Organizing Reflection: A Social Approach to Management Learning, Schemes and Mind Maps of Dynamics

Download Organizing Reflection: A Social Approach to Management Learning and more Schemes and Mind Maps Dynamics in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 1 Organizing Reflection: An Introduction Michael Reynolds and Russ Vince The idea for this volume emerged from our shared critique of the current theory and practice of reflection. Our motivation is to show the potential for developments within this field, to bring together some of the best thinking and writing, and particularly to extend perceptions of reflection beyond the enduring notion of the ‘reflective practitioner’. The starting point for our critique is that reflection has been seen primarily as a key element of individual learning and the application of learning, rather than as an organizing process. In practice, the responsibility for reflection is often located with the individual, either to do it for her/himself (when there’s time), or to be responsible for the review of other individuals’ performance, mostly in relation to people within subordinate roles. In other words, reflection has been primarily concerned with individual rather than organization development. Our aim is to bring together a collection of chapters that can help to underpin a shift in thinking about reflection and what reflection involves in practice. Our view is that less emphasis needs to be placed on reflection as the task of individuals, and more emphasis needs to be put on creating collective and organizationally focused processes for reflection. Another way of saying this is: less about the individual reflective practitioner and more about organizing reflection. The chapters we have chosen to include within this book provide stimulating reading on how the organization of reflection might be accomplished and the various issues that are likely to need to be addressed. Collectively, the chapters further both the theory and practice of reflection. They discuss notions such as communities of practice, collective reflection, critical reflection, practical reflexivity and reflexive dynamics; they focus on power relations, experience, emotions and dialogue; they contribute to the development of the theory and application of reflection in management education, adult education, organization theory and pedagogy. Through their contributions, the authors share with the editors a desire to open out the concept of reflection to discussion and debate, to represent the complexities and subtleties of reflection as an organizing process, and to highlight the ground from which further research and insight can be developed. Organizing Reflection 2 On Reflection The idea of organizing reflection owes a great deal to authors who have made reflection a central concept of management and organizational learning. Donald Schön’s work in developing the idea of the ‘reflective practitioner’ has explicated the tacit element involved in learning and has influenced thinking and practice in both Adult Education and Management Learning. At least as much must be said of David Kolb whose scholarly work drawing on Dewey, Piaget and Lewin has arguably contributed more than anyone to furthering research and development of theory and practice in management and organizational learning. The tradition on which authors such as Kolb and Schön have drawn is a conception of learning that emphasises the crucial role of experience – particularly appropriate as the foundation for understanding the processes and approaches of professional development. These authors have acknowledged in particular the work of the educator and educational philosopher John Dewey, and it is instructive to discuss his ideas and those of others who have contributed to the understanding on which it is the intention of this project to build. In this section of the introduction we provide a brief review in order to set the broader context for the discussions of reflection that are included within this volume. After a summary of foundational ideas in experiential or reflective learning we will mention two further developments which are related to this volume and that we believe are important for future thinking about reflection as an organizational rather than individual process. These are: first, the relatively recent concern with a critical interpretation of reflection and second, and related to the first, an emphasis on reflection as a collective approach, which takes account of social, organizational and cultural processes. Reflection: Learning from Experience A close reading of theories that emphasise reflection reveals why it has come to occupy a position of such status in accounts of professional and managerial learning. Schön (1983) describes his concept of ‘reflection-in-action’ as consisting in: on-the-spot surfacing, criticizing, restructuring, and testing of intuitive understanding of experienced phenomena; often it takes the form of a reflective conversation with the situation (pp. 241-242 emphasis added). Similarly, in Kolb’s (1984) theory of experiential learning, learning is depicted as a process in which ‘ideas are not fixed and immutable elements of thought but are formed and reformed through experience’ (p. 26). Kolb’s work has amply illustrated the importance of John Dewey’s ideas and their contribution to theoretical and practical developments in understanding learning. Dewey (1916) wrote of learning as the ‘intentional pursuit of a course of action’ (p. 138), of the relation between trying things out and reflecting on the consequences. Anticipating contemporary thinking, Dewey described the process of reflecting on experience: Introduction 5 an epistemology of practice implicit in the artistic, intuitive processes which some practitioners do bring to situations of uncertainty, instability, uniqueness, and value conflict (p.49). Schön anticipated contemporary critical management thinking when he stressed that the technical rationality implicit in organizational