Exploring the practical wisdom of mētis for management learning

Abstract

Abstract:This paper investigates the nature of practical wisdom in organizational life through the notion of mētis, which we interpret as situated resourcefulness. Drawing on Greek mythology, we explore the nature of mētis and discuss its mythological characteristics in relation to a contemporary organizational episode. We suggest that the consideration of mētis not only highlights the shortcomings of measurement and conceptual order in management, but also allows us to project a more processual managerial response which accepts the fallacy of unilateral control and strives towards a harmonic balance of continually unfolding, dynamic and recursive patterns.

Recovering the Divide: A Review of Strategy and Tactics in Business and Management

“…What appears to be missing at present is a clearer link of these ideas with contemporary examples of strategic and tactical manoeuvring and other forms of guerrilla warfare in organizational practice (e.g. Mackay et al 2014;McCabe 2009;Pech and Slade 2003). Without these links, the rich insights that may be offered by both sociological and processual views face the danger of being side-lined as obscure and arcane.…”

“…Mackay et al . ; McCabe ; Pech and Slade ). Without these links, the rich insights that may be offered by both sociological and processual views face the danger of being side‐lined as obscure and arcane.…”

“…Here it may be helpful to elevate our appreciation of tactics. Rather than seeing them as merely subordinate processes, tactics can bring about powerful political opposition to directives of strategists, and we have identified a well-documented set of examples illustrating the efficacy of lobbying tactics (Holburn et al 2014), 'strange' idiosyncratic tactical moves (Chang and Park 2012), or dissimulating tactics (Chen and Hambrick 1995;Mackay et al 2014;Sherwood 1990). Crucially, such tactics gain 188 D. Mackay and M. Zundel more traction the more they are up against rigidly formalized, abstract and long-term strategies, as tactical responses feed off the frictions and rigidities inherent in these.…”

The Relative Role of the Intellectual and Moral Virtues in Sustainable Management Decisions: The Case of Practical Wisdom and Justice

“…Management has mainly investigated two virtues-practical wisdom and justice-precisely because the concept of unity of virtues is not complete but instead is presented in its weak form and is also present in the management profession. Practical wisdom has been studied in strategy [16], in organizational learning [18], and in other fields of management regarding learning and management education [20]. Managers are deemed to need practical wisdom to develop their technical skills, as practical wisdom is seen as the crucial virtue of knowledge.…”

Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice with Design-Based Action Research

“…In addition to Scott's use of mētis to provide conceptual policy approaches in the field of international development, a renaissance of mētis can be witnessed especially in the applied sciences. More specifically, it has been rejuvenated for improvements in, inter alia, management learning (e.g., Mackay, Zundel, & Alkirwi, 2014) and organizational theory (e.g., Letiche & Statler, 2005). These two articles provide a detailed and compelling genealogy of mētis from the Greek mythology and its adoption into modern thought by Detienne and Vernant (1978).…”