vaaben & Bjerg, 2019); and (3) spirits of the legacy of the past, e.g. specific objects or places (Orr, 2014). Spirits may leave their mark in different spheres of life in the organization, potentially haunting the managerial staff (Town, 2021) and influencing organizational changes (MacAulay et al., 2010; Pors, 2016).

My study aims at extending the knowledge about organizational ghosts by embracing the sublime — organizational art. Organizational art, and more broadly, an aesthetic approach to organizations allows one to look at management processes not from the usual intellectual and instrumental perspective, but from an emotional and affective one (Strati, 1999, 2010; Szostak, 2023). Monuments erected by organizations are a manifestation of organizational art; through them, one can explore the non-rational aspects of management, including the organizational spirits themselves.

I have chosen four monuments, and my choices are not random, as I would like to explore the topic of non-human ghosts. Thus, these monuments are not dedicated to people, but to a product, a machine, a plant and an animal, respectively.

A ghost is the presence of someone or something as sensed from a non-physical perspective. A spirit exists in an extra-sensory way — intuitively, but not realistically. This invisible presence of a spirit is not passive. They act, but not in a mechanical sense, since they are deprived of substance. Instead, they affect people by their presence, since people behave in a different manner when they are alone than when there is somebody “around.” The presence of someone else causes people to undertake various actions — and this is precisely how the spirit acts. A good illustration of the contemporary “spirit activity” is the “ghost tourism” presented in Renata Hołda’s article — i.e., visiting haunted places. People, being influenced by the power associated with these places, feel an inner need to get to know them better and “seek opportunities for contact with the supernatural” (Hołda, 2023, p. 15).

Earlier in human history, when people believed in the real existence of spirits, people acted directly under these spirits’ influence. This manifested in stories about ghosts, as well as gifts and acts of adoration. Statues were erected representing their images; these were both smaller figures and larger statues (Máchal, 1918; Moszyński, 2018). All these actions can be treated as the expression of the adoration of spirits, rendered as respect, admiration, reverence, esteem, or even deeper feelings (Egri, 1942). Adoration manifests itself in various acts that accentuate the uniqueness of the worshipped figure, strengthen their relationship with their admirers, and consolidate their presence in a given community.

A monument to Karl Marx was erected in Western Germany, in Trier, his hometown. It was unveiled in 2018, on the occasion of what would have been his 200^th birthday (Nichols, 2018). As Derrida foresaw, the spirit of Marx is still present in our public spaces. Likewise, some lesser and non-human spirits mark the symbolism of public spaces, as well as workplaces, evoking and invoking figures and presences from the past.

Organizations erect their own monuments. Most often, they are built in the vicinity of larger structures: steelworks, mines, refineries, mechanical, chemical, construction and textile plants. They are also encountered in other branches of economy, as they are erected at banks, IT companies, and agricultural areas, such as livestock and plant farms, mills and sugar plants. There are different leitmotifs in these monuments. Some of them represent people, including those connected to the history of the structures, be they patrons or anonymous employees. There are also some that refer to the enterprises’ activities and products. Others feature company symbols, or monuments of machinery and vehicles (or their parts) long used in the enterprise’s facilities. Finally, there are abstract monuments (sculptures), which are somewhat more difficult to be classify.

In this article, I have selected and analyzed four monuments of Polish enterprises. The analysis of these objects took on an interpretative character, with the ghosts of enterprises becoming a kind of metaphor to help understand how the stories and images from the past associated with the monuments “haunt” and refuse to leave the present, and continue to influence the actions of people. The enterprise monuments I studied should therefore be seen as communicators of the past that evoke memory-ghosts and do not allow them to be forgotten.

I have been engaged in analyzing monuments of enterprises from various perspectives since 2018. Despite my initial expectations, this phenomenon is relatively universal and does not solely concern one region of the country. Owing to the scale of this phenomenon, I concentrated exclusively on collecting and examining monuments of Polish enterprises. Polish enterprise monuments have great scientific potential from the point of view of management science; they show, for example, the transformations that took place in enterprises at different stages of Poland’s economic history. They are also very good examples of Polish industrial art.

