Articles Organizational Design
1. Worren, Moore and Elliot (2002) When theories become tools: Toward a
framework for pragmatic validity
Practical utility: the ability of an agency to use information, particularly the capability to process such
information in a timely fashion.
Introduction
The characteristics of useful knowledge and the process by which practioners translate knowledge into
action have been discussed.
- General view is that the traditional criteria for scientific validity do not in themselves guarantee
usefulness to practitioners.
The outputs of academic research must be compatible with the practical reasoning process. Only then
can researchers engage in an interactive and reciprocating process with managers aimed at building
useful theory.
- Pragmatism: practicing knowledge, which would illuminate the relationships between
conceptual understanding, formal/scientific knowledge, and professional expertise.
The pragmatic validity of knowledge can be judged by the extent to which goals or intended
consequences can be achieved by producing certain actions or using particular instruments.
- Because traditional criteria for scientific validity do not guarantee pragmatic validity, there is a
need to identify the characteristics that lead to usefulness.
Knowledge as design
The pragmatist perspective focuses on the role knowledge plays as a conceptual tool in professional
inquiry processes.
- Knowledge as design is a structure adapted to a purpose, for example a knife constructed to
be a tool for cutting.
In contrast with the characteristics of widely adopted conceptual models, such as those used by
consulting firms, the outputs of academic research are usually not tailored to how people process
information and are thus difficult to apply under the constraints imposed by everyday situations, such as
time pressure, uncertainty and complexity.
Knowledge in different representational modes
In focusing attention on the outputs of the research and the role it plays as a cognitive tool for the
practitioner, it is necessary to consider the different possible ways in which knowledge can be
represented.
- There are three representational modes: (1) propositional, (2) narrative and, (3) visual.
Mode of representation Description Requirements for achieving pragmatic
validity
Propositional Prescriptive statements about Testability through explicit, causal
potential managerial actions propositions
and outcomes Operational definitions of constructs
Descriptions of how implementation is to
proceed to achieve desired outcomes
Narrative Stories and anecdotes that Vivid imagery and persuasiveness
illustrate a particular concept Ambiguity – flexibility in interpretation
or suggest a course of action and application
Plausibility through logical consistency
in the ordering of the underlying plot
Visual Diagrams and other visual Appropriate symbolic and iconic
depictions of conceptual representation of concepts and
models relationships
Simplification or aggregation of complex
information into meaningful patterns
Pragmatic validity in the propositional mode
Useful knowledge does not only contain a description of what is happening, or what is going to happen
under certain conditions, but also specifications for how these conditions an actions can be created in
the first place.
, - Whereas descriptive theory might help answer the question: ‘What caused an event to occur?’,
prescriptive theory helps answer the question ‘How can that situation be changed?’
Pragmatic valid theory in the propositional mode contains three major components:
1. There are explicit and causal propositions of the form ‘if you do A, then B is likely to follow,
given certain conditions.
2. It consists of rules that practitioners can use to test the validity of these causal claims.
o For example, the theory that states that ‘adoption of Japanese manufacturing
techniques will lead to higher quality and productivity’ can be tested by observing
whether the implementation of the techniques leads to the predicted consequences by
observing indicators of quality and productivity.
3. A pragmatic theory needs to contain explicit statements of how the results are created.
o For example, it must specify the changes that must be made to factory organization,
automation, etc. in order to implement the Japanese model.
Discussion – propositional perspective
Lutz (1982) and Moran and Ghoshal (1996) saw little potential for deriving meaningful prescriptions from
the most popular models within organizational theory.
- Lutz (1982) remarked that what most of the current theories do is to tell managers that they are
in trouble, and occasionally why, but they say nothing about how they are supposed to get out
of trouble.
There are challenges that proponents of the propositional perspective must address in order to present
a viable guiding framework for future research.
1. The view of learning and decision-making processes inherent in this perspective.
o There is a tendency to assume that learning only occurs by conscious or analytical
reasoning. However, an emerging body of work in cognitive psychology shows how
learning may also come into existence without conscious understanding – a process
called incidental learning or learning by osmosis.
A study by Masters (1992) compared two groups of novice golf players: one
group received explicit instructions about how to stand, hold the club and hit
the ball whereas the second group were left free to practise on their own.
