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200601: Generative Managerial Action: A Pragmatist Perspective
Barbara Simpson and Gerry Johnson
This paper responds to a need that is increasingly articulated in the organisation studies literature for more and better theories that explain what people, and especially managers, actually ‘do’, and how organising is actually accomplished? The authors propose that the social psychology of George Herbert Mead, which remains largely untapped in the organisational domain, provides a rich source of insight into these problems. Two inter-related themes, intersubjectivity and temporality, are used to lay out the relevant dimensions of Mead’s theory of sociality. Synergies and complementarities are then traced between this theory and several contemporary theories of organisational process (Feldman’s routines, Gioia’s identity construction, Weick’s sensemaking, and complexity theory as appropriated from theoretical biology). The authors suggest that each of these theories could be made more dynamic and more able to address the ‘how’ of organising by deliberately incorporating notions of sociality in their formulations. The primary purpose of this paper is to elicit collegial comment, so feedback is sincerely welcomed.
USGSB_WP_200601.pdf - 504k.
200506: ‘Role’ as boundary object in the identity construction process
Barbara Simpson and Brigid Carroll
Although role theory appears to have sunk without a trace in the contemporary critical literature, role is nevertheless a persistent theme in the discourses of organizational members. This paper argues that it is timely, therefore, to re–view role particularly as it articulates with the processes of constructing identity. Drawing on three interview segments that evoke a variety of roles, we develop the notion of role as a boundary object (an idea that we have appropriated from the sociology of science and technology literature). We show that this provides a much richer and more complex understanding that recognises role as inherently plural, discontinuous and emergent. Further, this view of role can usefully inform the wider conversation on constructing identity by providing a way of exploring the dynamics of continuity.
USGSB_WP_200506.pdf - 503k.
200505: Locating Learning in Space and Time or Locating Learning in Space–Time?
Barbara Simpson
In this essay, I take up the invitation to delve more deeply into human processes, especially the impact that different conceptions of space and time may have on our approach to process research. Recognising the need for new sources of insight, I step outside the mainstream of organisational literature to explore ideas from other disciplinary traditions. In particular, I draw on a stream of process philosophy that is defined primarily in terms of the writings of Henri Bergson, Alfred North Whitehead and their later interpreters, Milič Čapek and Nicholas Rescher.
USGSB_WP_200505.pdf - 563k.
200504: Strategic Thinking in Heritage with Special Reference to UK Museums
Alf Hatton
Where much management research has focused on large organisations and their management, some have argued for other types of organizations to be researched. This paper considers museums, which constitute one of those "other types of organization". They are interesting because they are: professionalized, value–driven, offer very largely ‘intangible’ products or services, and are a confused mix of public, nonprofit and voluntary sector institutions. These features might be thought to endow museums with quite different dimensions to more traditionally researched organisations.
USGSB_WP_200504.pdf - 734k.
200502: A little about the Mystery: Understanding tailored collaborative process learning
Chris Huxham and Paul Hibbert
In the complex, usually problematic situation of interorganizational collaboration the need for managerial learning in the pursuit of collaborative advantage is high. Two particular characterizations of learning, in relation to interorganizational collaboration, are well described in the extant literature. We characterize these as transferable process learning and substantive (goal oriented) learning and introduce a third mode, the principal focus and contribution of this paper: local collaborative process learning. It is focussed on understandings of the particular collaborative situation — including an appreciation of such elements as purpose, partners and processes — which participants gain as they progress the collaboration. Through research in four specific partnership development programmes, we develop an initial characterisation of the notion and suggest additional layers of complexity that are implicitly involved in such learning. Interrelationships between the three modes of learning in collaborations are then explored, to suggest some initial, broad, practice implications.
USGSB_WP_200502.pdf - 222k.
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