Pragmatism: A lived and living philosophy. What can it offer to contemporary organization theory?

Bente Elkjaer; Barbara Simpson

doi:10.1108/S0733-558X(2011)0000032005

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Research in the Sociology of Organizations

ISSN: 0733-558X
Series editor(s): Professor Michael Lounsbury

Subject Area: Organization Studies

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Pragmatism: A lived and living philosophy. What can it offer to contemporary organization theory?

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Title:	Pragmatism: A lived and living philosophy. What can it offer to contemporary organization theory?
Author(s):	Bente Elkjaer, Barbara Simpson
Volume:	32 Editor(s): Haridimos Tsoukas, Robert Chia ISBN: 978-0-85724-595-3 eISBN: 978-0-85724-596-0
Citation:	Bente Elkjaer, Barbara Simpson (2011), Pragmatism: A lived and living philosophy. What can it offer to contemporary organization theory?, in Haridimos Tsoukas, Robert Chia (ed.) Philosophy and Organization Theory (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 32), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.55-84
DOI:	10.1108/S0733-558X(2011)0000032005 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Chapter Item
Abstract:	In the past, critics have dismissed American Pragmatism as intellectually naïve and philosophically passé, but in this chapter we argue that it still has much to offer the field of organization studies. Pragmatism is especially relevant to those organizational scholars who are concerned with understanding the dynamic processes and practices of organizational life. This chapter lays out the historical development of Pragmatism, recognizing the originating contributions of Peirce, James, Dewey and Mead. Although each of these writers developed unique philosophical positions, their ideas are all permeated by four key themes: experience, inquiry, habit and transaction. The interplay between these themes informs a temporal view of social practice in which selves and situations are continuously constructed and reconstructed through experimental and reflexive processes of social engagement. We then use organizational learning theory as an example to illustrate the relevance of these four themes, contrasting the anti-dualistic stance of Pragmatism with the work of Argyris and Schön. Finally we turn to consider Weick's organizing and sensemaking, suggesting that Pragmatism offers three potential foci for further development of these theories, namely continuity of past and future in the present, the transactional nature of social agency and reflexivity in social practices. Similarly we see potential for Pragmatism to productively inform the theorizing of other organizational practices such as identity work, strategy work, emotion work and idea work.