Abstract
Husserl’s theories, which systematise the role of reflection and consciousness, can be used to give an alternative view of organisational evolution as the flow of presence punctuated by absence. This perspective adopts a contrasting approach to that of the poststructuralist. A synthesis of the Identity metaphor with the theory of strategy allows us to contextualise an application of Husserl’s theory of the epoche (the intentional reduction) and link both ontological and epistemic dimensions in a theory of organisation. The firm is seen as acquiring a temporal dimension through the consciousness of strategic policy and its successive images are modelled as analogous with the epoche. This modelling process also links in with the collective belief system of the organisational paradigm, which is represented to the organisation and unfolded extrinsically as a series of images which are the discernible face of Strategic policy. This facilitates a modified social-constructivism which is better able to accommodate the actuality of organisational development than more extreme process-orientated accounts of organisation. A debate is re-opened on these themes which have influenced organisation studies from a philosophical slant.
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References
See: Speech and Phenomena and Other Essays on Husserl’s Theory of Signs D B Allinson (ed), The John Hopkins University Press 1976, and Edmund Husserl’s ‘Origin of Geometry’: An Introduction (trans J.P.Leavey, Jr,) University of Nebraska Press 1962. References to original editions.
Cornelissen and Harris, P ‘The Corporate Identity Metaphor, Perspectives, Problems and Prospects’ Journal of Marketing Management 17, 2001 pp 49–71.
Some degree of equation is meant here with the socio-constructivist position mooted by Karl Weick. See for instance: Karl Weick The Social Psychology of Organizing USA, Adison-Wesley Press 1979 (reprint of 1969 text)
See: Descartes, R Discourse on Method and The Meditations F E Sutcliffe (ed) Penguin Classics, 1980.
It can also be viewed as possible to so ‘bracket’ the interior world. The exterior serves as clearer example for Husserl’s purposes.
epoche See Appendix A in relation to a fuller description of Husserl’s philosophy.
See Hatch, M J and Schultz, M Organizational Identity: A Reader Oxford University Press 2004, for a useful compendium of essays related to organisational identity.
See: Mintzberg, H The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning New York, Free Press 1994.
See Appendix A.
This is a useful way of thinking about the analogy (if it can be so termed) between the organisational identity and the individual (phenomenological) self that performs the epoche. This said, the individual firm can be said to figuratively enact a series of bracketed images. It could not literally form an epoche as it is not an individual cognitively speaking (of course).
Regarding the aspect of the intentional bracketing or epoche as a ‘series of snapshots’, Husserl’s thoughts shifted towards the aspect of temporality in his later transcendental period. Nenon notes that Husserl conceived of temporal flow in terms of the now having a fringe or horizon, that the now is a limit concept not experienced in itself. Hence ‘the ‘now’ for consciousness is an extended living presence that, as the original temporal field, also includes the ‘no-longer’ and the ‘not-yet’ (Nenon, citing Husserl’s Lectures on the Phenomenology of Inner Time Consciousness, trans. John Brough, Dordrecht, Kluwer, 1999 p 277). For our purposes, we can conceive of Husserl’s epoche as a single instant or snapshot which encompasses an image. However, Nenon’s ideas allude to the aspect of enclosing that momentary perception and whether the term ‘snapshot’ is too precise for that. This raises the issue of the duration or longevity of the epoche and the aspect of temporality of experience in relation to Husserl’s philosophy of presence.
Campbell Jones focuses on the uses of Derrida within management theorisation and notes that several postmodern authors,including Chia, Linstead, Cooper and Burrel, and Feldman, have made readings of Derridean theorisation which tend to emphasise the relativistic dimensions of Derrida’s enterprise. See: Campbell Jones ‘Jacques Derrida’ in Organization Theory and Postmodern Thought (ed) Linstead, S Sage Publications 2003 chapter 3.
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See: Lawlor op cit 2002 p 173, citing Derrida’s Voice and Phenomenon 5–6/7.
A fuller consideration of Derrida and Husserl in philosophical terms appears in Appendix B.
I am grateful to the anonymous reviewer for his advice on the argument at this point.
See Beer, S The Brain of the Firm: The Managerial Cybernetics of the Organization Chichester, John Wiley 1981.
See: Cornelissen and Harris, P ‘The Corporate Identity Metaphor, Perspectives, Problems and Prospects,’ Journal of Marketing Management 17, 2001 p 54.
Cornelissen and Harris loc cit 2001 p 59
Cornelissen and Harris loc cit 2001 p 63
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See: Macaulay, M and Lawton, A loc cit 2003 p 24.
