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

what’s the question ? organization & management does it matter ? Morgan’s Images (1986) machine bureaucracy vs psychic prison uncertainty & bounded rationality fetishizing rationality 5-May-08Lappeenranta 22

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 5-May-083Lappeenranta 2

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: :00 – now - 11:30 – 11: :30 discussion – lunch – 13: :30 KBV – 14: :00 discussion 5-May-08Lappeenranta 24

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 ? 5-May-08Lappeenranta 25

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 26

rhetoric trivium & quadrivium contextuality vs universality persuasion vs proof action vs theorizing compartments – logos – ethos – pathos fashioning to context implicit MoI 5-May-08Lappeenranta 27

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 28

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 29

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 ? 5-May-08Lappeenranta 210

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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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 212

an ‘economics history’ of the KBV 5-May-08Lappeenranta 213 Bain Porter Penrose Simon RBV KBV neoclassical Knight monopoly U & creativity

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 214

KBV ≢ KM 5-May-08Lappeenranta 215 Theory of the Firm Knowledge Management certainty rationality capital certainty rationality capital uncertainty a-rationality services uncertainty a-rationality services

so what has KM become ? 5-May-08Lappeenranta 216 ITHRMIPRToF KBV ?

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 217 individualsocial explicitconsciousobjectified implicitautomaticcollective

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 218 subjectivismrealism thinkinginterpretivismobjectivism actingconstructivism non-agentic ?

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 5-May-08Lappeenranta 219 social domain psychological domain economic abstractions

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 ? 5-May-08Lappeenranta 220

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? 5-May-08Lappeenranta 221

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