Developing Organisational Wisdom – how do developers respond?
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The document discusses the concept of organizational wisdom, its significance, and its implications for development practices and individual developers. It explores definitions of wisdom from various perspectives, including philosophical and psychological views, and highlights the importance of ethical behavior in work environments. The author invites reflection on how a focus on wisdom could enhance professional development and ethics in business education post-financial crisis.
Developing Organisational Wisdom – how do developers respond?
- 1. Developing organisational wisdom – how do developers respond? SDF Spring Conference 18 April 2013 Jane Gaukroger
- 2. 2 Organisational wisdom – focus of this session • How do we define it? • Why is it important to us? • What might if mean for our development practice? • What does it mean for me as an individual developer? … the contribution of the OD practitioner to organisational wisdom
- 3. Context for this research • A personal search after a career spent in people management and development • A concern about some of what is happening in our organisations – questions of ethics, integrity and behaviour • Howard Gardner (2011) and The Good Work Project ‘Good work is good in the excellent, technical sense; the worker knows his stuff, is highly skilled, and keeps up with the latest knowledge and techniques. Good work is good in the phenomenal sense; it feels good, feels right, is personally engaging, yields experience of flow. Finally, good work is good in a moral sense; it is carried out ethically, in a way that is responsible, and in a way that serves the wider good, even (indeed perhaps especially) when it goes against the immediate interests of the worker’. 3
- 4. 4 Banks role in financial crisis Top pay MPs expenses Media/phone hacking NHS care
- 5. What are all of these issues saying … • Are we missing something in our organisations? • Is it a quality which cannot be achieved simply through rules, regulations, legislation? • Is it wisdom? 5
- 6. What responsibility have we had as developers? • Have we played a role in setting these cultures? • Have we been paying enough attention to what really matters (what do we think really matters?) • Or have we been trying our hardest – but lacking influence? • We can do better than this! 6
- 7. HEIs – positive association with wisdom 7
- 8. Wisdom challenges in HE? • Commercialisation • Shifting academic role • Maintaining quality in new markets • Continuing investment in non-vocational, applied, scientific disciplines • Academic freedom… ‘The more managerial neo-liberal institutional cultures of the last decade require a corporate perspective, with less scope for individual (or institutional autonomy)’ Linda Holbeche 2012 Changing times in UK universites – what difference can HR make? 8
- 10. What words do you associate with wisdom? 10 In general?
- 11. Definitions of wisdom – dictionary Capacity of judging rightly in matters relating to life and conduct; soundness of judgement in the choice of means and ends; sometimes, less strictly, sound sense, especially in practical affairs: opposed to folly (OED, Second Edition Volume XX, 1989, pp.421) 11
- 12. Classical philosophers on wisdom Philosophy – From Greek meaning love of (philos) and wisdom (sophia) •Socrates: The reflective life ‘The unexamined life is not worth living’ •Plato: Ideas/Truth Exploration of the true causes of all things •Aristotle: Phronesis Capacity to act with regard to human good 12
- 13. Psychologists on wisdom Csikszentmihalyi and Rathunde (1990) •Wisdom as a cognitive process – understanding the workings of the world •Wisdom as a virtue – understanding how to order our actions to achieve harmony with the world •Wisdom as a personal good – an intrinsically rewarding experience that makes us feel happy 13
- 14. Psychologists on wisdom Baltes and Smith (1990) ‘Berlin Paradigm’ ‘Good judgement and advice about important but uncertain matters of life’ 5 crtieria: •Rich factual knowledge about matters of life •Rich procedural knowledge – strategies for judgement and advice •Life span contextualisation •Relativism •Uncertainty 14
- 15. DEFINING ORGANISATIONAL WISDOM AND HOW WE MIGHT APPLY THIS 15
- 17. Business thinkers on wisdom – learning perspective 17 Zeleny 1987, Ackoff 1987 Not much attention the wisdom level – just too difficult?
- 18. Business thinkers on wisdom – leadership perspective 18 Courtney 2001 Sees managerial wisdom as integrating knowledge with moral concerns • ‘Knowledge involves the ability to act intelligently and to learn. Wisdom guides knowledgeable actions on the basis of moral and ethical values’
- 19. Business thinkers on wisdom – action perspective 19 Jennifer Rowley (2006) ‘The capacity to put into action the most appropriate behaviour for an organisation, taking into account what is known and the legitimate concerns of its various stakeholders’
- 20. Activity 2 •Would it be useful to have a clearer focus on organisational wisdom? •What might this mean for what we pay attention to in our development work? 20
- 21. WHAT MIGHT THIS MEAN FOR MY DEVELOPMENT AS A DEVELOPER? 21
- 22. Wisdom development Bigelow (1992) Proposes a model to include development of: • Practical knowledge • The metacognitive (knowing about knowing) process associated with management of knowledge and its limitations, uncertainties and contradictions • Metacognitive processes associated with seeing and learning from experience • Image of self as part of a larger system 22
- 23. Meacham (1983) ‘The more one knows the more one knows one doesn’t know’ 23
- 24. Reflections on business education after the financial crisis Currie, Knights and Starkey (2008) ‘ Every cloud has a silver lining. There could be no more opportune time to reflect critically on business schools and the education they (we) profess to provide…it is beholden on us to reflect more deeply and critically on the purpose of business school education’. 24
- 25. Activity 3 •What would more attention to organisation wisdom mean for our own professional development – depth of our learning on ethics? philosophy? psychology? •And what about our own reflective practice? 25
- 26. If you are interested in being part of a research study with OD practitioners next year please get in touch! 26