Transcript Epistemology

Organisations- og Virksomhedsteori
1. undervisningsgang – 28. januar 2013
Lectures, Spring 2013
Week Date
Subject
Literature
5
28. Jan
Introduction to the course
6
4.
Multiple Perspectives
7
11. Feb
Winter holiday
8
18. Feb
Organizations and Environment
MJH, Chap 3
9
25. Feb
Organizational Social Structure
MJH, Chap 4 + Comp
10
4.
Organizational Culture
MJH, Chap 6
11
11. Mar
Technology
MJH, Chap 5
12
18. Mar
Organizational Power, Control & Conflict
MJH, Chap 8
13
25. Mar
Case Work kick off
14
1.
Apr
Easter holiday
15
8.
Apr
Case work – supervision at ITU
16
15. Apr
Theory in Practice / New directions in Organization Theory
MJH, Chap 9+10
17
22. Apr
Strategizing; Intro + Decision Theory
Nygaard, Chap 1+2
18
29. Apr
Strategizing; Agent- and Transactional cost analysis
Nygaard, Chap 4+5
19
6.
Strategizing; Institutional- Networks theory
Nygaard, Chap 8+9
20
13. May
Strategizing; Corporate Systems Theory
Nygaard, Chap 10
21
20. May
Whit Monday
22
27. May
Spare week
Feb
Mar
May
MJH, Chap 1+2
Introduction of lecturer
Name:
John Tronborg
Age:
43
Background:
Cand. it, e-Business
ITU
HD(O) Strategic Management & Business Development
CBS
Datanom, IT Project Management
Professional moves;
• Solution Manager, CSC
• External lecturer at ITU; Advanced Organization Theory (MVOT)
• Management Consultant
• Senior Manager, ERP Advisory
• Principal
• Head of Business IT
• Head of SAP Competency centre
Self Employed
Ernst & Young
SAP Business Consulting
Carlsberg Denmark
H. Lundbeck
Course structure and content
Strategizing
Technology
Organizational Power, Control & Conflict
Organizational Culture
Organizational Social Structure
Organizations and Environment
Theory in Practice / New directions in Organization Theory
Other articles, such as Prahalad and Hamel
Introduction of Concepts and Abstractions
Concepts provide mental categories for sorting, organizing
and storing experience in memory. They are ideas formed
by the process of abstraction, who may be defined as the
’formation of an idea by mental separation from particular
instances’.
Introduction of Ontology and Epistemology
Ontology is concerned about reality. It deals
with questions concerning what entities exist or
can be said to exist, and how such entities can
be grouped, related within a hierarchy, and
subdivided according to similarities and
differences
Epistemology is concerned with knowing how
you can know. It is focused on analyzing the
nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar
notions such as truth, belief, and justification. It
also deals with the means of production of
knowledge, as well as skepticism about different
knowledge claims.
Parmenides was among the
first to propose an
ontological characterization
of the fundamental nature of
reality.
The three perspectives.....
Modernism
Symbolic Interpretivism
Postmodernism
Ontology
Objectivism – belief is an objective,
external reality whose existence is
independant of our knowledge of it.
Ontology
Subjectivism – the belief that we cannot know an
external or objective existance apart from our
subjective awareness of it; that which exists is that
which we agree exists-
Ontology
Postmodernism – the belief that the world
appears through language and is situated in
discourse; what is spoken of exists,
therefore everything that exists is a text to
be read or performed
Epistemology
Positivism – we discover truth through
valid conceptualization and reliable
measurement that allows us to test
knowledge against an objective world;
knowledge accumulates allowing humans
to progress and evolve
Epistemology
Interprevism – all knowledge is relative to the
knower and can only be understood from the
point of view of the individuals who are directly
involved; truth is socially constructed via multiple
interpretations of the objects of knowledge
thereby constructed and therefore shifts and
changes through time
Epistemology
Postmodernism – knowledge cannot be an
accurate account of truth because meanings
cannot be fixed; there is no independent
reality; there are no facts, only
interpretations; knowledge is a power play
Organizations are
Objectively real entities operating in a
real world. When well designed and
managed they are systems of decision
and action driven by norms of rationality,
efficiency and effectiveness for stated
purposes
Organizations are
Continually constructed and reconstructed by
their members through symbolically meditated
interaction. Organizations are socially constructed
where meanings promote and are promoted by
understanding of the self and others that occurs
within the organizational context
Organizations are
Sites for enacting power relations,
opression, irrationality, communicative
distortion – or areans of fun and playful
irony. Organizations are texts produced by
and in language; we can rewrite them so as
to emancipate ourselves from human folly
and degradation
Focus on organization theory
Finding universal laws, methods and
tech-niques of organisation and control;
favors rational structures, rules,
standardized procedures and routine
practices.
