Researching organization ?

1. Researching organization ? JC Spender Lund, ESADE, Queen’s, OUBS, etc.

2. what’s the question ? • organization & management • does it matter ? • Morgan’s Images (1986) • machine bureaucracy vs psychic prison • uncertainty & bounded rationality • fetishizing rationality Lappeenranta 2

3. 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 Lappeenranta 2

4. 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 www.jcspender.com Lappeenranta 2

5. 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 ? Lappeenranta 2

6. 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 Lappeenranta 2

7. rhetoric • trivium & quadrivium • contextuality vs universality • persuasion vs proof • action vs theorizing • compartments • logos • ethos • pathos • fashioning to context • implicit MoI Lappeenranta 2

8. 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 Lappeenranta 2

9. 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 Lappeenranta 2

10. 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 ? Lappeenranta 2

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12. 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 Lappeenranta 2

13. an ‘economics history’ of the KBV monopoly Porter Bain RBV neoclassical Simon KBV U & creativity Knight Penrose Lappeenranta 2

14. 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 Lappeenranta 2

15. KBV ≢KM Theory of the Firm certainty rationality capital uncertainty a-rationality services Knowledge Management Lappeenranta 2

16. so what has KM become ? KBV ? IT HRM IPR ToF Lappeenranta 2

17. 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 Lappeenranta 2

18. 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 non-agentic ? Lappeenranta 2

19. 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 psychological domain economic abstractions social domain Lappeenranta 2

20. 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 ? Lappeenranta 2

21. 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? Lappeenranta 2

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