Erasmus Syllogisms in Cognition and Facilitation of Organizational Innovation
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.22439/jba.v9i1.5964Abstract
By use of an empirical example from a planned organizational change program within an international company, we examine how specific characteristics of objects (forms) used to represent ideas – in interaction with “hard-wired” aspects of human cognition – may contribute to explain outcomes of translation processes and the extent of alteration of the design of the future organization. We argue that a type of syllogism judged as invalid by criteria of formal logics – denoted as Erasmus syllogism – could be rather common in reasoning, and that these logically invalid interferences may contribute to significant innovations. Situations where syllogisms are not recognized as invalid by the involved actors seem to be more prevalent when e.g. the actors are unfamiliar with the semantic content (as e.g. abstract symbols). We argue that understanding of semiotic conditions for occurrence of formal logically invalid syllogism, as well as of the neglect of their invalidity by involved actors in ongoing discourses and reasoning, may contribute to a better understanding of how ideas and objects are translated, within organizations as well as in general. The discussion is a contribution to better understanding of why and how ideas are altered as part of ongoing sense making processes within organizations.
References
Bateson G. 1972. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Bateson G. 1988 [1979]. Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unity. NewYork: Bantam.
Bateson G. 1987. Angels Fear. Towards an Epistemology of the Sacred. New York: Macmillan.
Brunsson, N. 2000. The Irrational Organization: Irrationality as a Basis for Organizational Action and Change. Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
Brunsson, N. 1989. The organization of hypocrisy: Talk, decisions and actions in organizations. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Brunsson, N. 1986. Organizing for inconsistencies: On organizational conflict, depression and hypocrisy as substitutes for action. Scandinavian Journal of Management Studies. 2 (3-4):165-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/0281-7527(86)90014-9
Bye R.J. 2010. Endring som læring: En studie av innføringen av SAP og nye arbeidsprosesser i Statoils BRA-prosjekt. PhD thesis 2010 (129). Trondheim: NTNU.
Chambers, R. 2006. Participatory mapping and geographic information systems: Whose map? Who is empowered and who disempowered? Who gains and who loses? The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries 251:1-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2006.tb00163.x
Churchland, P.S. 1986. Neurophilosophy. Toward a Unified Science of the Mind-Bran. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
Cohen, M.D., March, J.G. & Olsen, J.P. 1972. A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly. 17 (1):1-25. https://doi.org/10.2307/2392088
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. 2007. Shadowing: and other techniques for doing fieldwork in modern societies. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press DK.
Czarniawska, B. 2001. Anthropology and organizational learning. In M. Dierkes et al. (eds.) Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge, pp.118-136. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Czarniawska, B. & Joerges, B. 1996. Travels of ideas. In Czarniawska, B. & G. Sevón (Eds.), Translating Organizational Change. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110879735.13
Czarniawska, B. & G. Sevón 2005. Translation is a vehicle, imitation its motor, and fashion sits at the wheel. In B. Czarniawska & G. Sevón (eds.) Global ideas: how ideas, objects and practices travel in a global economy (Vol. 13). Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. https://doi.org/10.2189/asqu.51.3.512
D´Andrade, R. 1989. Culturally Based Reasoning. In A.R.H. Gellatly, D. Rogers & J.A. Sloboda (eds.) Cognitions and Social Worlds. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
D´Andrade, R. 1992. “Cognitive Anthropology.” In T. Schwartz, G.M. White and C.A. Lutz (eds.) New directions in psychological anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
D'Andrade, R.G. 1995. The development of cognitive anthropology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davenport, T.H. 1993. Process Innovation. Reengineering Work through Information Technology. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Davenport, T.H. 1993. Process Innovation. Reengineering Work through Information Technology. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Deming, W. E. 1982. Out of the Crisis. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Deming, W.E. & D.W. Edwards 1982. Quality, productivity, and competitive position (Vol. 183). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Center for advanced engineering study, MIT.
DiMaggio, P.J. and W.W. Powell 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review. 48 (2): 147-160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101
Emery, F. & E. Thorsrud 1976. Democracy at work: The report of the Norwegian industrial democracy program (Vol. 2). Dordrecht: Springer.
Gondhalekar, S., A. Subash Babu & N.B. Godrej 1995. „Towards TQM using kaizen process dynamics: a case study.” International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 12 (9):192-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/02656719510101286
Greenwood, D.J. and M. Levin 1998. Introduction to action research. Social research for social change. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication.
Hackman, J.R. 1986. The psychology of self-management in organizations. In M.S. Pallack & R.O. Perloff (eds.) Psychology and Work: Productivity, change, and employment. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10055-003
Hammer, M. 1990. Reengineering Work: Don´t Automate, Obliterate. Harvard Business Review 64 (4):104-113.
Hammer, M. 1996. Beyond reengineering. How the process-centred organization is changing our works and our lives. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Hammer, M. and J. Champy 1993. Reengineering the Corporation. New York: Harper Collins.
Herbst, P.G. 1976. Alternatives to h