Organization: Insight and Structuring Conscious Activity

1. Organization:Insight and Structuring Conscious Activity MPA 8002 Organization Theory Richard M. Jacobs, OSA, Ph.D.

2. Since the time of Francis Bacon (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

3. Organization is viewed as a product of an objective, scientific method... • where humans control conditions in order to reproduce existing knowledge and reduce anomalies • with the goal of increasing productivity …by moving from defective forms of knowledge to more accurate forms …by working within and replicating a tradition

4. “To see what one knows”... a conjecture about organization hypothesis a conceptual schema to be subjected to further testing theory culminating in a body of knowledge tradition …and is used to analyze human beings and their conscious activities

5. an organization is... …an objective entity …a product of science …an instrument or tool of the hand …an entity serving as a means to productive ends

6. For Kuhn (1986), this paradigm 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

7. The word “organization”... • a Greek noun (organon)... • identifying... …a mentality or formation of the mind emanating from the human spirit …evidenced in the various ways human beings structure conscious activities

8. “To know what one sees”... human experience and conscious activities... a perception about human existence insight an unconditioned grasp of the nature of reality intelligence various ways to “look at” reality knowledge

9. Substantively, the study of organization is a subjective endeavor... • an invitation to participate in discovering within oneself... …previously experienced mental operations and the dynamics that follow from them …the movement from one form of self understanding to another …the capacity to engage in intellectual work on one’s own

10. Substantively... • 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

11. Substantively, managing and leading human organizations requires... • practical intelligence that is generated by the self-correcting process of learning (Lonergan, 1972) • questioning • evaluating • thinking • self-evaluation • formulating • being • testing • objectivity • judging

12. 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?

13. THINKING  to receive the tradition  an invitation to know by “taking a good look at” the concepts bequeathed from the past

14. 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

15. TESTING  to verify what knowledge is (not that knowledge exists) • What may this mean? • What does this mean? • How does this fit?

16. JUDGING  defining history • Is this first in itself (i.e., truth)? • Is it first for us (i.e., an insight)?

17. 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

18. 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

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

20. OBJECTIVITY  apprehending reality for what it truly reveals  acting conversant with reality

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

24. 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.

25. 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 there.

26. This module has focused on... Organization and how insight animates a substantive organization...

27. References • 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.