The Epistemology of Resilient Organizations - Implications for Business Continuity Management
Eva Gatarik, Viktor Kulhavy, Rainer Born
2015
Abstract
Pointing out flaws and errors can be a risky pastime for those employees, whose information conflicts with theories and rules held dear by management. However, effective performance does not consist in strictly adhering to established rules. Instead, it is driven by a continuous search for meaning within organizational environments, which are, in turn, enacted upon emerging and redrafted meaning. Meaning based upon lived and reflected experience provides a corrective use of rules and, hence, more appropriate, effective results. Effective performance arises out of plausibility rather than accuracy. In the event of uncertainty, equivocation and doubt, people in organizations claiming resilience should jointly classify and interpret observed data into new knowledge so that subsequent action can tap into the prevailing business climate, reduce ambiguity, and offer more exciting prospects. A framework is introduced and applied to justify an organizational epistemology to assist the construction, processing and justification of meaning within organizations.
References
- Blatter, J., Haverland, M. 2012. Designing case studies: explanatory approaches in small-N research, Palgrave Macmillan. New York.
- Born, R., Gatarik, E. 2013. Knowledge management and cognitive science: Reflecting the limits of decision making, in Kreitler, S. (ed.), Cognition and Motivation: Forging an Interdisciplinary Perspective: 321-351, Cambridge University Press. Cambridge.
- Foucault, M. 1970. The order of things, Pantheon. New York.
- O'Leary, M., Chia, R. 2007. Epistemes and structures of sensemaking in organizational life. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16(4), 392-406.
- Tsoukas, H., Vladimirou, E. 2001. What is organizational knowledge? Journal of Management Studies, 38(7): 973-993.
- Tsoukas, H. 2009. A dialogical approach to the creation of new knowledge in organizations. Organization Science, 20(6), 941-957.
- Tsoukas, H. 2011. Craving for generality and small-N studies: A Wittgensteinian approach towards the epistemology of the particular in organization and management studies, in Buchanan, D., Bryman, A. (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Research methods: 285-301, Sage. Thousand Oaks, 2nd edition.
Paper Citation
in Harvard Style
Gatarik E., Kulhavy V. and Born R. (2015). The Epistemology of Resilient Organizations - Implications for Business Continuity Management . In Proceedings of the 7th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management - Volume 3: KMIS, (IC3K 2015) ISBN 978-989-758-158-8, pages 93-97. DOI: 10.5220/0005563100930097
in Bibtex Style
@conference{kmis15,
author={Eva Gatarik and Viktor Kulhavy and Rainer Born},
title={The Epistemology of Resilient Organizations - Implications for Business Continuity Management},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 7th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management - Volume 3: KMIS, (IC3K 2015)},
year={2015},
pages={93-97},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0005563100930097},
isbn={978-989-758-158-8},
}
in EndNote Style
TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 7th International Joint Conference on Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management - Volume 3: KMIS, (IC3K 2015)
TI - The Epistemology of Resilient Organizations - Implications for Business Continuity Management
SN - 978-989-758-158-8
AU - Gatarik E.
AU - Kulhavy V.
AU - Born R.
PY - 2015
SP - 93
EP - 97
DO - 10.5220/0005563100930097