For Prof. Kim: Organizational Theory
Multiple Perspectives: Symbolic Interpretivist and Post - Modernist RMIT University 2 Recap: Multiple Perspectives Multiple Perspectives • Ways of seeing the world. They provide broad frameworks to guide our thinking and research. • A convenient means of categorising similar ideas, traditions and ways of thinking. • Each incorporates a toolbox of inter -related concepts for making systematic sense of organisations. *There is no one ‘correct’ perspective to use. Brief recap of Modernist and Critical Theorist Perspectives RMIT University 3 Critical Theorist: Systems of Oppression Systems of Production: Places of Work Capitalist organisations alienate and exploit workers.
Human emancipation requires the establishment of a more democratic and egalitarian organisation Symbolic Interpretivist Post Modernist Modernist Critical Theorist Lecture Aims • The aims of the lecture are to cover: • Symbolic Interpretivist • Postmodernist RMIT University 4 RMIT University 5 Symbolic Interpretivst Meta -theoretical Underpinnings • Ontology : subjectivism - what is real is that which we agree is real (i.e. that which is meaningful). • Epistemology : interpretivism : truth is relative to time and place and the individuals who are involved in constructing meaning. – Organisations are ‘meaningful’ and are (re)constructed by their members through meaningful interaction with one another. RMIT University 6 Multiple perspectives Symbolic interpretive • Theory: The goal is to arrive at context specific and relative statements of the logic of organisational reality. • Method: Qualitative (e.g. Ethnography) • Ind uctive: a process of developing theory from observation and interpretation. RMIT University 7 Symbolic interpretive Social Constructionism:
A social construct is an idea which may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention of a particular culture or society Reality is socially constructed through an ongoing and dynamic process People act on their interpretations and knowledge about a given phenomena and thereby internalise and reproduce that idea/notion/reality 8 Depiction of Symbolic Interpretive Ontology Reality is socially constructed through an ongoing and dynamic process RMIT University 9 Symbolic interpretive For this course, Symbolic Interpretivism is Social Constructionism The Social Construction of Reality (Berger and Luckmann,1966): Influenced by Max Weber (1864 -1920) – Examined how ‘ideas’ and ‘values’ influence social and organisational behaviour. The social world is negotiated , organised and reproduced (i.e. constructed) by our interpretations of events, the action of others and the symbols around us. The social world is ‘objectified’ through repeating past behaviours and shared experience, understanding (i.e. meaning) and interaction. Intersubjectivity : an individual’s internalisation and interpretation of shared experience and meaning. RMIT University 10 Symbolic interpretive Practical utility:
Used to frame or interpret, perceptions of organisational life. Highlights the fluid, diverse and subjective aspects of organisational activity and decision -making. Makes us consider the ‘value’ ladenness of ‘facts’ that organisations rely upon. To bring about organisational change requires ‘rewiring’ the minds of the ‘constructors’. RMIT University 11 Symbolic Interpretive Example:
Within organisations , we are seeing “communities of practice” emerge. “A community of practice is a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common endeavor. Communities of practice emerge in response to common interest or position, and play an important role in forming their members’ participation in, and orientation to, the world around them.
It provides an accountable link, therefore, between the individual, the group, and place in the broader social order, and it provides a setting in which linguistic practice emerges as a function of this link.
Studies of communities of practice, therefore, have considerable explanatory power for the broader demographics of language variability” RMIT University 12 “Two conditions of a community of practice are crucial in the conventionalization of meaning: shared experience over time, and a commitment to shared understanding.” “A community of practice engages people in mutual sense -making – about the enterprise they’re engaged in, about their respective forms of participation in the enterprise, about their orientation to other communities of practice and to the world around them more generally.” Symbolic Interpretive Example:
We are describing “communities of practice” RMIT University 13 How social groups in organisations are negotiated , organised and reproduced (i.e. constructed) by our interpretations of events, the action of others and the symbols around us. How social groups in organisations are ‘objectified’ through repeating past behaviours and shared experience, understanding (i.e. meaning) and interaction. Symbolic Interpretive Example:
“Communities of practice”, therefore, as an emerging discourse describes: RMIT University 14 Postmodernism Meta -theoretical Underpinnings: Ontology : there is not an objective reality independent of our knowledge of it. Reality is an ‘illusion’ created through language and discourse . Epistemology : interpretations of the ‘illusion’ are made through conceptualisation/theorisation.
• Organisations are ‘imagined’ entities whereby power and social arrangements are reinforced through language. RMIT University 15 Postmodernism Theory:
Reject the distinction between ‘truth’ and ‘untruth’. What a person regards as ‘true’ is either a function of the person’s point of view or is determined by what the person is constrained to regard as ‘true’ by various complex social and organisational pressures. Rejects rationality and the Enlightenment vision that human freedom and emancipation can be achieved through the application of reason and search for ultimate meaning. Postmodernism Postmodernist approaches to Knowledge:
Seeks to ‘open’ up alternative interpretations (and possibilities) of organisations and events surrounding organisations . Built upon reflexivity: questioning the assumptions that underlie our interpretation and ‘understanding’ of organisations . Focuses on dominant language and discourse used to ‘explain’ organisations and how this constrains organisations. RMIT University 16 RMIT University 17 Postmodernism Method: The goal is to uncover multiple interpretations of organisational ‘reality’.
Discourse Analysis and Deconstruction.
*Deconstruction: the reading and rereading of texts using different contexts and audiences as a way to uncover multiple interpretations and meanings. A methodological device to expose our ways of thinking and acting. Used to ‘deconstruct’ the assumptions underlying organisational forms and practices, management theory and ideologies and their implications for power within organisations . Postmodernism & Critique Practical utility:
Provides alternatives to established thinking which may be constraining, harmful & unproductive. Makes ‘us’ question organisational knowledge, the application of this knowledge (decision -making) and organisational outcomes. ‘knowledge serves power by shaping the boundaries of what may legitimately be thought and spoken in organisational settings’ (Taylor, 2005: 126). RMIT University 18 RMIT University 19 There is no reality – rejects separation between truth/untruth Truth and power are found in language and discourse Truth is therefore discovered through epistemology of language deconstruction Depiction of Postmodern Ontology RMIT University 20 Postmodern Ontology Practical utility:
In relation to “Communities of Practice”:
Do groups of people use or create new meanings in language and discourse within organisations ? Postmodernists, therefore, are not interested in the social interactions, but discourse and language that results.
• Is there power in meaning? • Folksonomies? • Does analysis of organisational discourse uncover power relations? RMIT University 21 Ontology References • Berger, P. L., & Luckmann, T. (1991). The social construction of reality: A treatise in the sociology of knowledge (No. 10).
Penguin UK. • Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives . Oxford university press. • Taylor, B. C. (2005). Postmodern theory. Engaging organizational communication theory and research: Multiple perspectives, 113 -140. RMIT University 22