Through December 2024, I managed to collect over 600 examples of monuments to Polish enterprises. I searched for them by looking up for interesting places on the internet, as well as analyzing textual sources. These were the printed and electronic sources, including monographs of urban monuments — e.g., Pomniki Wrocławia by Zygmunt Antkowiak, or Warszawskie pomniki by Wiesław Głębocki — but also monographs of enterprises, works referring to industrial history, and the biographies of the artists who created certain monuments. I additionally engaged in ethnographically-inspired observation of monuments describing their social significance in the places where they were erected.

Thanks to these three methods of searching for monuments to enterprises, I built a database. My database is regularly updated with new objects. Nevertheless, each monument found spurred a search for additional knowledge, such as who the monument’s author or creator was; who commissioned or ordered it; the circumstances under which it was created; when it was unveiled; and public opinion about the monument. This often led me back to browsing the internet and to analyzing my desk data. I also contacted and talked to the artists, employees and managerial staff, and conducted field research in the vicinity of specific objects. This process is still in progress, since data enhancement is a continuous activity.

What connects enterprise-related monuments to organizational ghosts, and in what ways do these ghosts make themselves known and garner the attention of the enterprises’ communities and their milieu? I wished to explore the relationships between ghosts and monuments, and show that these monuments are mediators, owing to which people connected to and living near these enterprises invent tales and undertake actions with ghosts as their leitmotif. I endeavored to depict monuments as transistors that strengthen the flow of information about ghosts through society and direct human attention to spirits coming from the past of the enterprises. There emerged six categories describing our communication with these monuments:

• (1)

  Recollection of ghosts in tales;

• (2)

  Creation of myths about them;

• (3)

  Creation and distribution of symbols;

• (4)

  Creation of literary and artistic works;

• (5)

  Attention to and care of monuments;

• (6)

  Pilgrimages to the places where the monuments had been erected.

Spirits, as has already been mentioned, are treated here as a sui generis presence of something that is no longer here, as the very presence of the past influences people in such a manner that they do things they wouldn’t normally. Ghosts can be construed as the present existence of the past, while monuments are construed as mediums for this presence. Monuments cause people to feel this spiritual presence — indeed, they can be perceived as its tangible expression.

I have selected the following monuments for this paper: a monument of a potato at the Cultivation Station in Biesiekierz; a monument of a radiator at the iron foundry in Stąporków; a monument of a bull at Hodowla Zwierząt Zarodowych Osowa Sień (the Animal Husbandry in Osowa Sień, or HZZ Osowa Sień); and a monument of a Polish State Railways train, built by the Rapid Urban Rail (PKP), in Trójmiasto.

All the selected monuments pertain to non-humans, two inanimate — a vehicle and a machine — and two animate — a plant and an animal. During my research, I became interested in non-human actants (Latour, 1987). All the selected monuments represent, in some way, their enterprises. Two monuments (the bull and the train) are associated with facilities that are still active, and two remaining ones (the potato and the heater) refer to facilities that have already been liquidated. History played a conclusive role in these monuments’ selection, for all of them refer to historical times before the transition (pre-1989).

Aside from explicating the reasons that performed a role in the selection of these monuments, I need to mention how I collected the research material. At first, I searched for all the information on the Internet, where I found some articles from all-Polish and local information services with some information concerning these enterprises. There was also some data from industry portals (e.g. referring to rail, when researching the monument of the train: www.rynek-kolejowy.pl (Urbanowicz, 2016)), and those connected to art (e.g. architectonic, when researching the monument of the potato: www.bryla.pl (WG, 2024)). Information also came from websites of the facilities and social media accounts of the enterprises; group profiles linked to specific cities and regions; and online communities interested in history, industry, tourism and many other salient topics. Equally important were Internet forums and discussions in the comments under posts about the monuments, which held a wealth of information about what people think about these objects and how the objects influence them.

In addition to this desk data, I also expanded my knowledge in a different way. I contacted representatives of these enterprises or other organizations, asking for available materials. For example, I received the information on the monument of the train from a spokesperson for the Rapid Urban Rail in Trójmiasto. It was also via e-mail that I obtained information on the monument of the heater. These materials were sent by the director of the cultural center in Stąporków, the city where the iron foundry was once located. Yet another means of gathering information was ethnographic research. I made two seven-day research trips: in May 2021 to Stąporków, site of the monument of the heater, and in July 2021 to Osowa Sień, where the monument of the bull is located. In both of these trips, I used research methods recommended by Monika Kostera in the book Organizational Ethnography: Methods and Inspirations (Kostera, 2007). I conducted observations in these places, watching people and their behavior and collecting photo documentation. Material was also collected at HZZ Osowa Sień. Moreover, many anthropological interviews were conducted — free conversations in the natural environment (Czarniawska, 2002). At HZZ Osowa Sień, I held interviews with the current president of the company (and a telephone interview with a former one); the manager; a former employee who was a keeper of the bull; and representatives and administrators of local cultural institutions. In Stąporków, I spoke with the former director of the iron foundry; the mayor and secretary of the town; and with representatives of the local secondary school, which was linked to the former plant.

