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Degree

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Sociology, 1990.

Abstract

Much of organizational theory is rooted in the organism metaphor following the structural-functionalist paradigm (Morgan, 1986). Research has focused on the giveness of the social order, the uncovering of patterns of social life to demonstrate transhistorical, enduring regularities. This thesis is a longitudinal study of a management group, a description of the evolution and transformation of the group's awareness over a five year period. Adopting a hermeneutic perspective, this study is a discourse analysis of the group's language over a five year period as it evolves from bureaucratic to egalitarian. After analyzing the evolution of interpretive repertoires and the expansion and contraction of the cognitive horizon of possible meaning, I propose a framework for understanding the dynamics of meaning expansion in a group. The central thesis here is that a change in social relationships precedes the emergence of new knowledge. This study follows a management group that operates according to bureaucratic rationality. Under this framework for meaning transaction and interaction contexts, discourse focuses on problem identification and short-term solution search. Discourse is marked by negative, debilitating thought. Since agreement is most easily achieved through discussion of troublesome details, bonds between members are reinforced b y the cognitive search for identifying problems and the limits on possible action. Thinking is often deductive, logical, paradigmatic as most assertions require explicit proof and the range of imagined action is constricted. Within an egalitarian context, however, members develop a metacognitive capacity. Under this framework for meaning transaction, members' discourse begins to focus on valuing, in addition to problem solving, creating future scenarios of possible worlds rather than only identifying past problems. As members develop a common script for what constitutes co-authorship and successful meaning transactions in various groups and forums, language transcends its denotative functions and becomes liberated to connote possible worlds. New tacit agreements are achieved without logical, deductive battles. Members become capable of treating speech as playful and creative and are able to separate the person from the expressions.

Keywords

development cognitive organization

Advisor

Suresh Srivastva

Pages

296p.

Document number: case1054652909
Permalink: http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1054652909

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