Pragmatism and Organization Studies

Abstract

The development of pragmatist thought (Peirce, James, Dewey, and Mead) in the first half of the twentieth century in the United States deeply impacted political science, semiotics, philosophy, psychology, sociology, education, law. Later intellectual trends (analytical philosophy, structuralism, cognitivism) focusing on rational representations or archetypical models somehow sidelined Pragmatism for three decades. In the world of organizations, they often conveyed the Cartesian dream of rational control, which became the mainstream view in management and organization research. In response to the growing uncertainty and complexity of situations, social sciences have experienced a “pragmatist turn.” Many streams of organization research have criticized the view of organizations as information-processing structures, controlled through rational representations. They share some key theoretical principles: the processual view of organizing as “becoming”; the emphasis on the key role of action; the agential power of objects; the exploratory and inquiring nature of organizing. These are precisely the key theses of pragmatists, who formulated a radical critique of the dualisms which hinder organization studies (thought/action, decision/execution, reality/representation, individual/collective, micro/macro) and developed key concepts applicable to organization studies (inquiry, semiotic mediation, habit, abduction, trans-action, valuation). This book aims to make the pragmatist intellectual framework more accessible to organization and management scholars. It presents some fundamental pragmatist concepts, and their potential application to the study of organizations, drawing conclusions concerning managerial practices, in particular the critique of the Taylorian tradition and the promotion of continuous improvement. To enhance accessibility, each theme is illustrated by real cases experienced by the author.

The Development of Responsible and Sustainable Business Practice: Value, Mind-Sets, Business-Models

“…An important theme within some of the papers in the SI relates to their employment of philosophical pragmatism (also known as American pragmatism) as a key to understanding the way in which valuation has come to operate in business and society debates. A recent publication by Philippe Lorino (2018) meaningfully summarizes the relevance of pragmatism for organizational life and, as such, offers a helpful philosophical framework for this SI. Even the papers that make no explicit mention of pragmatism share some of its epistemological and ontological assumptions around agency and the nature of enquiry.…”

“…It is therefore worthwhile to provide a short overview of some of the key beliefs of pragmatism, and to consider its potential impact on responsible and sustainable business practices. The important contribution that pragmatist conceptions of valuation make is that they rid us of the idea that value reflects the objective scientific or physical characteristics of objects or situations (Lorino 2018;Muniesa 2011). Nor do they reflect affective manifestations of the preference of isolated human subjects.…”

“…A growing body of scholarship draws upon the ideas of Dewey (1922Dewey ( [1957) to argue that value is the result of the social process of action (Lorino 2018;Winter 2013;Cohen 2007). It is therefore something that comes into existence through doing, rather than thinking.…”

“…It is therefore something that comes into existence through doing, rather than thinking. Being the result of situated practices, 'value' is also subject to time-space variables and depends on the strategic context and narrative accounts of actors engaged in activity (Lorino 2018). This is important not just for understanding how different types of businesses can be valued and how different types of value are created for society, but also how valuation operates within consumption practices and other dimensions of everyday business (Helgesson and Kjellberg 2013).…”

“…The two meanings of value, i.e. 'prizing' and 'appraising', fuse within the pragmatist account of value (Dewey 1944), as both can only make sense in terms of a prized end which has to be effectively reached and, as such, valuation is part of the continuous design and engineering of social activity (Lorino 2018). It enacts a future.…”