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God, Ontology and Management: A Philosophical Praxis

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Abstract

A philosophy of management that incorporates the big picture of human experience, all levels, and degrees of awareness in relationship with the world, will better develop and sustain an environment conducive to creative contributions that meet organizational goals. Quantum physics reveals the nature of reality to be connection and creativity engaged in a process of actualizing possibilities. Human beings participate in this process of actualization, as both observer-creator and experiencer of the universe through multiple domains of knowing – a collaborator in Alfred North Whitehead’s panexperientialism. Whitehead’s God of process, the primordial field of creative possibilities, and the consequent nature which holds all the experiences of every actualization, supports human consciousness, as it self-actualizes by engaging and integrating the experience of external and internal events and their effects on awareness. Through understanding the participatory nature of consciousness with God and the world as experienced, deep meaning emerges for human life. Tapping into this deeper meaning through a philosophy of management that acknowledges the full human experience, including the embedded spiritual connection to the creative energy that is God, strengthens an organization’s vision, mission and contributions to a community. This brief overview traces a path toward a preliminary framework for a philosophy of management based on God and the ideas of connection, creativity and process.

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Notes

  1. On a global level, one tragic example of spiritual disconnect is the estimated 45.8 million people held in slavery around the world today; 26% are children; and approximately 2 million of these children are forced into global sex trafficking slavery (IJM 2017). The list of problems, e.g. terrorism, could go on, but the point is clear.

  2. Various studies have been done over the years that show a correlation between religious belief and general well-being (in education, economics, and relationships) (NBER 2018).

  3. Mary Douglas (2001) suggests that certainty is the result of cultural inculcation and social taboos, not facts, and when the established knowledge becomes confused with opinion, uncertainty and indeterminacy can infect a society with fear. This fear may beget a rigid pushback by the social order that becomes force, intolerance and obstructions to intellectual curiosity (and so creativity) (Douglas 2001, 150–152). See Romain Laufer (2017) for a discussion on how both modern marketing and sophistry actively seek to confuse appearance and reality, blurring the distinction between knowledge and opinion in the process.

  4. Humanity also has made great progress – in medicine and technology, for example; but caring and wise choices are needed, and not always apparent, in the use of that medicine and technology.

  5. Relevance in this context refers to the community being served by the organization. As noted by Statler and Salovaara (2017), from a pragmatic perspective, relevance is based on what difference it makes and to whom (274). Is a need being met, a want being fulfilled?

  6. Sometimes holding tight to a greater meaning is what keeps one alive in horrific circumstances – experiences teach this in heartbreaking moments; see Frank 1993; Frankl 2006; Gary Haugen 2008; and Ilibagiza and Erwin 2014.

  7. For purposes of transparency, please note that the author’s academic work focused on personal and organizational development and transformation. As such, some of the ideas herein are an extension of themes originally explored in a dissertation case study, with the addition of a consideration of God and process.

  8. As Dibben (2010) notes, how one thinks about management “can alter what management becomes” (3), and spiritually reflective leadership becomes respectful, caring and sensitive (4).

  9. The ideas presented herein are derived from specific interpretations of Whitehead and science based on various readings; other interpretations are available as well. This selection is based on the resonating nature of the ideas in relation to personal, professional and spiritual experiences. This paper is intended as encouragement and support for the idea of God as the meaningful ground of a philosophy of management. The references provide a variety of sources for readers interested in pursuing deeper analysis.

  10. Although Heraclitus may have introduced the concept of process into philosophy, it by no means reflects his total view of reality; see in particular, David Shaw (2018) for a detailed review of Heraclitus’ cosmology and the ideas of flux (process), Justice (rational laws), and the Unity of Opposites (perpetual strife).

  11. Per Ingvar Olsen (2011) considers process less a direct line and more a flow of “occasional major shifts” (61).

  12. Whitehead used “the whole of the evidence” for his cosmology (1925/ Whitehead 1997, vii).

  13. Pierre Tielhard de Chardin also considered every human experience as available evidence for creating new understanding (McIntosh 2007).

  14. See William Braud (1997, 9) for a discussion on the practical and the universal.

  15. Olsen (2011) suggests that knowing is proposed or theoretical, rather than definitive (66).

  16. A common example is how illumination may reference light – allowing one to see in the dark; and illumination may also reference ideas – allowing one to see in a new way.

