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Towards dynamic organizational designing : a problematization through Dewey’s pragmatism
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Wegener, Frithjof Eberhard (2023) Towards dynamic organizational designing : a problematization through Dewey’s pragmatism. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
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Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3985140
Abstract
Organizational design traditionally refers to the idea that managers can help organizations respond to changes and improve efficiency by redefining structures and procedures. In this dissertation, I suggest an alternative and more dynamic view of organizational design based on insights from pragmatism, design theory, and organization theory. Specifically, leveraging insights about the social nature of organizations with the imaginative nature of design, I argue that pragmatism is best suited to combine organization and design. Organizations can be understood through the pragmatist concept of habits, while the organizational design processes can be theorized through the pragmatist concept of inquiry. The thesis consists of four chapters.
In Chapter 2, I (with co-authors Katharina Dittrich and Davide Nicolini) explore the rationalist perspectives on organization design and how these led to stability-centered assumptions. I then review post-rationalist alternatives, that already offer more dynamic perspectives on organizing, designing, and organization design.
In Chapter 3, I (with co-author Vern Glaser) explore the topic of designing organizational routines. I show that organization and design theories use dominant cognitive and latent pragmatist perspectives. Although practice-based, process, and Design Inquiry perspectives all have existing links with pragmatism, a full-fledged pragmatist approach to these topics is lacking, and researchers have limited themselves to specific concepts and theories from pragmatism. The chapter thus foregrounds the need to fully develop research approaches and methodologies that build on pragmatism and problematize the theoretical assumptions underlying routine design – and organization design more broadly.
In Chapter 4, I (with co-author Philippe Lorino) develop a pragmatist methodology for researching organizational design. I explore how researchers can support practitioners in creating innovative change in organizations. The chapter combines inquiry, community, and dialogue with withness. This allows researchers to engage with practical problems and how to improve problematic situations with practitioners.
In Chapter 5, I (with co-authors Katharina Dittrich and Davide Nicolini) develop a dynamic perspective on organizational design. By drawing on the pragmatist concepts of habits and inquiry, I problematize the existing cognitive assumptions about organization design. I instead propose pragmatist organizational design as a continuous process of redesigning habits through inquiry. This dynamic approach to organizational design better explains the
dynamics of organizational change. Chapter
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Business planning, Strategic planning, Organizational behavior, Organizational change, Pragmatism | ||||
Official Date: | 7 June 2023 | ||||
Dates: |
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Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Warwick Business School | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Dittrich, Katharina ; Nicolini, Davide | ||||
Format of File: | |||||
Extent: | xii, 13-151 pages | ||||
Language: | eng |
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