problem solving paid insufficient attention to ends and means (1983, p. 39). An example of the critical alternative can be seen in Willmott’s proposals (1994 and 1997) for developing action learning on more critical lines than has usually been the case in management development. Willmott stresses the value of action learning as an approach because it is grounded in organizational events, but argues for an alternative to the narrower, usually psychological perspectives applied to the analysis of them (see also Pedler, 1997). In the same way, Coopey (1995) has made the case for foregrounding questions of power and politics within Organizational Learning. A Collective Approach to Understanding Reflection The overall theme of this volume is to develop ways of thinking about learning and reflection as a collective rather than a primarily individual process. As we argued in the previous section, taking account of social and political processes has not been given as much attention as it deserves in studies of learning and reflection. Not only has reflection been thought of as primarily an individual activity,1 but also experience – the focus for reflection – has been cast in a way which takes insufficient account of its social, organizational and cultural nature. In experiential learning, the social context is seen as an influence on the content of experience, rather than experience itself consisting of culturally constructed values and beliefs (Hudson, 1983). As Brah and Hoy have observed, Can experience ever be constituted outside of social relations? We do not think so. Each of us, though unique as individuals, are positioned within society alongside hierarchies of power constructed around such factors as class, caste, racism, gender, age and sexuality (1989, p. 71). There are schools of thought which have played an important part in theorising organizational processes and which do emphasise a social perspective, notably in the contributions of psychoanalytic theory (for an overview see Gabriel and Carr, 2002), systems psychodynamic theory (Neumann, 1999; Vince, 2001; Gould et al. 2001) and group relations (French and Vince, 1999; Gutmann, 2003). All of these approaches share the assumption that ‘organizations, as parts of society, become sites where broader social and cultural dynamics are enacted’ (Gabriel and Carr, 2002, p. 355) and that such dynamics have a profound impact on the complex emotional, social and political relations and actions that are involved in organizing. More specifically in relation to management and organizational learning, writing on social and political theories of learning and organizing (Gherardi et al. 1998; Gherardi and Nicolini, 2001) has provided further insights into the ways in which Organizing Reflection 6 learning stems from the participation of individuals in social activities. This sociological perspective has been particularly important for notions of reflection and reflexivity, especially in pointing towards the ways in which reflection both interrupts the flow of experience to produce knowledge and continues to reflect existing ways of seeing, giving rise to the institutionalization of knowledge (Gherardi and Nicolini, 2001, p. 35). These thoughts provide further explanation of why we are using the phrase organizing reflection, which is to represent our view that reflection is best understood as a socially situated, relational, political and collective process, and that there are both theoretical and practical advantages to this perspective – especially in relation to management and organizational learning. Transforming current thinking about reflection from its focus on the individual practitioner was the theme we wanted to develop, and it was this that gave rise to the invitation to which the contributing authors in this book responded. Our aim was to bring together different ways in which academic colleagues in different contexts are reinterpreting and developing ideas about reflection which assume that it is a social, relational and collective process as well as an individual one. In summary, and before outlining the chapters which follow, our intention in this introduction has been to acknowledge the considerable contribution of earlier writers in education and in management theory who have established the concept of reflection as central to the theory and practice of management and organizational learning. The research, debates and generation of theory that has stemmed from this work have provided the tradition within which the papers in this volume are situated. We have also briefly outlined two related themes in organizational learning theory that we see as central to this project. These themes are the recent preoccupation with critical perspectives as a necessary development in management theory and practice, and a concern to conceptualize the organization of reflection as a critical and a collective process. Both these themes are further explored within this volume and both, as a number of our contributors illustrate, are of theoretical and practical significance. In particular, the position broadly taken by this collection of essays reinforces the importance attached to experience and of situating reflection as integral to working and learning in a professional and organizational context. There are, as we shall see in the chapters that follow, implications here for theory and professional practice and many questions are raised for educators and for managers engaged in attempts to learn and to organize. The Contributions in this Volume Ann Welsh and Gordon Dehler focus on the process through which critical reflections become organized. They are interested in how members of communities of practice share, elaborate, combine and reconcile ‘social and political taken for granteds’ and they argue that this process is what provides the learning capacity necessary for organized reflection. Their reframing of reflection connects to efforts Introduction 7 to find alternatives to instrumental perspectives on management