  17. Whitehead’s view on creativity is useful in understanding chaos theory and innovation in organization (Olsen 2011).

  18. See Olsen (2011) also for references (72) to Andrew H. Van de Ven and Marshall Scott Poole’s paper analyzing various complementary approaches to studying organizations.

  19. These views have inspired a vast body of discussions on God’s nature and relationship to the world.

  20. Similar to Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover (the foundation of Thomas Aquinas’ God) – being is pure actuality, the eternal principle of motion and ground of all potentiality, attracting all things to actualize the potentiality that is perfection of form (Stumpf 1975; Whitehead 1978, 344).

  21. An attribute which has been called divine relativity, event ontology of becoming, process theology’s panentheism, and God’s manyness-in-oneness (Cobb Jr. and Griffin 1976; Epperson 2004; Frankenberry 1987; Griffin 2007; Hartshorne 1964).

  22. Are human disconnects in current events a natural outcome when fulfilling the primordial aim is stifled or denied in the human experience?

  23. The neutrino is the focus of a 20-year study to learn what informs this transformation process (Moskowitz 2017).

  24. A quantum particle may represent a universe of information, an undifferentiated singularity of possibilities – like a cosmic hologram (Currivan 2017). In a specific kind of hologram, the image is embedded in the glass, present and visible from every angle in a three dimensional perspective; break the glass, pick up the pieces and the full original image is still visible in every piece of the shattered glass (Talbot 1991). Is the quantum particle cosmic DNA?

  25. According to Schipper (2001), Bergson agreed with Whitehead, but while William James believed rationalism excludes novelty, he proposed that the “sentiment of rationality” was open to novelty (6).

  26. One may observe a variety of creative rationalizations presented for all kinds of behavior as well.

  27. This push / pull of the “eternal urge of desire” is reminiscent of Plotinus’ description of the coming and going emanations of creation, existing eternally within God, the Source of Intelligence and the World Soul - creation is pushed out from Source, but always desires to return to Source (Stumpf 1975; Plotinus 1986; Whitehead 1978, 344). In a similar vein, Tielhard de Chardin proposed that consciousness has an evolutionary purpose and is being drawn to unify with God (McIntosh 2007; Stumpf 1975). And Jean-Francois Bordron (2017) suggests that the original thing, the “originary” – is that upon which novelty intrudes, acts, suggests, and entices toward change, to become a new thing, a new interpretation, a new understanding (242).

  28. However, Dibben (2009) notes that for Whitehead, consciousness is a result of experience, so the dipolarity has a lag factor in terms of timing; it is the 4th (or final) phase of an occasion of experience (20).

  29. Based on current observation, the universe consists of 70% dark energy, 25% dark matter and the remaining 5% everything else (human beings, galaxies and the like) – no one knows yet what dark energy and dark matter are – a mystery and a lure of curiosity (Currivan 2017).

  30. Studies reveal that trees share constant communication with each other through a network of filaments just beneath the surface of the earth; e.g., a tree in the forest is malnourished, other trees hear its sickness and direct extra nutrients from their supplies to that tree (Simard 2016; Wohlleben 2015). Other experiments show bees, bacteria, and even amoebas have degrees of experience (Griffin 2007, 59–60). These are examples of a low-level awareness compatible with Whitehead’s concept of consciousness manifesting in degrees throughout reality. But is it overstating to use the term consciousness if considered as phases of prehension?

  31. For example: Gebser 1986 – consciousness moves through evolutionary stages/levels; Clare Graves – developmental spiral of value worlds (Beck and Cowan 1996); Tielhard de Chardin – consciousness developed in complexity as the physical body grew to support it (McIntosh 2007); Ken Wilber (2000) – integral methodological pluralism with stages, states, levels; David Cooperrider (1986) – appreciative inquiry and the heliotropic principle – drawn to the light, human beings transform in response to that which is hopeful, positive, and reinforces creativity.

  32. Sice and French (2004) define autopoiesis as the process by which a living organism (system) becomes individual – through interaction and transformation, the entity generates and regenerates itself, and its components, self-organizing in relationships of reciprocal causality: internal to external / local to global as upward causality; and external to internal / global to local as downward causality (58).

  33. This idea has been called “feeble” because it limits God’s omnipotence – evil exists because God does not have the ability to intervene (Clavier 2011, 266).

  34. For a presentation of various theodicies and an in-depth analysis of process theodicy, see David R. Griffin’s God, power, and evil (Griffin 2004; Cobb Jr. and Griffin 1976); as well as Stephen Davis (2001).

