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Hermeneutic processes in organizations: A study in relationships between observers and observed

Joseph, Tojo
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1057679577

Abstract Details

1994, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Organizational Behavior.
This thesis is an attempt to understand organizations using a methodology called Hermeneutics. It is argued that at a fundamental level organizational theories are embedded in language practices. Hermeneutic methods are ideally suited for understanding the complex role of language in shaping organizational realities because they take into consideration the "temporality" and "contextuality" of organizational constructs which are linguistically preconstituted. Further, by recognizing the epistemological primacy of both the author (subject) and the reader (interpreter/researcher) hermeneutic inquiry provides a viable alternative to both positivist and interpretive approaches to the study of organizations. Organizations are conceptualized as "texts" with the intent of providing multiple "readings." With this overarching framework, the subject of this study, an international nonprofit organization called the Institute of Cultural Affairs (the ICA) is "read" as "texts" in separate chapters. The concluding reading reveals that the ICA is a hermeneutic organization engaged in the task of recovery of meaning related to its core tasks and values through a process of framing, deframing, reframing. This is so, because the core values of ICA are "plurivocal" (capable of multiple m eaning) and subject to hermeneutic processes of "intense reflexivity." During the formative years of the ICA, this reflexivity was at its peak as a privileged discourse. Later, as the organization grew rapidly to a large number of international locations, the reflexivity was not as intense as in the past and was gradually deprivileged. The focus was on accomplishing results quickly and efficiently (Performativity in Lyotard's (1984) terms). However, as the growth of ICA slowing down and the organization completely decentralizing creating independent, autonomous units, intense reflexivity emerged again as a reprivileged discourse. It is concluded that the capacity to engage in intense reflexivity is of strategic value to organizations like the ICA. In terms of implications, the inquiry demonstrates the consequences of using a hermeneutic methodology in organizational analysis through the creation of a model of organizations as engaged in the privileging, deprivileging, and/or reprivileging of discourses. It is also argued that the flexibility of interpretations in a "living" text is liberating and transforming rather than limiting and restraining. Above all, the readings bring out the dynamic property of interchangeability between the author and the reader that exists in the intersubjectivity of a text. (Abstract shortened by UMI.
Suresh Srivastva (Advisor)
350 p.
Hermeneutic processes; relationships; observers; observed

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Joseph, T. (1994). Hermeneutic processes in organizations: A study in relationships between observers and observed [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1057679577

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Joseph, Tojo. Hermeneutic processes in organizations: A study in relationships between observers and observed. 1994. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1057679577.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Joseph, Tojo. "Hermeneutic processes in organizations: A study in relationships between observers and observed." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 1994. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1057679577

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1057679577
1,019
© 1994, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.