| Unlimited by Design: A Journey from Monism to Pluralism |
| | Lechner, Anat | Rutgers U., Newark | lechner@pegasus.rutgers.edu | (212)737-6190 |
| | The Pluralistic doctrine views reality as made of unlimited substances with no one overriding explanatory paradigm. In a world where advanced technology allows for customized batches, where the voice of each and every individual can be heard by many via chat rooms, web pages, etc., where competitors from overseas can have their 'garage sale' in your backyard, universal designs become key to establishing and maintaining competitive position.
Universal designs are very different animals. These designs strive to understand and incorporate solutions to the needs of all potential users. They are flexible, responsive and capable of self-referential process, learning, innovativeness, and changeability. They are formed around the notion of processes rather than functions, and become independent of their originator and interdependent on their environment. Only then these designs are capable of celebrating pluralism.
This paper theorizes about the journey from the traditional-rational-hierarchy to the dynamic-unlimited by design-organizational model. It draws on examples from the architectural field to demonstrate monistic and pluralistic design philosophies. It unfolds design themes that underlie the post-modernistic architecture of the New Guggenheim museum, Bilbao - Spain, and contrasts it with the modern architecture design of the NYC Guggenheim museum. The learning generated from this comparative analysis is then discussed in the context of organizational design philosophies, and the 'unlimited by design' principle is introduced and examined. The following conceptualization concludes with sets of implications both to researchers, mangers, and practitioners.
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| | Keywords: Design philosophies; Pluralism-Monism; Organizational architecture |
| From Dairy Cooperative to Multinational Corporation: Managing Multiple Stakeholders at the Kerry Group plc |
| | Kennelly, James J. | Skidmore College | jkennell@skidmore.edu | (518)-580-5108 |
| | Ahlstrom, David C. | Chinese U. of Hong Kong | david2099@cuhk.edu.hk | (852) 2609-7748 |
| | This paper recounts the evolution of Kerry Group plc from a small dairy cooperative in rural County Kerry, Ireland to a publicly traded multinational enterprise and global player in the food and food ingredients business. This "journey" is instructive as more than merely a recipe for economic success, for Kerry Group manifests a unique level of pluralism in its management of and governance by multiple stakeholder groups. This form of "stakeholder management" has often been described in theory but rarely encountered in practice. Kerry has journeyed from its original business of dairying and milk processing to a sophisticated, high technology food ingredients business - yet retains its "link with the land" and those who farm it. It has journeyed from a regional farm cooperative serving the west of Ireland to a global corporation with most of its people, plants, sales and profits located outside Ireland - yet still retains a "sense of place" and local loyalty deeply rooted in the soil of its birthplace. It has journeyed from a cooperative form of organization to a publicly traded corporation - yet is still largely controlled by the cooperative and the individual farmers who founded it.
This paper offers three noteworthy observations: 1) Kerry's application of stakeholder theory, 2) its unique form of corporate governance as a "hybrid" cooperative/publicly owned corporation and 3) the continuing "rootedness" or "embeddedness" of this multinational firm in its home country.
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| | Keywords: Cooperative Organizations; Multinational Enterprises; Stakeholder Management |
| Making Democracy Work: Organization Development for a Pluralistic World |
| | Purser, Ronald E. | San Francisco State U. | Rpurser@sfsu.edu | 415-338-2380 |
| | This essay argues that our current conceptions of democracy and corporate governance structures are maladaptive for a pluralistic knowledge economy.
The management of human assets requires us to view the corporation as a membership organization, where different stakeholder interests are balanced through more direct forms of democracy and participation. The democratic organization challenges the myth of strong, homogeneous conceptions of culture, and calls for creating a democratic culture that allows a plurality of voices to shape the future of the firm. Democratic organizations not only use participation to improve the means of production, but also provide their members the freedom of choice over purposes the organization will serve. New OD interventions should be aimed at helping organizations to align the means of production with the ends and purposes of their members. By doing so, these organizations will appeal to the higher order "meta-needs" necessary for self-actualization and achieving synergy with society.
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| | Keywords: Democracy; Corporate Governance; Knowledge Work |
| Collaborative Organizing: An Organizational Model for a New Paradigm |
| | Robertson, Peter J. | U. of Southern California | robertso@rcf.usc.edu | 213-740-0353 |
| | A significant transformation in the nature of organizations has been unfolding for twenty years. Various changes are making
organizations more compatible with the demands of a pluralistic world, but more extensive transformation is necessary before
an organizational form fully congruent with the needs of a pluralistic society emerges. This paper provides an overview of
"collaborative organizing," a new model of organization that is more appropriate for the conditions of pluralism, i.e., an "ideal type"
to replace the bureaucratic hierarchy. Collaborative organizing is described in terms of three categories of characteristics --
purpose, design, and functioning. Key features of these organizations are that: their primary purpose and indicator of effectiveness
is the improvement of societal well-being; they are self-organizing and self-managing; they utilize an "inside-out" model of
governance and consensus decision making; they rely on "servant leadership" and management is replaced by "facilitation;"
power and influence are based on expertise and adherence to norms of reciprocity; members are intrinsically motivated by an
alignment between organizational and personal interests; collective evaluations of member performance are used to promote
development; and effective organizational learning enables them to remain adaptable. The paper concludes with a brief overview of
an emerging "new paradigm" literature, which argues that the world is in the midst of a fundamental transformation to a new, more
collaborative paradigm. If this global paradigm shift does take place, collaborative organizing awaits as a viable and valuable model
of organization. |
| | Keywords: collaboration; transformation; evolution |