Focus on organization theory
Describing how people give meaning and order to
their experience within specific contexts through
interpretive and symbolic acts, forms and
processes
Focus on organization theory
Deconstructing organizational texts;
destabilizing managerial ideologies and
modernist modes of organizing and
theorizing; revealing marginalized and
oppressed viewpoints; encouraging reflexive
and inclusive forms of theorizing and
organizing
Introduction of Concepts and Abstractions
Dog
Mass
Computer
Abstraction level
Bike
Mental categories for sorting, organizing and storing experience in human memory
... The formation of an idea by mental separation from particular instances
Concepts and Abstractions
Culture
Social Structure
Technology
Abstraction level
Environment
Mental categories for sorting, organizing and storing experience in human memory
... The formation of an idea by mental separation from particular instances
Advantages of building concepts
Communication
By communicating with concepts
instead of particular instances, the
message gets simpler and let the
receiver learn by enhancing own
concepts by experience.
Information Processing
Associations
By chunking information, the human
brain can process loads of
information despite the limitation of
thinking about 7 pieces (+/- 2) of
information simountaneously.
By using concepts, large amounts of
information can be combined and
associated, but there is a risk of
leaving out too many details.
About theories
Explanatory concepts relation to the phenomenon of interest
Phenomenon of interest
Concept: Mass
2
E=MC
Græsk ”phaiómenon” – ´det der viser sig´
Concept: Speed of
light2
Theory is a set of concepts and the relationships
between them proposed to explain the phenomenon of
interest
About theories
Since human behavior is
unpredictable, mathematical
equations are unsuited for
explaining such.
Alternatives:
- Statistical probabilities
- Chaos theories
- CAS theories
- Metaphors or analogues
Phenomenon of interest
Concept: Mass
E=MC2
Græsk ”phaiómenon”
– ´det der viser sig´
Concept: Speed of light2
Sources of inspiration for organization theory
Prehistory
1900 – 1950s
Smith
Marx
Durkheim
Taylor
Follet
Fayol
Weber
Gulick
Barnard
Economics
Engineering
Modern
1960s –
1970s
Von Bertalanffy
Trist & Bamforth
Boulding
March & Simon
Emery
Burns & Stalker
Woodward
Lawrence & Lorsch
Thompson
Symbolic
Interpretive
Postmodern
1980s
1990s
Schütz
Whyte
Selznick
Goffman
Gadamer
Berger & Luckman
Weick
Geertz
Clifford & Marcus
Saussure
Foucault
Bell
Jencks
Derrida
Lyotard
Rorty
Lash & Urry
Baudrillard
Political Science Cultural Anthropology Linguistics
Liteary Theory
Biology-Ecology Folklore Studies Postmodern Architecture
Sociology
Social Semiotics Poststructural Cultural
Social Psychology and Hermeneutics Philosophy
Studies
Multiple perspectives
Different ways of looking at the world produce different knowledge and thus
different perspectives come to be associated with their own concepts and
theories
A particular way of making beliefs, assumptions
and knowledge of the world is called a paradigm
In order to compare modernism, symbolic-interpretivism and postmodernism,
you will need to examine the assumptions underlying each of the three
perspectives
Ontology and Epistemology
Ontology is concerned with our assumptions about reality. Is there an
objective reality out there or is it subjective, existing only in our minds??
Depending on the perspective, one will some things
status of being real, while you will disregard others
Subjectivists
Objectivists
Things only exists when
you experience and give it
meaning
Reality exists
independently of those
who live in it
Paradigm
Subjectivist
People create and experience realities in
different ways because individuals and groups
have their own assumptions, beliefs and
perceptions that lead them to do so
Objectivist
People react to what is happening around
them in predictable ways, because their
behaviour is a part of thye material world in
which thwt live and is determined by causes,
just as the behavior of matter
Ontology and Epistemology
Epistemology is concerned with knowing how you can know
How do humans generate knowledge, what are the criteria by which they
discriminate good knowledge from bad and how should reality be represented
or described?
Paradigm
Positivist
Interpretive
Assumes you can discover what truly happens
in organizations through the categorization
and scientific measurement of the behavior of
people and systems
Assumes that knowledge can only be created
and understood from the point of view of the
individuals who live and work in a particular
culture or organization
Exercise: Who has the best chances of describing reality of an organization. A employee/manager with
20 years of experience or an external consultant just entered the organization??
