Toward a Theory of an Ontology of Possibility in Organizational Settings - Drawing from the Elusive Essence of and the Sense of Expansiveness in Phelpsian Agency, Less Hierarchical Organizing, and Caring Relationality

Lauri Pietinalho

Toward a Theory of an Ontology of Possibility in Organizational Settings - Drawing from the Elusive Essence of and the Sense of Expansiveness in Phelpsian Agency, Less Hierarchical Organizing, and Caring Relationality

Julkaisun otsikon käännös: Kohti teoriaa mahdollisuuden ontologiasta organisaatioympäristöissä

Lauri Pietinalho

Tuotantotalouden laitos

Tutkimustuotos: Doctoral Thesis › Collection of Articles

Abstrakti

"Mahdollisuuden ontologia" (an ontology of possibility) viittaa siihen inhimillisen kokemuksen ja hahmotuksen tilaan, jossa suuntaudumme nykyhetken ympäristöömme vallitsevan todellisuuden avautuvuuden mahdollisuuden näkökulmasta. Tämä siis erotuksena tilasta, jossa ensisijassa laskelmoimme omaa tai muiden tulevaa asemaa vakiintuneiden käsitysten viitteistössä. Tällainen määrittelemättömää kohti uskaltavuuden suuntautuneisuus on oleellisesti läsnä toiminnassa joka tavalla tai toisella laajentaa käsitystämme ympäristön lainalaisuuksista, eli "muuttaa maailmaa" enemmän tai vähemmän, ml. missä tahansa ennalta tiukasti rajaamattomassa rakentavassa yhteistyössä. Huolimatta tämän sisäisen kokemuksellisen ulottuvuuden keskeisyydestä lukuisissa organisatorisissa ja organisatorisinhimillisissä ilmiöissä, tutkimus hyvin harvoin ottaa sitä lähtökohdakseen. Väitöskirjan yhteenvetävä osuus hahmottelee organisatorisia lainalaisuuksia mahdollisuuden ontologialle organisaatioympäristöissä. Perustan organisatorisen hahmotukseni mahdollisuuden ontologian fenomenologisen rakenteen tarkastelulle. Totean kyseisen rakenteen sisältävän "vielä-tietämättömyyden" sietämistä ja laskelmoimatonta sosiaalisen riskin hyväksymistä tavalla, joka ei ole kokemuksellisesti kognition täysin tavoittavissa. Seuraten relationaalisuusteoreetikkoja (kuten Shotter, 2010; Gergen, 2009), avaan, kuinka tällainen suuntautuneisuus on, organisaatioissa ja ylipäätään, sidoksissa "välittävän yhteydellisyyden" (caring relationality) kokemusten kanssa. Teen huomion mahdollisuuden ontologian ja tällaisen yhteydellisyyden jaetusta sisäisestä rakenteesta. Tästä johtuen, huolimatta välittävyyden tai uskaltavuuden (esim. kulttuurisista tai henkilökohtaisista) myönteisistä lähtökohdista, kyvykkyys suuntautua mahdollisuuden ontologian kautta organisaatioissa latistuu ilman ulkopuolisia "syötteitä " (feeds) "laajentuvuuden kokemukselle" (a sense of expansiveness). Esitän näiden seikkojen pohjalta ensin kolme arkkityyppiä organisaation suhteelle sen ympäristön kanssa, joissa tällaiset ulkopuoliset syötteet ovat mahdollisia. Toiseksi hahmottelen kuinka suuremmissa organisaatioissa, joissa suora yhteys ulkopuolisiin syötteisiin ohenee, syötteet juontuvat itse organisaatiokontekstin avautuvuuden ja kvalitatiivisen laajentuvuuden kokemuksesta. Väitöskirja koostuu ylläkuvatusta yhteenvetävästä teoretisoinnista sekä neljästä itsenäisestä esseestä. Ensimmäiset kaksi esseetä käsittelevät organisaatioihin vaikuttavia arvoja ja organisaatioiden evoluutiota Edmund Phelpsin talouden dynaamisuuden teorian kannalta. Kaksi jälkimmäistä raportoivat laajan kvalitatiivisen tutkimuksen koskien matalahierarkisia organisaatioita, joissa lähtökohtaisesti epäyhteensopivat käytännöt pitävät yllä tiettyä organisatorisen kontekstin avautuvuuden tuntua. Yhteenvetävä osuus rakentaa esseiden tutkimusten oivallusten päälle mahdollisuuden ontologian teorian keskeiset suuntaviivat.

