Philosophy and organization theory (Emerald, 2011)
Introduction : why philosophy matters to organization theory / Haridimos Tsoukas, Robert Chia -- Analytic philosophy and organization theory : philosophical problems and scientific solutions / Gabriele Lakomski, Colin W. Evers -- Pragmatism : a lived and living philosophy : what can it offer to contemporary organization theory? / Bente Elkjaer, Barbara Simpson -- MacIntyre, neo-Aristotelianism and organization theory / Ron Beadle, Geoff Moore -- Marxist philosophy and organization studies : Marxist contributions to the understanding of some important organizational forms / Paul S. Adler -- Beyond universalism and relativism : Habermas's contribution to discourse ethics and its implications for intercultural ethics and organization theory / Andreas Georg Scherer, Moritz Patzer -- Hermeneutic philosophy and organizational theory / Frank J. Barrett, Edward H. Powley, Barnett Pearce -- Phenomenology and organization theory / Robin Holt, Jörgen Sandberg -- Organizing Derrida organizing : deconstruction and organization theory / Andreas Rasche -- Thinking becoming and emergence : process philosophy and organization studies / Ajit Nayak, Robert Chia -- Theory as therapy : Wittgensteinian reminders for reflective theorizing in organization and management theory / John Shotter, Haridimos Tsoukas -- Triangulating philosophies of science to understand complex organizational and managerial problems / John Bechara, Andrew H. Van de Ven -- Richard Rorty, women, and the new pragmatism / Barbara Czarniawska
What is the relationship between philosophy and organization theory (OT)? While at first glance there might appear to be little, a closer look reveals a rich pattern of connections. More than any other type of human inquiry, philosophy helps make us self-aware of critical assumptions we tacitly incorporate in our organizational theorizing; it creates a deeper awareness of the unconscious metaphysics underpinning our efforts to understand organizations. There are at least three ways in which philosophical analysis is connected with organizational research: ontological, epistemological, and praxeological. To wonder about what the phenomena we investigate are constituted by, how we may obtain knowledge of them, and how that knowledge is related to action, is to begin to think philosophically about OT. Philosophical questions are higher-order questions - meta to OT as a scientific discipline; they are generated from outside the frameworks within which organizational scientists carry out their research practices. When the very frameworks of scientific inquiry, hitherto tacitly accepted for the practice of scientific research to be carried out, become questionable, philosophical reflection enters the scene. Philosophy keeps meaning open in a scientific field. Papers in this volume explore connections between several streams in philosophy and OT. As the titles of the papers suggest, most authors write about a particular philosopher or group of philosophers that make up a distinct school of thought, summarize important aspects of his/their work, and tease out the implications for OT. The central question authors explore is: what does a particular philosophy contribute to OT? Either addressing this question in historical or exploratory terms, or in a combination of both, the end result is similar: particular philosophical issues, properly explained, are discussed in relation to important questions in OT.
Includes bibliographical references