Abstract
This article sets out to explain how practical wisdom, supported by rationality, can play a fundamental role in management and combat the main problems of rule-following and hyper-codification. The systematic use of Big Data, collected via the ever-increasing adoption of technology, has generated a large increase in the degree of standardisation of company procedures concerning not only physical and technical issues but above all decision-making. Applied to the solution of repetitive, easily codified problems, standardisation increases the level of efficiency, but when used for the resolution of complex problems it may partially, or even completely, preclude the pursuance of the common good. This may occur through the setting of rules which are not capable of fully describing reality, and their inappropriate use, which may lead, through their unthinking application, to a lack of morality, and even to the side-lining of earnings opportunities. We believe that practical wisdom is able to interact with necessary, unavoidable codification systems and rules to provide the right interface with circumstances, becoming a part of the decision-making process in its own right and not just a viewing lens for use retrospectively to verify whether the outcomes of decisions taken have been effective in pursuing the common good.
Highlights
In modern organisations, organisational and decision-making processes are increasingly managed by systems of rules intended to limit the degree of discretion granted to individual actors and reduce risks in business management
How have we arrived at this excessive rule-following? The degree of integration between technology and the business world is extremely high
Access to these data and the analysis of the information they yield have enabled the implementation of much more effective business strategies than in the past. New corporate functions, such as Business Intelligence, have arisen to study data analysis technologies, methods and systems [8]. This has generated an increasingly strong conviction in the business world that greater access to information can be translated into better results in all cases
Summary
Organisational and decision-making processes are increasingly managed by systems of rules intended to limit the degree of discretion granted to individual actors and reduce risks in business management. It is safe to assume that these data may be used in a virtually unlimited way in specific areas within the company (marketing area, management control, etc.); the logical approach underlying the codification of processes in these areas is not appropriate to the management of processes of an ethical and behaviour nature In these contexts, it is impossible to separate the judgement of the individuals called upon to act from their personal values and the ethical frameworks they have built up in the course of their experience [25]. Just as a function tends towards its asymptote, codification will never be able to cover all real cases This is because, even if we held information tending towards the infinite, we would still encounter situations in which the decisions to be taken would extend beyond this information, since they would refer to aspects of an ethical and moral nature. The aim should be to use practical wisdom to apply people's ethics and morals to the codes in order to interface with an infinite number of situations that demand a specific, direct approach
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