Understanding and Leading Organizations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to argue for an ontological investigation into very nature of organizations and their leadership, in tradition of Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology.1 Organizations in general, and corporations in particular, play an ever-more prominent role in contemporary society and, given their pervasive influence in all spheres of life, it seems surprising that this has not led to a vibrant ontological inquiry into what they are in their very nature. In choosing a guide for engaging in such an ontological inquiry, Heidegger's hermeneutic phenomenology seems promising, as he made most prominent contribution to ontological project in twentieth century - a time that coincides not only with rise of corporations, but also with corporatization of many other aspects of contemporary society.2 Real progress in any science takes place when fundamental assumptions of very nature of entities to be researched are acknowledged as untenable, and are revised in a more or less radical manner.3 In such instances - as Michael Inwood4 points out, with reference to Heidegger5 - inquiry, strictly speaking, is no longer scientific but philosophical - or, more precisely, ontological. Ontology is defined as the branch of metaphysics dealing with nature of being,s and is also understood to be the 'study of beings as such,' but it can be a 'regional' ontology, concerned with being or nature of e.g. numbers, space, ora work of literature.7 In this essay, I want to submit phenomenon and, by implication, field of organizational studies to such an ontological investigation, with goal of making such a contribution. An ontological investigation is itself prescientific and serves to build a foundation for establishing and developing appropriate theory-generating and scientific approaches, and, consequently, research agendas and research methodologies. Just like any other academic discipline, organizational sciences and studies necessarily rest on assumptions about very nature of entity with which they are concerned, namely, organization - whether these assumptions are specifically articulated or not.8 As Heidegger himself points out, science and ontology are, therefore, inherently inseparable.1* Any science presupposes an understanding of very nature of entity that is being researched, and can only research and understand that which is inherently permissible in its way to ascertain entities. 10If fundamental ontological assumptions of very nature of organization as entity that organizational studies is concerned with turn out to be untenable, all hard work built on these assumptions would turn out to be of limited validity, or even to be misleading. Concerns about an Ontology for Organizational Studies Thomas C. Powell has made a foundational contribution to academic field of strategic management - and, by implication, organizational studies - by explicitly confronting these fields of investigation with philosophical questioning and inquiry.12 His arguments against an ontological discourse are not novel from a philosophical perspective. They deserve their prominence in following argument, however, as they are a rare occurrence in field of strategic management, in two ways. First, they articulate implicit, but until then largely unarticulated, empiricist and pragmatist philosophical foundation of vast majority of prominent scholarly work in these academic disciplines, especially in Englishspeaking world. Second, by doing so, Powell's papers provide opportunity to engage with this philosophical bias and expose it to further scrutiny and development where this is clearly relevant, even according to Powell himself.11 Unlike many other academic fields - for example, political science or law - which were generated by philosophical insight and are guided by an ongoing, more or less vibrant philosophical discourse, academic fields of strategic and organizational management and organizational studies have, for most part, started out as a result of pragmatic need to give guidance to management of a relatively young phenomenon - namely, modern organization in general, and corporation in particular. …