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The Identity metaphor may be viewed as an aspect of ‘common knowledge’ rather than an individual creation of a particular author. Thereby, it is possible to interpret it as an idée fixe by which reality is translated. See Schied, J and Svenbro, J The Craft of Zeus: Myths of Weaving and Fabric Harvard 1996.
I define ‘being’ here most loosely, and not in any exact equivalence with the theories of Martin Heidegger.
Soffer, in her study of the issue of relativism and phenomenology, notes that: ‘According to Husserl, to transform this inadequate, transcendent perception into an adequate immanent one, we ‘bracket’ the reality of the world… thus, for example, we no longer straightforwardly participate in the attitude that posits that what appears to be a tree in intersubjective space is indeed so; (Husserl’s example of looking at an apple tree in Ideas I) or that the pleasure intended as a state of a full-blooded human being is in fact such; and finally, that certain causal relations exist between the perceived state of affairs and the person.’ Soffer G Husserl and the Question of Relativism Kluwer Academic Publishers 1991 p 108. This restates the act of intentional ‘bracketing’ or reduction in which it is desired that a ‘change in the intentional attitude’ facilitates a change in perceptual content. Hence the epoche, by virtue of which a shift towards a focusing on a new range of entities or phenomena, other than the original subject or focus of attention (the apple tree in this case) — is permitted.
Kenny A A New History of Western Philosophy, Volume 4: Philosophy in the Modern World Oxford University Press 2007 p 83
See: Moran, D, Introduction to Phenomenology Routledge 2000, citing Husserl The Idea of Phenomenology (tr W P Alston and G Nakhnikian) The Hague: Nijhoff 1964, pp44-45, and also citing Husserliana Series (Husserl), HUA II, 56–57.
Moran op cit 2000
ibid p 122
ibid
It is well to conceive that despite the aspect of resonance with Platonic ideality, Husserl was clearly concerned with the here-and-now and with the subjective nature of experience; see for instance Moran’s discussion in which he describes Husserl’s orientation towards extending ‘truths’ present in mathematics towards more familial experience. For instance, as ‘(as) When I see a blackbird in the tree outside my window under normal conditions, I also have an intuition which is fulfilled by the certainty of the bodily presence of the blackbird presenting itself to me’ (Moran op cit 2000 p 10).
See Moran op cit 2000 p128, in which he refers to Husserl’s Cartesian Meditations (tr D Cairns) The Hague, Nijhoff 1967, 5/2, and also refers to Husserliana Series (Husserl), I 52.
Moran op cit 2000 pp 128/130
Moran op cit 2000 p 133. Moran refers to Husserliana Series (Husserl) XXIV 231.
Moran op cit 2000 p 135, refers to Husserl, E, Ideas pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy, First Book, trans. P. J. Bossert and C. H. Peters, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1975,, 66, 151, and Husserliana Series (Husserl) III/1, 124.
Williams, C, Contemporary French Philosophers, Athlone Press, 2001 p 124
Kugler Kugler, P ‘Psychic Imaging: A bridge between subject and object’ in: The Cambridge Companion to Jung P Young-Eisendrath and T Dawson (eds) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK 1997(rep 1998), pp 71–89: ‘Just as Hume pushed the reproductive view of image to its ultimate limits by forgoing any appeal to transcendent foundations, so does Derrida push the reproductive theory of language to its ultimate limits. Eliminating any appeal to transcendent entities (universals), Derrida focuses, instead, on linguistic metonymy (the relation between words), rather than referentiality…(hence)…once we dispense with linguistic referentiality (the implicit assumption in the ‘reproductive metaphor’) we find ourselves trapped in the solipsism of language — unable to transgress the text. The Derridean text no longer refers to some transcendent origin, meaning or truth, and consequently deconstruction finds itself caught in a post-modern version of Hume’s arbitrary fictionalism.’ (pp 82–83)
Kenny op cit 2007
Lawlor op cit 2002 pp 4–5
Lawlor op cit 2002 p 175. Kugler has proposed that this Humean position is proto-Derridean, and we have built on that contrast to show aspects of the suggested divide between the two thinkers (Derrida and Husserl).
Rayment-Pickard, H Impossible God: Derrida’s Theology Ashgate 2003
Rayment-Pickard op cit 2003 p 43
Rayment-Pickard op cit 2003
Rayment-Pickard op cit 2003 p 47
Derrida op cit. Hence, the emphasis which Kugler makes on metonymy (above); however, it is fair to say that metonymy works in the presence of metaphors, and that both inter-relate as a vital feature of language deployment
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Sheard, S. Strategy as a Feature of Reflective Action: Edmund Husserl’s Theories as a Temporal Model of Organisational Identity. Philos. of Manag. 7, 25–40 (2009). https://doi.org/10.5840/pom20097227
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.5840/pom20097227