Organization:Organization:Insight and Structuring Conscious Insight and Structuring Conscious ActivityActivity

MPA 8002

Organization Theory

Richard M. Jacobs, OSA, Ph.D.

Since the time of Francis Bacon Since the time of Francis Bacon (1561-1626)...(1561-1626)...

an “organization” has been viewed as an achievement, a product of experimentation...

…as people hypothesize about what constitutes “best practice”

…and devote themselves to improving organizational functioning

Organization is viewed as a product Organization is viewed as a product of an objective, scientific method...of an objective, scientific method...

where humans control conditions in order to reproduce existing knowledge and reduce anomalies

…by moving from defective forms of knowledge to more accurate forms

…by working within and replicating a tradition

with the goal of increasing productivity

hypothesis

theory

tradition

a conjecture about

organizationa conceptual schema to be subjected to

further testing

culminating in a body of

knowledge

““To see what one knows”...To see what one knows”...

…and is used to analyze human beings and their conscious activities

an organization is...

…an instrument or tool of the hand

…an objective entity

…an entity serving as a means to productive ends

…a product of science

For Kuhn (1986), this paradigm For Kuhn (1986), this paradigm proves somewhat problematic...proves somewhat problematic...

the structure of organization constrains the ability for people to think beyond the mediated theories and tradition…as extant knowledge is duplicated

and replicated…and unconstrained inquiry is

stultified by disciplinary canons

The word “The word “organizationorganization”...”...

a Greek noun ()...identifying...

…a mentality or formation of the mind emanating from the human spirit

…evidenced in the various ways human beings structure conscious activities

insight

intelligence

knowledge

a perception about human

existencean

unconditioned grasp of the

nature of realityvarious ways to “look at”

reality

““To know what one sees”...To know what one sees”...

human experience and conscious activities...

…the movement from one form of self understanding to another

…the capacity to engage in intellectual work on one’s own

…previously experienced mental operations and the dynamics that follow from them

an invitation to participate in discovering within oneself...

Substantively, the study of organization Substantively, the study of organization is a subjective endeavor...is a subjective endeavor...

to study organization is to get behind the mediated intelligence, understanding, and knowledge...…so as to gain insight into

organization

…and to develop new intelligence about organization

Substantively...Substantively...

Substantively, managing and leading Substantively, managing and leading human organizations requires...human organizations requires...

practical intelligence that is generated by the self-correcting process of learning (Lonergan, 1972)

questioning thinking formulating testing judging

evaluating self-evaluation being objectivity

QUESTIONING

researching the data of human experience

comprised of material content and operational content

Is it mere data?

Is it meaningful data?

Is it the truth?

THINKING

to receive the tradition

an invitation to know by “taking a good look at” the concepts bequeathed from the past

FORMULATING

an unconditioned reflective grasp, the constitutive factor in knowing, that precedes and determines truth (i.e., insight)

a subjective achievement of radical intellectual development by which the human being discovers in oneself precisely experienced mental operations and the dynamism that leads from one type of self understanding to another

to develop an appreciation of history by seeing the series of interpretations in a sequential pattern and trying to determine what was going forward

TESTING

to verify what knowledge is (not that knowledge exists)

What may this mean?

What does this mean?

How does this fit?

JUDGING

defining history

Is this first in itself (i.e., truth)?

Is it first for us (i.e., an insight)?

EVALUATING

finding the present by discovering the hidden suppositions at work in the tradition

an awareness that humans are prone to understand data within the limits of their own horizons

engaging in a dialectic between past and present

moving toward the moment of decision by articulating one’s personal stance

SELF-EVALUATION

restlessly seeking fulfillment in the true, the real, and the good (“to be ethical,” Aristotle, 1958)

to do the right thing

to the right person

at the right time

in the right way

BEING

the function of managing and leading a diverse group of people to develop insight and creativity in dealing with reality

OBJECTIVITY

apprehending reality for what it truly reveals

acting conversant with reality

INVESTIGATING ORGANIZATION

Investigating organization is not to study the past. The truly significant investigation is that of the future, leaving the task of interpreting this generation’s insight to future generations.

The organization envisaged today remains to be perfected. Due to this generation’s lack of insight, most questions are very difficult, if not impossible, to answer fully.

There is a sense in which the really tough questions about organization reduce managers and leaders to silence until they can engage in the dialectic of past and present.

In this generation, all managers and leaders can hope to accomplish is to develop an interim organization, one substantively better because they were there and their insight offered a better way.

Or, to put it in another way, that the people in the organization and the organization itself is better off because these managers and leaders were were there.

This module has focused on...This module has focused on...

OrganizationOrganization and how insight animates a substantive organization...

ReferencesReferences

Aristotle. (1958). The Nicomachean ethics (W. D. Ross, Trans.). In J. D. Kaplan (Ed.), The pocket Aristotle (pp. 158-274). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Barnard, C. I. (1938/1968). The functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Kuhn, T. S. (1986). The structure of scientific revolutions (2nd ed.). New York: New American Library.

Lonergan, B. (1972). Method in theology. London: Darton, Longman, & Todd.

Neustadt, R. E., & May, E. R. (1988). Thinking in time: The uses of history for decision makers. New York: Free Press.