While conducting the field research, I also gathered desk data — that is, all the textual traits (Kostera, 2007) referring to the enterprises and monuments. In order to accomplish this task, I did bibliographical and museum research. The last mode of the research method applied within ethnography were the interviews, which I dubbed “reporter’s interviews.” I approached people in the street holding a microphone and asked them about the nearby monument — their opinion about it, the knowledge they possessed, their associations with it, etc.

The history of the iron foundry in Stąporków in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship dates to the 18^th century, when the first furnace was built in this area. The production of the first heaters (radiators), for which Stąporków became known, started at the end of the 19^th century. Owing to economic problems, the company closed down in 1938 and was re-established after World War II (Szymański, 1982), and it was in the period of the Polish People’s Republic that this company achieved its spectacular successes. Ninety-six percent of heaters in Polish houses were produced in Stąporków, which manufactured ten million radiator ribs annually (Galus-Klusek, 2021). However, in a new, capitalist reality, this enterprise lost its significance and fell into financial problems. In 2008, it ceased to exist.

In 1978, in a prosperous period for the company, a monument of its flagship product – the radiator – was erected next to the entrance gate. This was to commemorate the contribution of the iron foundry to the development of the national economy. It was also connected to a 240-year tradition of metallurgy in Stąporków. The monument is of a heater produced in the foundry, but enlarged to four times its normal size. Together with the pedestal, it is 320 meters high. After the liquidation of the Iron Foundry, it was moved to a different place. At present it is located in a place several dozen meters from the original location, in front of the town cultural institution that once served as a cultural center that belonging to the foundry. Its present state is depicted in Figure 4.

Figure 4:

A monument of a heater linked to the iron foundry in Stąporków

Source: Author’s own photograph.

A subsequent effect of the influence of the organizational ghosts on people, whether on employees or on the social setting of the organization, is the duplication or multiplication of the images of the monuments, and their use in other contexts. This is a kind of intertextuality, in which the monuments of enterprises become integrated into other works as motifs.

I wish here to dispel some doubts; a question can be raised of whether the monument images’ multiplication via the creation of subsequent iterations. Can it be linked to the influence of the spirits? Is the intertextuality of monuments enacted under the influence of the spirits of the past, to which these monuments refer, or is it the result of fascination with the monument as a physical figure? This problem is not new, and does not bear a solely theoretical character. It recalls an event from Byzantine Empire in the 8^th and 9^th centuries — the dispute among the Christians between iconoclasts and iconodules. The former opposed the cult of images and negated the validity of the presentation of the images of Christ, St. Mary or other saints, claiming that this was the cult of images as such and was not related to real faith. The latter claimed the opposite, and did not view paintings and images as materialistic, but as transcendent — an expression of divinity and an integral element of faith.

Likewise, when we look at monuments from a materialistic perspective, then intertextuality can manifest as a common multiplication of images; if we approach the monuments transcendentally, then we will perceive the spiritual power of this phenomenon, to which a particular individual object refers. In this study, the second approach, a transcendent way of perceiving reality, finds its application; otherwise, the perspective of organizational hauntology would lose its sense.

One of the most inspiring examples of intertextuality is the coat of arms of Biesiekierz, the main motif of which is the monument of the potato (Figure 5). This monument was directly linked to the local Cultivation Station until 1991, when that enterprise was liquidated. Since numerous employees were also residents of Biesiekierz, the cultural legacy of the Station became the part of the history of the town itself. Monuments to enterprises can thus shape the identity of specific groups (Laberschek, 2021), and not only members of these organizations, but also other communities — in this case, the residents of Biesiekierz. The creation of the coat of arms, whose main element is a monument, is a testimony to the great importance of the potato for the local community. We do not mean here a specific individual potato plant, but the potato construed as the prime cause of the existence of the community of the residents of Biesiekierz. It is a sui generis totemic relation, as Sigmund Freud (1913) would call it; it denotes the relation between members of the community and a mythical ancestor that functions as a protective spirit and as a ghost who gives sense to it. The monument, in turn, is a visible emblem of this relationship.