Please discuss in groups and argue why..
General influences...
Modernist
Symbol-interpretivists
Postmodernists
Systems theory. A system
is comprised of subsystems,
which again can be divided in
subsystems, specializing further.
A hierarchy of systems display
9 levels of analysis which also
respects the hole and
interrelated levels.
First real challenge to the
modernist perspective. To
observe and be observed.
Special sensitivity to language
because we construct, modify,
make sense of and
communicate reality by our
language and context.
…. Do not ask who I am and
do not ask me to remain the
same…. No objectively
definable social reality,
everything you and I know I is
relative to the moment of
experience….
Social Technical Systems
Theory introduces the idea
that humans work more
effectively in self managed
groups
Contingency Theory is
dealing with adapting the
organization to the
environment
Social Constructivism
proposes that our social world
is negotiated, organized and
constructed by interpretations
about what is happening based
in our intersubjectivity.
Signifier / Signified; no
connection between words
and meanings.
No thoughts without language
and community sepcific
Discourse Analysis
Enactment makes sense of
the present/past and then act
on that understanding
Deconstruction; reading and
rereading texts using different
context to show instability
Comparing the three perspectives.....
Modernist
Commit to limiting what you
count as knowledge to what
you can know through your
five senses.
What counts as data is what is
collected by our five senses.
Modernists claim that I saw,
heard, smelled, tasted or
touched my data and you can
confirm them for yourself by
replicating my procedures.
Subjectivity undermines
scientific rigor and introduces
bias.
Symbol-interpretivists
Postmodernists
Shows willingness to extend
the definition of empirical
reality to include forms of
experience that lie outside the
reach of the five senses, as do
emotion and intuition. As a
result of this subjectivity, their
findings cannot easily be
replicated by others.
Unwillingness to seek Truth or
to make permanent
ontological or epistemological
commitments.
Understandings should not be
generalized beyond the
context in which they were
produced.
Knowledge is power and the
development and use of
knowledge is always power
plays that must be resisted for
the sake of the powerless.
Subjectivity is a prerequisite
for studying meaning.
Ever changing philosophical
standpoints to avoid some
forms of knowledge over
others.
Comparing the three perspectives.....
Modernism
Symbolic Interpretivism
Postmodernism
Ontology
Objectivism – belief is an objective,
external reality whose existence is
independant of our knowledge of it.
Ontology
Subjectivism – the belief that we cannot know an
external or objective existance apart from our
subjective awareness of it; that which exists is that
which we agree exists-
Ontology
Postmodernism – the belief that the world
appears through language and is situated in
discourse; what is spoken of exists,
therefore everything that exists is a text to
be read or performed
Epistemology
Positivism – we discover truth through
valid conceptualization and reliable
measurement that allows us to test
knowledge against an objective world;
knowledge accumulates allowing humans
to progress and evolve
Epistemology
Interprevism – all knowledge is relative to the
knower and can only be understood from the
point of view of the individuals who are directly
involved; truth is socially constructed via multiple
interpretations of the objects of knowledge
thereby constructed and therefore shifts and
changes through time
Epistemology
Postmodernism – knowledge cannot be an
accurate account of truth because meanings
cannot be fixed; there is no independent
reality; there are no facts, only
interpretations; knowledge is a power play
Organizations are
Objectively real entities operating in a
real world. When well designed and
managed they are systems of decision
and action driven by norms of rationality,
efficiency and effectiveness for stated
purposes
Organizations are
Continually constructed and reconstructed by
their members through symbolically meditated
interaction. Organizations are socially constructed
where meanings promote and are promoted by
understanding of the self and others that occurs
within the organizational context
Organizations are
Sites for enacting power relations,
opression, irrationality, communicative
distortion – or areans of fun and playful
irony. Organizations are texts produced by
and in language; we can rewrite them so as
to emancipate ourselves from human folly
and degradation
Focus on organization theory
Finding universal laws, methods and
tech-niques of organisation and control;
favors rational structures, rules,
standardized procedures and routine
practices.
Focus on organization theory
Describing how people give meaning and order to
their experience within specific contexts through
interpretive and symbolic acts, forms and
processes
Focus on organization theory
Deconstructing organizational texts;
destabilizing managerial ideologies and
modernist modes of organizing and
theorizing; revealing marginalized and
oppressed viewpoints; encouraging reflexive
and inclusive forms of theorizing and
organizing
Case Methodology
Generic Case Methodology
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
An example on a specific methodology:
http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/publications/qmanual/ch-08.html