Insight into organization: A method for inquiry and ethical leadership

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Insight into organizationA method for inquiry
and ethical leadership
MPA 8002 The Structure and Theory of Human
Organization Richard M. Jacobs, OSA, Ph.D.
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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
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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
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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
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• 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
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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
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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
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Substantively, investigating organization...

• is an intellectual endeavor by which human beings
  attempt to achieve intelligent understanding
  about the ways human beings structure their
  conscious activities

• as this endeavor is fueled by a keen desire to
  improve the lot of humanity and civilization

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• to get behind the mediated intelligence,
  understanding, and knowledge...

so as to gain insight into organization
and to develop new intelligence about
organization
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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

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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?

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THINKING
? to receive the tradition
? an invitation to know by taking a good look
at the concepts bequeathed from the past
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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
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TESTING
? to verify what knowledge is (not that
knowledge exists)

• What may this mean?

• What does this mean?

• How does this fit?

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JUDGING
? defining history

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

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

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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 ones personal stance
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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

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? by articulating ones personal stance through
four functions

• foundations the words by which one expresses
  ones character and attitudes

• theories transforming foundations into
  understandable categories (Bolman Deal, 1997)

• systems engaging others in purposive cooperation
  (Barnard, 1938)

• communications adapting the purpose to contexts
  so as to enhance unity in diversity

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BEING
? the function of managing and leading a diverse
group of people to develop insight and creativity
in dealing with reality
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OBJECTIVITY
? apprehending reality for what it truly reveals
? acting conversant with reality
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Questioning has consequences...

• gives rise to ideas

some of which are intended
many of which are not intended
but each of which human beings in this
generation bear responsibility
and future generations will pass judgment on
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and responsibilities...

• to avoid

? conceptualism
? positivism
? modernity
? skepticism
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• conceptualism

the illusion that quoting others thoughts
demonstrates ones understanding and capacity to
manage and lead an organization
by integrating a variety of perspectives into a
comprehensive understanding of organization.
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• positivism

the superstition that there exist unitary
methods to discern truth infallibly about
organization
by inculcating openness to multiple perspectives.
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• modernity

the idolatry that this generation stands at the
apex of human civilization
by humbly retrieving, examining, and utilizing
the genius of insight embedded in past
organization.
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• skepticism

the cynical suspicion that there is no truth
by engaging in a restless search for insight
that will allow the next generation to complete
this generations job and make progress beyond
this generations limitations.
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INVESTIGATION ORGANIZATION
Investigating organization is not to study the
past. The truly significant investigation is
that of the future, leaving the task of
interpreting this generations insight to future
generations.
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The organization envisaged today remains to be
perfected. Due to this generations lack of
insight, most questions are very difficult, if
not impossible, to answer fully.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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This module has focused on...
Insight into organization as a method for inquiry
and ethical leadership...
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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.
• Lonergan, B. (1972). Method in theology.
  London Darton, Longman, Todd.