Figure 5:

A monument of a potato on the coat of arms of Biesiekierz

Source: The Municipal Office of Biesiekierz, via Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:POL_gmina_Biesiekierz_COA.svg (This image is in the public domain according to Article 4, case 2 of the Polish Copyright Law Act of February 4, 1994 (Dz. U. z 2021 r. poz. 1062 with later changes)

Similar examples of intertextuality, though not so conspicuous, concern the monument of Ilon the bull. His image has become the main motif in the logo of HZZ Osowa Sień, which is can be found in many places: on the traditional banners of the company, on the cover of its monograph, and on advertising signs, as well as the company’s promotional folders, films, website, and even its cars. The very monument has become an element of the visual identity of the organization.

We can also spot the use of this element outside the company. It is used as a graphic element of the pub Tryzdzieści Trzy 1/3 [Thirty-Three 1/3], operating in nearby Wschowa (Figure 6), and as the main motif of the label design of a bottled beer named Czarny Ilon [Black Ilon], making it a part of mass culture. All these examples show how strong the influence of the spirit of Ilon the bull is on people both inside and outside the company. People who make use of the motif with the image of the bull reinforce the social function of the ghost and treat it with respect.

Figure 6:

A monument of bull Ilon as a motif the visual of the pub Trzydzieści Trzy 1/3 in Wschowa

Source: Author’s own photo.

A somewhat different expression of intertextuality and adoration of organizational ghosts is the use of monumental motifs in artistic works. The strength of some organizational ghosts’ influence is so immense that it inspires both local artists and those who come from different parts of Poland.

The spirit of radiators has an ambivalent association among the local artists from Stąporków. In the 2013 hip-hop song Sentyment [Sentiment] by Stanior Stańczyk, the radiator is viewed negatively and is linked to the fall of the iron foundry and the widespread unemployment that ensued. On the other hand, it served as a positive inspiration for the artists creating images within Artistic Plenary “wSTĄP-art” in 2020.

Unlike the heater, the potato — its monument, and its coat-of-arms character —inspires local artists. Below we will find a poem by Zygmunt Królak, a poet from Bisiekierz:

Dear visitor, welcome to our community,

who is known for its potato.

It is the very potato, from a coat of arms, from a monument,

that makes this land and farmers famed.

Such a giant stands at the road,

apparently visible even from space.

If we grate it, peel it,

there will be enough potato cakes for the whole community.

Whoever wants to touch it, who doubts,

come to Biesiekierz

The poem is a type of a hymn of praise for the potato. It falls within the presented conception of the adoration of organizational ghosts. The very fact that this piece was created in honor of a plant should be perceived as an expression of adoration for the potato, as well as an accentuation and exaggeration of its virtues.

All the quoted examples show the deeply embedded legacy of heater manufacturing and potato growing in the minds of the residents; the extent to which these ghosts of the past determine their lives and influence what they think and do; and the imprint these two enterprises left, which, though immaterial, is exceptionally durable.

Organizational ghosts of the past may cross the border of towns where their enterprises operate and mark their presence in other communities. A motif of the monument of the heater appeared on one of the posters in Radek Kowalik’s series “Miasto w Ramie” [“A City in the Frame”]. In turn, in an artistic project by Andrzej Tobis entitled A-Z. Słownik ilustrowany języka niemieckiego i polskiego [A-Z: An Illustrated Dictionary of German and Polish Languages], we can encounter two other monuments: the bull and the potato. Hence, monuments to enterprises can happen to be inspirational for the artists, while for organizational ghosts, artistic activity serves as an attempt to gain splendor and enlarge the scope of their influence.

All human actions and social practices linked directly to the monument as an object, and to place where it is situated, serve as testimony to the adoration of organizational ghosts. I dub these practices “spiritual,” but not only in the direct sense of this word. By using the term “spiritual,” I link them to ritual and the evocation of spirit. Social practices, which I would like to discuss here, assume a ritual form — that is, a cyclical and repetitive one.