action. They help the reader to move beyond the common idea of identifying problems and finding solutions, to rethink how management practitioners relate to action. Their interest is in the ways in which critical reflection can elaborate and extend the process of action, allowing reflective space to reshape and to play with problems, not to solve them. For Welsh and Dehler, critique creates a focus on attention processes in communities of practice (to whom and about what do we pay attention). Organizational members interact with agendas that concern both necessity and possibility. In elaborating the nature of possibility in communities of practice they suggest that critical reflection helps members to pay attention and to play with attention processes so that problems become reformulated as actions. Therefore, organized reflection involves both ‘paying attention’, through critical reflection, and ‘playing attention’ through attempts to organize reflections. Organized reflection means learning to be political, learning about the power relations within and between communities of practice. From a perspective that communities of practice can provide an organizational context for emancipatory action, they are optimistic that managerial ability to appropriate communities of practice (as a technique) is limited. The premise of Ann Cunliffe and Mark Easterby-Smith’s chapter is that a reflective approach to experience-based learning can be enhanced through practical reflexivity. They build on Heidegger’s notion of meditative thinking to reconstruct experience-based learning, arguing that learning does not arise from ‘reflection-on- action’ (retrospective thought processes) or from ‘reflection-in-action’ (conscious experimenting in action), but from practical reflexivity – tacit, practical forms of knowledge questioning and exploring about how we construct identities and realities. Practical reflexivity is understood as ‘learning in experience’ as distinct from reflecting on experience. Experiential learning therefore, is not a technique for reflecting on experience, but an ongoing questioning of how we construct a shared sense with others. They explain the need for a shift in our understanding of reflection from being a cognitive activity that gives order to situations, to a dialogical and relational activity designed to ‘unsettle conventional practices’. They examine the difference between reflection and reflexivity for pedagogy and practice. The importance of their insights is that they highlight social, cultural and political processes, which enhance ‘learning in experience’. They argue that reflection easily becomes a disembodied process because it involves the individual turning him/herself into objects of study. For reflexive learning to work, managers must be prepared to challenge and be challenged. This then leads to a discussion of the political implications of reflexive learning. In her chapter, Elena Antonacopoulou offers the reader important insights concerning the political and emotional implications of reflexive learning. She argues that we need a clearer understanding of the dynamics which underpin reflexive practice, and that these dynamics can be traced particularly within the relationship between learning and changing. She draws on her studies of managers in the financial services sector (UK), identifying the social, political and emotional dynamics that underpin the way individual managers negotiate their understanding of learning and changing. She examines the political dynamics of reflexivity and Organizing Reflection 10 into the emotional and political dynamics of organizing that surround their own practice, relating this to management knowledge and action. They are particularly concerned with how to address power in the classroom. For them this is not only an academic exercise, but also has implications for helping students to better understand organization. They interpret ‘organizing reflection’ in terms of how both teachers of management and management practitioners might organize reflection with /for others in order to raise and reflect on emotional and political dynamics involved in organizing. Mary Hartog explores the relationship between her individual ‘journey of becoming a reflective educator’ and the social context in and through which that journey has been shaped. She sees reflection as ‘living theory’, as a process of self- awareness through reflective inquiry, and as a social process of learning that involves the participation of individuals with one another in a collective learning process. This is a search for meaning with people that she calls ‘critical friendship’, a concept that is not further developed within this chapter. Organizing reflection, as with Janet McGivern and Jane Thompson, is constructed as ‘how I organize reflection with and for others’, and Mary examines her own experience in this regard as well as the experience of two students on a programme of management education. She suggests that organising reflection is concerned with: education for democracy, education that moves beyond the individual, processes that are linked to the mutual capability of individuals with others, as well as the assumption of an ethical imperative, that such mutual capability is constructed in the context of moral relationships. Therefore, in terms of the impact of reflection in management education, she argues that an awareness of the oppressive experiences within their own stories is what will enable practitioners to develop a critique of their practice. The final two chapters are rather different views of organizing reflection from the other contributions in this volume in that they are situated more within a North American tradition of adult and community education as social action. In our view there are several points of connection, shared insights and interests that arise between critical management education and critical adult education, that both of these chapters illustrate well. In their chapter, Dorothy Lander, Leona