When the two groups were tested against each other under stress, the group
that received explicit instruction performed worse than the group that had
not. this effect is dependent upon the task.
2. There will always be gaps in the managerial theories available to practitioners because the
theories can never represent the full complexity of the context in which the implementation is
occurring.
o Hence in any given situation, action will be a result of combining theoretical
knowledge with practical knowledge derived from previous experience.
Effectiveness is not only achieved through intention, planning and
implementation, but may also result form improvisation.
Prescriptive theory, for all its weaknesses, provides recipes for action and maps of processes that
managers can at least partially control.
- Yet, the findings described above are helpful in reminding us that intended action is
continuously mixed and integrated with emergent patterns and structures to create successful
adaptation.
Pragmatic validity in the narrative mode
Astley and Zammuto (1992) argue that linguistically ambiguous knowledge – such as stories, metaphors
or general concepts – is often more useful to practitioners.
- Linguistically ambiguous knowledge might actually improve the ability to deal with situations
involving high uncertainty.
Practical knowledge is often shared by means of story-telling between members of a community of
practice.
Astley and Zammuto (1992) argue that the most useful type of knowledge is not prescriptions or
techniques but concepts and ideas that can be used to interpret events, or, as rhetorical tools, to alter
perceptions and to stimulate collective action.
Some types of ambiguous knowledge can be evaluated by using frameworks for analysing narratives.
- Effective narratives have the power to persuade and facilitate understanding by being
mediators between the general and the particular.
, To be effective, a narrative must conform to rules for logical consistency in its descriptions of the
connections between particular events, and must, at the same time, provide drama or imagery to arouse
interest and attention.
- Successful organizational stories tend to be those that are novel and stand out from the other
stories, are persuasive, and invoke retelling and sense-making among diverse stakeholders.
An example: The imperative for introducing ‘lean manufacturing’ is couched in terms of a drama
involving Japan versus the rest of the world: western companies have lost out during this struggle but
can regain their strength if they adopt best practice. The authors also recount a number of stories about
individual characters. We are not reading about Toyota in general but about Kiichero Toyoda and his
nephew and how they managed to develop a new production system.
Discussion – narrative perspective
Representing knowledge in a narrative format frequently increases usefulness by enhancing interest,
involvement and credibility of a theory or concept.
- At the same time, it is important to acknowledge limitations of this representational format.
I. It is often difficult to extract lessons from the stories told in organizations, especially
where one’s personal knowledge has to be pooled with knowledge gained by others,
or in an environment where politically motivated and aimed at establishing favourable
reputations.
Stories and myths remain only a part of reality and not the only reality. So, it
is susceptible to distortion.
II. Progress is difficult unless ambiguous knowledge is confronted with data from time to
time.
The most relevant empirical test from a pragmatic viewpoint may not be the
degree of fit between the content of the narratives and reality per se, but
rather the degree of effectiveness in producing desired outcomes when
utilizing this type of knowledge.
Pragmatic validity in the visual mode
Knowledge in organizations is frequently codified and represented in a visual format. What is needed is
an increased understanding of both the ‘grammar’ underlying the production of visual statements, and
the broader role that visual information plays in organizational processes.
- ‘Grammar’ is defined as the rules that govern how portrayed elements combine into visual
‘statements’ of greater or lesser complexity and extension.
o So far, this framework is descriptive but they suggest that their investigation might
lead to a normative framework that can help to develop ‘visual literacy’ supported by a
set of more formal rules for visual representation.
Two basic codes for representing visual information are:
1. The concepts are depicted as interacting with each other through the use of arrows, more
formally called vectors.
o Vectors realize similar meanings as ‘action verbs’ in language (such as ‘cause’,
‘transmit’, ‘send).
o Specifically, the arrows are used to indicate that introducing Japanese manufacturing
principles leads to success.
2. Classification in that two ‘intervening’ variables, quality and productivity, have been split into
two different boxes. Because the two boxes are equal in some way, for example, they may
contribute equally strongly to competitive advantage. The choice of geometrical shapes is also
a way of conveying meaning.
The use of hierarchical organization of information and the use of visual symbols are ways of
establishing memory cues and of ‘chunking’ information into larger units to aid both encoding (convert in
a particular form) and retrieval (process of getting back something).
Discussion – visual perspective
Many of the most popular management models are expressed in a visual format or at least
accompanied by visual representations.