We do take care of monuments and their surroundings. They are protected against destructive influence of wear and tear over time, and in this way their visual attractiveness is merely enhanced. Employees regularly clean the area around Ilon the bull; in Stąporków, where the iron foundry no longer exists, this type of maintenance is conducted by those connected to the cultural center where the monument is located. Plants in its vicinity are cultivated, and the monument itself is painted gold every now and then. We can undeniably state that such practices are not strictly in response to the presence of ghosts; these are merely remedial and routine actions, not ritual ones. Those places, however, can be approached in combination with spirituality. A Latin term, genius loci, can be translated as the protective spirit of a specific place that confers on it a certain uniqueness. Protective ghosts appear in Roman mythology, but they are also encountered in beliefs of other historical cultures. Ergo, specific organizational ghosts can determine the uniqueness of these places.

Therefore, I propose to observe the areas where the monuments discussed in this study (of the train, potato, heater and bull) are located from the perspective of ghosts. Apart from this, as Tim Edensor maintains, monuments themselves also influence the surroundings and haunt places where they are situated (Edensor, 2019). However, there is yet another topic that I would now like to explore. The maintenance of the places with monuments can be directed toward their casual aesthetic elevation, and also has its own spiritual dimension. Monument restoration extends the presence of ghosts in the community and aims to make them immortal.

An exceptional example of the adoration of ghosts by the local community is the disguising and accessorizing of monuments in different costumes and with various types of artifacts. Such actions are often connected to different ceremonies or holidays. To quote the head of the cultural center in Stąporków, the monument of the heater becomes a “main actor” in organized town events. It is dressed up on the occasion of Christmas and, although not as frequently, on the occasion of Children’s Day. Similarly, the monument of the potato is equipped with a Santa Claus cap on the occasion of Christmas. Local media report about such events; for instance, Radio Koszalin announced: “That Christmas is coming we can see on every corner. Even the Monument of a Potato in Biesiekierz has put on a Santa Claus cap. He looks impressive!” (Polskie Radio Koszalin 2020). Such practices indicate that we do not talk here about the materialistic side of this monument. To dress monuments up in Christmas regalia is to invite them to celebrations. Organizational ghosts are treated, then, in the same way as those close to us — friends or family — and become members of our human-non-human community.

Many people who do not live in the vicinity of the monuments come to these places. They are attracted by a particular type of magnetism: the strength of organizational ghosts. I term this phenomenon “pilgrimaging.” Pilgrims do not travel to the places because of their material qualities (at least this is not the most important reason); rather, such trips carry a transcendental and mystical dimension. I perceive journeys to the monuments in the same way. They are accompanied by a type of sublimity that is non-existent in the case of everyday commuting or shopping.

Different people visit these monuments with a variety of motivations. Since Ilon the bull is a symbol of fertility (whose visible proof is a myth quoted earlier), people leave declarations of love by the monument and bring their dates there. The ghost of the bull-reproducer also lures groups of vandals, who paint his testicles in various ways. Czesław Kryszkiewicz, the president of the enterprise, said in 2015:

Every year before Easter there were some people who climbed the monument and changed bull’s testicles into Easter eggs. And it was a breakneck behavior, since the monument is relatively high. Once it was painted in white and red. People didn’t like it, I even had some phone calls concerning this. A brawl sparked, they said: “paint it, lad, how come national colors on bulls’ balls…”

The phenomenon of painting the monument’s testicles is, of course, an instance of vandalism. However, it also has a deeper meaning, showing that the ghost of Ilon the bull haunts people and compels them to perform specific actions — in this case, painting specific parts of the body of the animal. It is not an action against the ghost of the bull; on the contrary, it emphasizes his strength and exposes it. A tale of this incident in the media serves only to illustrate this. Even negative social practices may, then, be a form of adoration of ghosts, since we talk about them, paying particular attention to their attributes.

Celebrities from the world of media sometimes visit monuments to enterprises. Representatives of the Polish public television (TVP) and one of the commercial networks, TVN, appeared at the monument of the heater, and TV transmissions were held from Stąporków. These have also been instances of glorification and fascination expressed towards the organizational spirits of the past. Pilgrims not known by name who appear at the monuments to take some photos are no less important, as these photographs are then shared across social media and commented on by subsequent viewers. The influence of ghosts can here be noticed in virtual reality, where it assumes a viral form.