  35. For Whitehead, ultimate evil is the “perpetual perishing” of time (the fading past), and the need to choose among mutually obstructive things; the need to select and the act of selecting are the measure and evasion of evil (340).

  36. Gasset 1993 described life as the presentation of several paths, and human beings are forced to choose, to decide from moment to moment; even no decision, abrogating a choice, is a choice.

  37. For Dibben (2009), the organization is an “effect” of slowing change - more a becoming, than a changing (15).

  38. Walter Renner (2015) proposes a “soft” empirical database of religious/spiritual experiences based on specific criteria to meet verifiability issues. These experiences are subjective and difficult to purposefully replicate, yet it is possible to collect qualitative data for study through interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary methods, including Buddhist meditation techniques (requiring a willingness to try non-traditional approaches) (Hall 2010; Renner 2015).

  39. In a POM special issue on pragmatism, Bereson and Guillet de Monthoux (2017) suggest pragmatism challenges the idea of universal principles because the act of doing / choosing leads to knowing based on the outcomes of the doing / choosing; which is followed by the next interaction of doing and a new outcome (193). But the idea of inevitable change is in itself a kind of universal - that is, change is a constant, or at the very least, the potential for change is a constant in human experience. Further, Bordron 2017, suggests the only presupposition is the confidence in the power of flux (process) – anything can change and be changed (251). The questions then become: how to manage, how to guide, and how to provide a solid footing for the ever-shifting change potentiality?

  40. This is not to deny that people are dysfunctional (due to varied factors including environmental lack) and so may not respond to positive opportunities. See also note 46.

  41. See Dibben (2004), page 27, note 23 for references and variations on the definition of trust.

  42. Robert Waldinger (2015) shares findings from the 75+ year Harvard Study of Adult Development, which continues to monitor people from the original group to determine what makes a good life. Caring support is practical well beyond organizational results - holding on to caring relationships helps humans thrive and live to a ripe old age (Buettner 2012; Seligman 2002; Waldinger 2015).

  43. While this discussion excludes natural disasters, management makes choices reflecting values in dire times too.

  44. Consider also ordinary creativity – creating a life that may seem ordinary (not an artist or inventor), but unique creativity happens through the expression of a point of view, talents, relationships, and joy in life (Bateson 1999).

  45. See for examples, Beck and Cowan 1996; Laloux 2014; Esbjorn-Hargens 2010; and Whitney et al. 2010.

  46. Human beings can be damaged – psychologically dysfunctional, pathological, suffering from every variation of the seven deadly sins (pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, anger, sloth); influenced by abuse, minimal nurturing, biased familial and cultural upbringing, etc. Hence the importance (and ultimately the compassion and caring) of developing support systems, especially for the safe culture and lifelong learning, in every organization.

  47. In the classical view God is omniscient and omnipotent; therefore, to view God as still in process and evolving because the world is, can make God less than (Hosinski 2015). The idea that humanity’s experiences are to be preserved eternally in God, makes for a tragic God, which Delwin Brown (1999) believes is the appropriate interpretation of Whitehead – that ultimately both the world and God are tragic. (And what of joy?)

  48. Hannah Arendt (1958) finds hopefulness in the process of human natality – new people are born signaling new beginnings, and the possibility of new actions and new choices.

  49. See William James (1958) and Antony Steinbock (2007) for two considerations of spiritual experiences.

  50. Thomas Aquinas considered natural love to be present everywhere – soul, body and nature (Hosinski 2015).

  51. Some intriguing questions: if one considers consciousness solely the result of the human brain’s biological and neurological complexity – to what does the complexity of the universe as a whole give rise? Supra-consciousness? Is the neural complexity that creates consciousness, a mirror for the universe’s complexity: the natural laws, galaxies, black holes, super novae, and dark space (Currivan 2017)?

  52. Margaret Wheatley (2017) asks this pointed question, “Who do we choose to be?” in an urgent call for every human being to take on a transformative leadership role within every situation and relationship.

  53. Many beautiful spiritual perspectives on the nature of God, and related ideas, are available; see for example, Beatrice Bruteau 2001; Cobb Jr. 2007; Catherine Keller 2008; and Ken Wilber 2006, 2017.

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Allen, M.R.D. God, Ontology and Management: A Philosophical Praxis. Philosophy of Management 18, 303–330 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-018-0101-6

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