English and Allan Quigley reflect on their experience of applying for and receiving a ‘Curriculum Innovation Award’ for innovative educational work on their graduate programme in adult education. They developed their submission to the Award Commission as a process of collaborative inquiry into the individual reflective practices of faculty members and graduate students. In relation to the task of this volume, they highlight interconnections between reflection as an individual practice and as an organizing process (within the context of the university and in relation to the broader social impact of adult education). The authors provide excerpts from their nominating materials and make new connections between their tacit selection process, their explicit knowledge of their purpose, and the academic adult education audience they were addressing for the Award. They therefore organize a retrospective reflection around the original nominating materials, and construct a reflexive dialogue into their teaching practices. For the authors, this dialogue is rooted in a critical perspective, ‘characterized by interrogation of status quo norms and practices, especially with respect to issues of power and control’. The aim of writing the Introduction 11 chapter was to mobilize a further process of reflection: ‘to give more serious attention to the organizing processes and social practices in our application’. Such reflection allowed the authors to gain insights into the social setting of the programme and to identify an implicit strategic discourse that emerged from an acknowledgment of positioning by gender, race, and class. They conclude that this is a valuable discourse to support curriculum innovation in adult education. Scott Peters, Hélène Grégoire and Margo Hittleman ask how educators might be encouraged to think imaginatively, hopefully and critically about the ways in which a social-action focus could be put into practice. They discuss and develop Paulo Freire’s idea of ‘a pedagogy of hope’, asking how can we remain critical yet optimistic. Their questions are a challenge not only to those educators who want to organize critical, collective reflection with a goal towards social action, but also to management educators and human resource practitioners. They discuss two projects as examples of collective reflection. The central process of both projects is the development of ‘practitioner profiles’ – first person accounts of educators’ practice stories, used as a tool for guiding and grounding collective reflection, as well as opening up broader politics and power relations. By encouraging educators to formulate and reflect on their stories in print the profiles provided them with a distanced perspective on their own thinking and work, and opportunities for reflection on assumptions. Through their interventions they helped to produce more complex layers of reflection that helped individuals to question not only what is done, but why and for whom. They also remind us that ‘processes of reflection are far less tidy in practice than they tend to sound in the literature’, highlighting the lessons learned from the complex social and educational situations described. Conclusion The chapters in this volume provide the reader with a selection of well-written and well-argued papers. The authors outline limitations with the current theory and practice of reflection, as well as providing insights on reflection as an organizing process. Bringing this collection together has reinforced the Editors’ view that there is considerable potential for development within this area of management and organization studies. The contributions support a shift towards collective and organizationally focused processes for reflection. The varied interpretations of organizing reflection in these chapters represent different understandings of reflection and reflexivity, different ways of understanding reflection as critical and collective, and different needs and expectations in relation to what organizing reflection can achieve. There are several important questions that have been raised. A brief selection might include: how can reflection be a stable and self-sustaining feature of organizing; to what extent is it possible to ‘unsettle conventional practices’ through organizing reflection (and thereby promote organization level learning); how might individuals organize critical/ collective reflection in order to challenge assumptions and to enrich approaches to education and development; how can organizational members better learn to challenge and to be challenged; Organizing Reflection 12 and how can reflection be integral to social action as part of adult and community education? Collectively, the chapters help the reader to understand how the theory and practice of organizing reflection might be developed. An interest in the organization of reflection implies both a critical interpretation of reflection and a collective approach, with a focus on social, organizational and cultural processes. The phrase organizing reflection represents a shared assumption among the editors and authors – that reflection is inevitably attached to social and political issues that are mobilised through attempts to reflect within an organizational context. Problems with the organization of reflection are likely to arise from approaches that continue to reinforce individuals’ responsibility to reflect, while at the same time ignoring ways in which an organizational emphasis for reflection can be achieved, both in theory and in practice. Notes 1. Although there are mentions of this, as in Kolb’s reference to ‘dialogue’ (1984, p. 2) and Schön’s reference to a commitment to collective inquiry’ (1987, p. 342). References Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (eds) (1992), Critical Management Studies. Sage, London. Brah, A. and Hoy, J. (1989), ‘Experiential Learning: a New Orthodoxy’. In S.W. Weil and I. McGill (eds) Making Sense of Experiential Learning. 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