Toward more reflexive, empowering, and ethical metaphorical organizational research

This essay offers a reflection on which ethics can critically guide the field of management learning in the Anthropocene. Based on a negative ontology of humankind and nature, I understand the Anthropocene as being unmanageable and imposing an ethical dimension of the impossible on the field of management learning. Inspired by the Lacanian concept of tragic ethics, which is based on certain categories – radical contingency, indeterminacy and the impossible – I propose a tragic ethics for the Anthropocene. Such ethics, articulated to an indigenous ontology and ethics, presents the possibility of an open way of knowing and learning in the context of management learning, which is necessary not only for the radical contingency of the Anthropocene but also for the inclusion of other voices and knowledge, both human and nonhuman.

Section: On the Impossible In MLmentioning

confidence: 99%

A tragic ethics for the Anthropocene: On the unmanageable and impossible in management learning

Fontenelle¹

2022

“…Moral reflexivity highlights an ethical awareness that can encourage responsible management (Cunliffe, 2009; Driver, 2017; Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015; McDonald, 2013, 2016). For instance, moral reflexivity fosters the questioning of prior assumptions, actions, and organizational practices, altering the way we think about knowledge in such a way that it generates a new understanding (Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015).…”

Section: Reflexivity and Moral Reflexivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Epistemic reflexivity, based on a realist ontology and subjectivist epistemology, includes ideas such as self-reflection (Habermas, 1974), infra-reflexivity (Latour, 1988), radical reflexivity (Pollner, 1991), and reflexive realism (Beck, 1996), to mention a few. In contrast, one strand of reflexivity scholarship that we believe has much promise is the idea of moral reflexivity (Cunliffe, 2009, 2016; Driver, 2017), which may encourage a transition to responsible business (Hibbert and Cunliffe, 2015) and authentic leadership (Tomkins and Nicholds, 2017), and facilitate ethical decision-making (Gunia et al, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindful reflexivity: Unpacking the process of transformative learning in mindfulness and discernment

Burton

2019

Can spiritual practice encourage transformative learning? In this article, we unpack how spiritual practices from the Buddhist tradition—mindfulness—and the Quaker tradition—discernment—encourage the attainment of moral reflexivity and the capacity to transform self in individual and relational organizational contexts, respectively. We also show how moral reflexivity and self-transformation are mutually reinforcing and promote a transformational cycle of management learning. We propose that “mindful reflexivity”, a foundational model of spiritually informed moral reflexivity, can contribute to new ways of management learning through its context sensitivity and ethical orientation to foster the kinds of reflexivity needed for responsible management. Our article concludes with implications for management learning theory and practice, and we offer pathways for future research.

“…Management Learning has generated important insights into how the dynamics of organising have contributed to exclusion and exploitation and formulating responses to them. For example, in theorising ethical management research (Driver, 2017) and pedagogy (Perriton and Reynolds, 2018), probing wellbeing and justice in organisations (Zawadzki and Jensen, 2020), developing alternative approaches to academic writing (see Gilmore et al, 2019), and problematising how knowledge circulates (Alcadipani, 2017). In the face of contemporary and future global challenges, and in line with ethical commitments, there is a need to continue to push our field further and to actively resist and break down borders around management knowledge.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Provocation Essays Editorial: On the importance of moving and being moved

Brewis¹,

Bell

2020

In this editorial, we reflect on the purpose of the Provocation Essays section in Management Learning from the perspective of an incoming Section Editor and an outgoing Editor-in-Chief. We provide insight into the editorial thinking that led to the development of this section 4 years ago and reflect on what it has achieved since then. We take stock of the possibilities that this has opened up and encourage authors, reviewers and readers to engage with the section as a source of critical, reflexive insight and opportunity. Willmott's (1994) article in this journal 'Management education: Provocations to a debate', provided the initial impetus behind the decision to create a separate section in this journal. The purpose was to provide a forum for essay-like, polemical writing on important and topical issues concerning management learning, education and knowledge in organisations. The value of such writing arises from its potential in contributing to 'a process of critical reflection' (Willmott, 1994: 105). Essay writing is inherently more 'discursive and speculative' (p. 129) than conventionally found in standard academic articles and can be more conversational, experimental or poetic. For Willmott, the issue at hand is the normalisation and standardisation of technocratically-driven forms of management education. He argues that we need to reconsider development-driven approaches, which address the broader, societal impact and contributions of management education. As Willmott's essay highlights, provocation seeks to acknowledge uncertainty. This requires 'a very different orientation to feelings of ignorance, uncertainty, confusion, ambiguity and even chaos' (p. 122). Willmott's claims are particularly resonant in the current moment when the management learning community faces global challenges related to the unsustainability of 'business as usual' in the face of current global crises including climate change, social inequalities and the Covid-19 pandemic.