Researching organization ?

Researching organization ?

JC SpenderLund, ESADE, Queen’s, OUBS, etc.

what’s the question ?

• organization & management• does it matter ?• Morgan’s Images (1986)• machine bureaucracy vs psychic prison• uncertainty & bounded rationality• fetishizing rationality

5-May-08 Lappeenranta 2 2

what I am doing• taking Herbert Simon - and Frank Knight and

Chester Barnard - seriously• US ?? - European traditions

– Ancients– Arabic– mediaeval– Enlightenment– post-modernism

• managing under conditions of uncertainty• strong indicators

– Nelson & Winter (1982: note, p4)– entrepreneurial research - Cantillon, J-B Say– leadership research - Cicero, Machiavelli– strategy research - von Clausewitz

5-May-08 3Lappeenranta 2

my basics

• uncertainty (e.g. bounded rationality)• human response (agency & humanism vs

systems theory)• shaping (leadership)• language and example• contextuality and contingency• management education

• our agenda 10:15 - 15:00– now - 11:30– 11:45 - 12:30 discussion– lunch– 13:45 - 14:30 KBV– 14:30 - 15:00 discussion


a glance at ‘innovation’

• individual or collective ?• managed or accidental ?• emic vs etic planning

– internal opportunity space vs external space– invention vs demand driven– Kirzner vs Schumpeter

• creativity (humanism) vs analysis (objectivism) • encourage vs manage ?


talking about uncertainty

• distinguish from certainty, imperfection• alternative epistemologies

– justifications (warrants), JTB– heterogeneity

• objectivism vs interpretivism• ignorance & indeterminacy• Simon’s ‘bounded rationality’• Knight’s ‘risk, uncertainty & profit’• categories of human agency• models of the individual (MoI)• so what about systems theory ?• communication & persuasion


rhetoric• trivium & quadrivium• contextuality vs universality• persuasion vs proof• action vs theorizing• compartments

– logos– ethos– pathos

• fashioning to context• implicit MoI


overall project - replace RM with ?

• Simon’s MoI• other MoIs - political, social, talking, playing, etc.• agency - direction vs constraint• docility• constraints

– physical– social– psychological– ?

• language & example


OK - where are we ?

• uncertainty agency• language and persuasion• leading by example• docility and indoctrination• political, ethical and moral issues• other dimensions of constraint• organization as channeled agency

– rational choice– constrained creative choice

• leadership as constraint management


some questions

• why would anyone contribute to a firm ?• do markets generate value - or distribute it ?• are leadership and management different ?• what problem does ‘strategy’ solve ?• can there be an economics of knowledge ?• can innovation be managed ?



KBV as radical theorizing ?

• interplay of microeconomics and OT/OB• dynamic vs equilibrium• attention to uncertainty and K-absences• critique of rationality - ‘bounded rationality’ -

ignorance and ‘indeterminacy’• attention to human agency• leadership, strategy, entrepreneurship• contextual, situated, embedded, contingent


an ‘economics history’ of the KBV


BainBain PorterPorter

PenrosePenrose

SimonSimon

RBVRBV

KBVKBV

neoc

lass

ical

KnightKnight

mon

opol

yU

& c

reati

vity

a history of KM• Sci Mgt, bureaucracy, planning, OR & mgt. sci.• EDP IT - appropriation of KM language• post-industrial society (Bell, Reich)

• KM as the mgt of ‘intangible assets’ or ‘intellectual capital’• Solow, Schultz, Becker & human capital theory • Polanyi (1958) - ‘tacit knowledge’ dimension of HC• Penrose (1959) - impact of managerial knowledge (OC)• Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) - SECI generation of OC• Prusak (2001)

– IT cost/benefit– globalization– economics of ‘knowledge’

• white collar deskilling, surveillance society, ownership of capital


KBV ≢ KM


Theory of the Firm

Knowledge Management

certaintyrationality

capital

certaintyrationality

capital

uncertaintya-rationality

services

uncertaintya-rationality

services

so what has KM become ?


IT HRM IPR ToF

KBV ?

how to make sense of KM ?• no possible definition of K, epistemological paradox, no

distinction between K and ~K, • types of knowledge, Greek & mediaeval traditions,

emotions, types of knowing• Ackoff (1989) – D I K W• Polanyi, Tsoukas, Gourlay etc.• Spender (1993)

• Spender (2007) - Data, Meaning & Practice


individual social

explicit conscious objectified

implicit automatic collective

data, meaning & practice• 3 contrasting epistemologies: realism, interpretivism,

constructivism• distinction (a) -

– objectivism vs. subjectivism, – representationalism vs. idealism

• distinction (b) - – thinking vs. acting

• human agency ?• K-as-data, K-as-meaning, K-as-skilled practice• KM project differences


subjectivism realism

thinking interpretivism objectivism

acting constructivism

non-agentic ?

capital as economic certainty

• Fisher’s definition• Smith - land, labor & capital• separation and re-attachment• valuing capital• Penrose (1959 p.25)

• knowledge as ‘capital’• human capital - collectively

produced, individually held • social capital - individually

produced, collectively held


social domain

psychological domain

economic abstractions

organizational capital

• both intangible and tangible valuations are problematic• Penrose effect, transformation of value• economic performance - imputation of ‘capital’• core may be what cannot be measured, the essence of

human agency• ‘Penrose profit’ - created not stolen• organization as evidence of collective agency• ownership ?


some more questions

• rewarding team production• can transactions costs be compared ?• motivation vs commitment• social institutions, de Soto (2000)• is managing economic processes different from

administration?



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Researching organization ?

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