What is it about?
The purpose of the paper is to present a provocative view of what Peter Drucker would be writing about today in his self-described role as a social ecologist. The paper uses Drucker’s qualitative framework to ask what changes that contravene conventional wisdom have already happened, whether they are relevant and meaningful and what opportunities they present.
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Why is it important?
The paper suggest that the concepts of ecological rationality and embodied cognition form the basis for a new framework to challenge the hegemony of the existing concepts of rationality based on frameworks drawn from neoclassical economics. The primary implication is that an ecological framework of “both . . . and” is needed to embrace and contain the “either/or” of economics. This will sweep the liberal and fine arts back into management, render the concept and role of power in organizations discussable and place ethics, prudence and judgement at the centre of the management challenge.
Perspectives
This article began its life as an entry in the essay competition for the 2012 Global Drucker Forum (the rules were fuzzy on what was meant by 'young'). It reflects the work I have been doing for many years to understand the dynamics of human organizations. The journey began with an extended corporate experience which I then tried to make sense of. That effort has taken me into Taoist philosophy, ecology, the theory of complex adaptive systems, and philosophy more generally. It continues today...
David Hurst
DKH Productions
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Practical wisdom: reinventing organizations by rediscovering ourselves, Management Research Review, July 2012, Emerald,
DOI: 10.1108/mrr-11-2012-0256.
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