Julkaisun otsikon käännös	Kohti teoriaa mahdollisuuden ontologiasta organisaatioympäristöissä
Alkuperäiskieli	Englanti
Pätevyys	Tohtorintutkinto
Myöntävä instituutio	Aalto-yliopisto
Valvoja/neuvonantaja	Saarinen, Esa, Vastuuprofessori
Kustantaja	Aalto University
Painoksen ISBN	978-952-64-0673-2
Sähköinen ISBN	978-952-64-0674-9
Tila	Julkaistu - 2022
OKM-julkaisutyyppi	G5 Artikkeliväitöskirja

Tutkimusalat

mahdollisuuden ontologia
välittävä yhteydellisyys
laajentuvuuden kokemus

Pääsy asiakirjaan

http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-0674-9

Siteeraa tätä

@phdthesis{6a275f35e4ca41ad94c9f0103a51f7e4,

title = "Toward a Theory of an Ontology of Possibility in Organizational Settings - Drawing from the Elusive Essence of and the Sense of Expansiveness in Phelpsian Agency, Less Hierarchical Organizing, and Caring Relationality",

abstract = "With {"}an ontology of possibility,{"} I point to the mode of engagement that people come to embody when oriented toward an opening future and opening of future from the present, engaging with and exploring beyond the boundaries of established social construction. It is a mode that is inherently involved in entrepreneurial (or any) novelty but also in true collaboration where members do not resort to zero-sum optimization among themselves. I take up the term from Lawrence and Maitlis (2012), who employed it to describe a {"}belief system{"} cultivated in caring groups, which {"}emphasizes the socially constructed nature of both past and present and thus facilitates action and an appreciation of its limits{"} (p. 641). I hold that the implied mode of engagement is more fundamental and implicitly present in a range of organizational phenomena and theories than what the originating work or organizational scholarship typically considers. The compiling part of the dissertation works toward a way to perceive the organizational premises of an ontology of possibility in organizational settings. It achieves this by articulating and then building on the experiential structure of an ontology of possibility. I begin by elaborating how an ontology of possibility and {"}caring relationality{"} that fosters it both involve enduring {"}not-yet knowing{"} and embracing of social risk in an uncalculating way that is irreducible and elusive to cognitive choice, even beliefs alone. Consequently, without what I denote as {"}feeds{"} for a {"}sense of expansiveness{"} beyond a caring group, an ontology of possibility within erodes. I explicate archetypical relations of an organization with its environment that enable such external feeds. Finally, the thesis contends that, internally, which is often a more relevant dimension for members of larger organizations with less direct access to outside feeds, an ontology of possibility and caring relationality are not fostered by any particular set of organizational values or structures but by their unfolding toward also embracing contradictory tenets. The thesis contributes by maturing our conception of an ontology of possibility and developing a perspective on novelty and relations in organizational life that conjoins a phenomenological and an impersonal organizational level of inquiry. The dissertation consists of the compiling theory development about an ontology of possibility and four contributing essays. The first and second essay hypothesize on the role of organizational evolution and values, respectively, in Edmund Phelps' theory of economic dynamism. The third and fourth essay report a multiyear qualitative study on less hierarchical organizing, depicting how, per se, contradicting practices might uphold certain open-endedness in organizational tenets. The compiling theory builds on and elaborates ideas and findings in the four essays into an emergent layer of argumentation and vocabulary beyond the domains of the individual essays.",

keywords = "an ontology of possibility, caring relationality, sense of expansiveness, mahdollisuuden ontologia, v{\"a}litt{\"a}v{\"a} yhteydellisyys, laajentuvuuden kokemus, an ontology of possibility, caring relationality, sense of expansiveness",

author = "Lauri Pietinalho",

year = "2022",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-952-64-0673-2",

series = "Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES",

publisher = "Aalto University",

number = "11",

address = "Finland",

school = "Aalto University",

}

TY - BOOK

T1 - Toward a Theory of an Ontology of Possibility in Organizational Settings - Drawing from the Elusive Essence of and the Sense of Expansiveness in Phelpsian Agency, Less Hierarchical Organizing, and Caring Relationality

