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Displaying: 21-40 of 334 documents


21. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 2
Colin Chasi The Beautyful
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The study of corporate governance is importantly concerned with individuals and institutions and how individuals and institutions relate with/in society in such a manner that the good obtains. This paper begins with an analysis of Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968) in order to introduce the post-colonial African condition of corruption and abject suffering as one that begs recognition of the place of corporate governance in advancing the good life. The question raised is of where the things are that would prepare the way to the good or ‘beautyful’ life. This question is raised in the understanding that situations inform how individuals behave. Two case studies of business organisations acting against HIV and AIDS are then looked at to suggest how business has a key role in turning individuals and thereby societies of Africa towards the good. The observation is that work being done to combat the harmful effects of HIV and AIDS is instructive of ways in which corruption and abject suffering may be arrested in post-colonial Africa by advancing a culture of recognition and granting of human dignity that is reflective of and supportive of good corporate governance practices and principles.
22. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 2
Henk J. van Rinsum, Jan Boessenkool Decolonising African Management: Okot p’Bitek and the Paradoxes of African Management
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In this article we argue that ideas about management are led by cognitive frameworks rooted in cultural, including intellectual, traditions. African management is part of ambiguous mental concepts. African management results from a quest for an essentialist authenticity in the framework of decolonisation. Through analysing the life and work of the Ugandan African nationalist, poet and anthropologist Okot p’Bitek (1931–1982), we argue that the concept of double consciousness as defined by W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) can be used as a strategy to analyse the ambiguous nature of management in Africa. Generally speaking, double or, even better, multiple consciousness could serve as an instrument of any manager (and scholar), both in Africa and outside Africa, avoiding the danger of essentialism. If truth be told, Okot p’Bitek was the true pioneer of conceptual decolonization in African philosophy. -- Kwasi WireduIt is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings…. This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture… -- W. E. B. Du Bois
23. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 2
Shana Cohen Rediscovering the Social Imperative in Managing Public and Non-Profit Services in Morocco
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This paper analyses social practices within public health services in Morocco, suggesting that current management orientations toward models like New Public Management (NPM) obscure the social relations that often make under-resourced healthcare effective. Health policy in Morocco has increasingly adopted principles that reflect neoliberal influence in international development. Citing the work of Moroccan philosopher Mohammed Abed al-Jabri and American philosopher John Searle, the paper calls for policymakers to recognise the capacity of institutions to frame social relations. Likewise, policy administration and management should be guided by reflection on the social role of institutions and related social practices at the level of service delivery.
24. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 2
Joseph Amon Kimeme, Shiv K. Tripathi The Influence of Sponsors’ Management Philosophy on Project Management in Tanzania: An Analysis of Critical Issues in Internationally Funded Projects
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Projects may exist in many forms, depending on the purpose and organisational context. Irrespective of the type and nature, however, the effective management of any project requires a high degree of commitment by the project members to the accomplishment of project objectives. The high degree of reliance on external international funding makes project management in non-profit organisations of developing societies a challenging task. The marriage of two entirely different sets of values and philosophical orientations creates an invisible tensile force, impacting the different stages of the project life cycle. The present paper, which is exploratory in nature, broadly aims to study the impact of sponsors’ values on the different project-management activities, including both the planning and the implementation stages of the project. The research involves conceptualisation of the different significant issues in effective project management. The analysis of the identified issues is first made on the basis of the experience of the selected stakeholders in Tanzanian non-profit organisations. The analysis is further linked to the selected context-specific contemporary philosophical thoughts affecting the socio-cultural values in the region. The analysis shows that the variation in the values of project owners and stakeholders is one of the major challenges in the effective implementation of a project in the given context. The study is novel in its approach and raises some fundamental issues arising due to the different philosophical orientations and value-sets of the different partner-project organisations. It is expected that the study will stimulate further academic debate on the broader theme of ‘values, philosophy and project management’. The study is also likely to contribute to knowledge development in the subject area of management in general and practical management philosophy in particular.
25. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 2
Carol Dalglish Management Issues in Developing a Sustainable Model for Supporting Entrepreneurs in Africa
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Small and micro-enterprises play a significant part in economic growth and poverty alleviation in developing African countries. There are, however, a range of management issues that arise when looking at the support required for local enterprise development, the role and management style of the local support agency and the role and style of the, usually Western, funding body. This paper explores the management philosophy required to establish and resource micro-enterprise development and compares the local management processes with those expected by a Western funding body. The purpose of this paper is to identify the strategies used by a mixed urban community association in Beira, Mozambique and the adaptations that are required by the Western sponsor to reflect local philosophical, cultural, traditional and environmental considerations. The paper goes on to propose a philosophical ‘pro-forma’ to improve the relationship between local community organisations and foreign donors to support enterprise development.
26. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Stephen Sheard, Mark Dibben Editorial: Philosophy of Management as Moving Beyond Critical Axiologies?
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27. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Stratos Ramoglou Philosophy as Undogmatic Procedure: Is Perfect Knowledge Good Enough?
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In the effort to defend and demonstrate the (prime) role of philosophy as an activity aiming at uncovering and questioning dogmas underlying our cognitive practices, the present article places under critical scrutiny the epistemic axiology informing organisation/management studies. That is, the plausibility of the largely unquestioned presumption that it is only the quest for truth that matters. This critical endeavour is effected by juxtaposing the conditions under which this would be the case, and in the prism of present conditions concludes that this is not unquestionably the case. Throughout the line of analysis developed, important implications for the present role of philosophical discourses are drawn.
28. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Stephen Sheard Realism’s Castle of Crossed Destinies: Evaluating Bhaskar’s Transcendental Realism Relative to its Philosophical Significance in Contemporary Organisational Studies
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In this article I look at CR (critical realism)1 as chiefly exhibited in the seminal theory of Ron Bhaskar – in particular, his early theory of transcendental realism. I examine its mechanisms of thought and pick out some difficulties with the theorisation relative to its deployment by OS theorists and relative to recent attempts to deploy CR as a theory which can bridge the fork in the constructivist and realist areas known as a form of ‘divide’ in the discipline (fault line). I also try and attempt a more in-depth philosophical analysis of the ideas of CR to gain an insight into its nature and what it can offer both as an apodictic system of philosophical insights with aspects of a belief system – but also relative to its realist-related claims towards veridical knowledge of kinds. I make comparisons with other theorists and philosophers including Kant, Derrida, Hume and Aristotle. I close with insights into how a closer scrutiny of CR thought as it is entering OS is necessary to understand the evolving nature of the inter-relationship of ontology and the ontic, in relation to the fault line described.
29. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Kenneth Jorgensen, Anete Strand, David Boje Towards a Postcolonial-storytelling Theory of Management and Organisation
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A contribution to management philosophy is made here by the development of a postcolonial-storytelling theory, created by drawing together parallel developments in quantum physics and tribal peoples’ storytelling. We argue that these developments resituate the hegemonic relationship of discursive representationalism over material storytelling practices. Implications are two-fold. First, this dissolves inherent dualisms presumed in the concept of interactionamong entities like actor–structure, subject–object and discursive–nondiscursive in favour of a profound ontology of entanglement and intra-action of materiality and discourse, where storytelling is a domain of this discourse. Second, postcolonial phenomena are understood as results of entangled genealogies in which plural voices are present. This implies an understanding and awareness of the intra-action of imperial narratives and material storytelling and antenarrative resistance, and thus the resistance and contestation to imperial and colonising monologic narratives of spatial and temporal alignment.
book reviews
30. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Paul Griseri Critical Discussion: Philosophy and Organization, edited by Campbell Jones and René Ten Bos
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31. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Jeffrey Nicholas Book Review: Organization, Society, and Politics: An Aristotelian Perspective by Kevin Morrell
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32. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 12 > Issue: 1
Thomas Klikauer Philosophy, Business Ethics and Organisation Theory: A Review Article
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33. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 3
Mark R. Dibben, Stephen Sheard Reason in Practice: A Unique Role for a ‘Philosophy of Management’
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34. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 3
Laurent Ledoux Philosophy: Today’s Manager’s Best Friend?
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The purpose of this paper is to rationalise why and how philosophy can help today’s managers in their daily practices.I will first explain why today’s managers particularly should engage themselves in profound and enduring dialogue with philosophers. To this end, I will present the close links between the major managerial activities and the major philosophical domains.In the second section, I will sketch out how such a dialogue can be facilitated. To this end, I will present some of the methods and conditions used to ensure the success of the practice of philosophy in organisations.
35. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 3
Scott MacMillan, Anthony R. Yue, Albert J. Mills Both How and Why: Considering Existentialism as a Philosophy of Work and Management
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In this paper, we examine the intersection of existentialism and management, in particular to illustrate how existential thought offers three key insights to the pragmatic world of work and applied act of management: (1) Existentialism places a primacy upon the individual and the existential self that is continually being formed within the workplace. (2) Existentialism allows for a coherent examination of individual and organisational-level decision making and ethics as an integral part of the philosophy. (3) Existentialism is inherently ‘applied’ and focused on ‘process’ in that it allows for an understanding of the meaning of work.
36. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 3
G. Loek J. Schönbeck Is Pathology Dysfunctional?
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An enterprising odyssey might be one way to investigate whether a unique role is afforded to ‘a’ philosophy of management. The question is, first, which philosophy is at stake and what finery such a philosophy might bear. Second, three cardinal questions arise: (1) “What can we say about it?“; (2) “How do we know we can or cannot say something about it?“; and (3) “What is its relation to rationality?” Third, by an old scepticist tradition one may choose tantalising innersubjects to punctuate these questions. In this case, the inner subject will run: “Is pathology dysfunctional?“ A survey of related problems and possible solutions mingled with suspension follows on from this. Supported by appropriate non-philosophical disciplines, it will serve as a crowbar to reappraise the relation between critical management studies and organisational studies on the one hand and philosophy of management on the other.
37. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 3
Steven E. Wallis The Right Tool for the Job: Philosophy’s Evolving Role in Advancing Management Theory
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In this paper, I build on Wittgenstein’s metaphor of a toolbox to introduce the metaphor of ‘tool confusion’ – how differing conceptual constructs may be applied, or misapplied, to one another and the effect that such applications have on the advancement of management theory. Moving beyond metaphor, I investigate a theory of management through two specific philosophical lenses (Popper and Lyotard). This analysis tests both the theory and the philosophies with regard to how each philosophy may be applied as a tool to advance theory towards more effective application. Preliminary conclusions confirm that the application of partial philosophies is not as useful as the application of complete philosophies. Deeper contemplation, however, suggests that there is no upper limit to the completeness of philosophies. Thus, the problem of completeness is inescapable. In place of completeness, I explore the use of perceptual tools that are more specific, foundational and concise. Engaging in a second investigation, I use structures of logic (circular, linear, branching and co-causal) to investigate the subject theory. This investigation suggests at least two important insights relating to the structure of theory and the fuzziness of theory. Combined, these investigations and related conversations suggest rigorous methods for advancing theories and a more normative role for the philosophy of management that will support the accelerated advancement of management theory and practice.
38. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 2
Paul Griseri Editorial
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39. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 2
David Ardagh Presuppositions of Collective Moral Agency: Analogy, Architectonics, Justice, and Casuistry
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This is the second of three papers with the overall title: “A Quasi-Personal Alternative to Some Anglo-American Pluralist Models of Organisations: Towards an Analysis of Corporate Self-Governance for Virtuous Organisations”.1 In the first paper, entitled: “Organisations as quasi-personal entities: from ‘governing’ of the self to organisational ‘self ’-governance: a Neo-Aristotelian quasi-personal model of organisations”, the artificial corporate analogue of a natural person sketched there, was said to have quasi-directive, quasi-operational and quasi-enabling/resource-provision capacities. Its use of these capacities following joint deliberation in ethically permissible and just joint acts, their effect on end-users and other parties, and conformity with or challenge to State law, arguably settles its moral status as an ethical or unethical organisational agent. This paper identifies and defends the presuppositions of this conception, and applies the results to business.
40. Philosophy of Management: Volume > 11 > Issue: 2
Hugh Bowden The Ethics of Management: a Stoic Perspective
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The purpose of this article is to explore the notion that certain aspects of Stoic thinking can give useful insights into some salient issues in current management theories. The Stoics, as represented in this paper chiefly by Epictetus, concerned themselves with: management of self, management processes and information. The main focus is on ethics – how the individual and the organisation ought to behave. Pierre Hadot, in ‘Philosophy as a Way of Life’ notes ‘a degree of resonance between Stoic prescriptions and recent theories of leadership and governance’. This article attempts to explain the resonance by identifying a convergence between some management theories and certain aspects of Stoic thought. Certain key terms of Stoicism can find direct correlates in modern managerial terminology. It is suggested that the convergence can occur in terms of the topic – the reference point or issue, the reference group of thinkers concerned with the issues and the cultural and social context.