AU - Pietinalho, Lauri

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - With "an ontology of possibility," I point to the mode of engagement that people come to embody when oriented toward an opening future and opening of future from the present, engaging with and exploring beyond the boundaries of established social construction. It is a mode that is inherently involved in entrepreneurial (or any) novelty but also in true collaboration where members do not resort to zero-sum optimization among themselves. I take up the term from Lawrence and Maitlis (2012), who employed it to describe a "belief system" cultivated in caring groups, which "emphasizes the socially constructed nature of both past and present and thus facilitates action and an appreciation of its limits" (p. 641). I hold that the implied mode of engagement is more fundamental and implicitly present in a range of organizational phenomena and theories than what the originating work or organizational scholarship typically considers. The compiling part of the dissertation works toward a way to perceive the organizational premises of an ontology of possibility in organizational settings. It achieves this by articulating and then building on the experiential structure of an ontology of possibility. I begin by elaborating how an ontology of possibility and "caring relationality" that fosters it both involve enduring "not-yet knowing" and embracing of social risk in an uncalculating way that is irreducible and elusive to cognitive choice, even beliefs alone. Consequently, without what I denote as "feeds" for a "sense of expansiveness" beyond a caring group, an ontology of possibility within erodes. I explicate archetypical relations of an organization with its environment that enable such external feeds. Finally, the thesis contends that, internally, which is often a more relevant dimension for members of larger organizations with less direct access to outside feeds, an ontology of possibility and caring relationality are not fostered by any particular set of organizational values or structures but by their unfolding toward also embracing contradictory tenets. The thesis contributes by maturing our conception of an ontology of possibility and developing a perspective on novelty and relations in organizational life that conjoins a phenomenological and an impersonal organizational level of inquiry. The dissertation consists of the compiling theory development about an ontology of possibility and four contributing essays. The first and second essay hypothesize on the role of organizational evolution and values, respectively, in Edmund Phelps' theory of economic dynamism. The third and fourth essay report a multiyear qualitative study on less hierarchical organizing, depicting how, per se, contradicting practices might uphold certain open-endedness in organizational tenets. The compiling theory builds on and elaborates ideas and findings in the four essays into an emergent layer of argumentation and vocabulary beyond the domains of the individual essays.

AB - With "an ontology of possibility," I point to the mode of engagement that people come to embody when oriented toward an opening future and opening of future from the present, engaging with and exploring beyond the boundaries of established social construction. It is a mode that is inherently involved in entrepreneurial (or any) novelty but also in true collaboration where members do not resort to zero-sum optimization among themselves. I take up the term from Lawrence and Maitlis (2012), who employed it to describe a "belief system" cultivated in caring groups, which "emphasizes the socially constructed nature of both past and present and thus facilitates action and an appreciation of its limits" (p. 641). I hold that the implied mode of engagement is more fundamental and implicitly present in a range of organizational phenomena and theories than what the originating work or organizational scholarship typically considers. The compiling part of the dissertation works toward a way to perceive the organizational premises of an ontology of possibility in organizational settings. It achieves this by articulating and then building on the experiential structure of an ontology of possibility. I begin by elaborating how an ontology of possibility and "caring relationality" that fosters it both involve enduring "not-yet knowing" and embracing of social risk in an uncalculating way that is irreducible and elusive to cognitive choice, even beliefs alone. Consequently, without what I denote as "feeds" for a "sense of expansiveness" beyond a caring group, an ontology of possibility within erodes. I explicate archetypical relations of an organization with its environment that enable such external feeds. Finally, the thesis contends that, internally, which is often a more relevant dimension for members of larger organizations with less direct access to outside feeds, an ontology of possibility and caring relationality are not fostered by any particular set of organizational values or structures but by their unfolding toward also embracing contradictory tenets. The thesis contributes by maturing our conception of an ontology of possibility and developing a perspective on novelty and relations in organizational life that conjoins a phenomenological and an impersonal organizational level of inquiry. The dissertation consists of the compiling theory development about an ontology of possibility and four contributing essays. The first and second essay hypothesize on the role of organizational evolution and values, respectively, in Edmund Phelps' theory of economic dynamism. The third and fourth essay report a multiyear qualitative study on less hierarchical organizing, depicting how, per se, contradicting practices might uphold certain open-endedness in organizational tenets. The compiling theory builds on and elaborates ideas and findings in the four essays into an emergent layer of argumentation and vocabulary beyond the domains of the individual essays.

KW - an ontology of possibility

KW - caring relationality

KW - sense of expansiveness

KW - mahdollisuuden ontologia

KW - välittävä yhteydellisyys

KW - laajentuvuuden kokemus

KW - an ontology of possibility

KW - caring relationality

KW - sense of expansiveness

M3 - Doctoral Thesis

SN - 978-952-64-0673-2

T3 - Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL THESES

PB - Aalto University

ER -

Toward a Theory of an Ontology of Possibility in Organizational Settings - Drawing from the Elusive Essence of and the Sense of Expansiveness in Phelpsian Agency, Less Hierarchical Organizing, and Caring Relationality

Abstrakti

Tutkimusalat

Pääsy asiakirjaan

Sormenjälki

Siteeraa tätä