[Ailist] AI & Postmodernism

Sat May 10 14:18:05 MDT 2008

Dear Lionel: 

As always, loved your posting! And here's another story. In 1994, as I was
finishing up my term as Chair of the NTL Board (NTL being the institution
full of 350 advisors to their own board!!) I decided to finally take the
time to do that PhD I'd thought about so often (took two Masters to get me
to move on!) My colleague, Charles Elliott (if you read his book, you know
that he made me memorize Harre!) was Dean of Trinity Hall (4th oldest
college in Cambridge we proudly say -- 1350!) and helped me through the
process of being accepted for the PhD program at the new faculty of the
Judge Institute of Management Studies. Charles Hampton-Turner was one of my
advisors and best I could tell, the only one who knew anything about OD and
behavioral science. A faculty member once actually said to me in horror,
"You're a social constructionist!" 

To make a long story somewhat shorter, after 2 years of research and
frustration (they also thought that collaborative research was an
abomination --one of those new-fangled American ideas -- until I pointed out
that Peter Reason of Bath University was a leading thinker in the field. I
purposely failed to mention that Peter is a Case grad! And I have to admit
that Peter told me I was going to the wrong University -- but who passes up
Cambridge????) I was struggling with whether to change strategies, change
faculties, or try to do a traditional PhD. 

I went to see my friend Adrien McLean, a consultant and past faculty with
Peter at Bath, who listened one more time to my saga and said: "You're
suffering from paradigmatic incommensurability!" 

"What the heck is that?" I inquired! 

He answered, "I means they don't know what the ****** you're talking about!"

So, I came home; admitted that I am primarily a practitioner who agrees with
Lewin that there is nothing so practical as a good theory; and, wrote the
book instead!

Let me hasten to say that I LOVED every minute at Cambridge and learned more
than I can tell! So the next time my Granddaughter said to me: "Gran, when
I'm as old as you, will I have to go to school???" -- my answer was "YES, if
you're lucky." (Samantha is now in collage and preparing to be a college
prof!!!) 

That's my social construction of that story, and I'm sticking to it!

Best to you!

Jane

Jane Magruder Watkins & Ralph Kelly
Appreciative Inquiry Unlimited
An Organization Development Center for Teaching, Consulting and Mentoring

Office & Home
233A Woodmere Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
(757) 259-9942

MarshHaven Retreat Center
P.O. Box 541
1702 Wheat Patch Road
Belhaven, NC 27810
(252) 964-3072 

www.appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com

Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination by Jane Magruder
Watkins & Bernard Mohr can be ordered from Amazon.com or JosseyBassWiley

-----Original Message-----
From: Lionel Boxer [mailto:lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au] 
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2008 3:28 PM
To: jane at appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com; ailist at lists.business.utah.edu;
'Parashu Ram'
Subject: RE: [Ailist] AI & Postmodernism

Fiurther to Parashu in light of Jane Magruder Watkins's comments

Perhaps I misunderstand what postmodernism is.

An interesting comment was made to me by a business school professor (a
statistician) "if you use postmodernism dont forget that you will have to
find someone to referee your PhD - so you do not want it to be too weird".
I am not sure if that is a reflection on business schools, the university he
was from, statisticians, or the professor.

One oif my cohort business faculty PhD students submitted his thesis in a
big cardboard box in an effort to be a postmodernist.  His intention was to
be postmodern.  I told him when he started that he was brave.  By the time
the administrators, referees and regulators were through with him he had
written and bound a traditional disertation/ thesis,which he included as one
of the artifacts that he had put in the box.  The thesis provided an
introduction, literature review, method, data collection, conclusion,
extensions, and so on.  So, in the end he could have left out the box and
the artifacts, and just crunched a bunch of survey data through a
statistical data analysis software package for the same business school PhD.

I on the other hand used discursive data, which I analysed with a social
constructionist (harre's positioning theory) framework under the veil of a
realist research paradigm driving a retroductive strategy.  Not
postmodernism in the sense that it scared the positivists, mind you, they
still thought it was a little weird.  As Rom Harre says, "I know some
behaviouralists - they are nice people".  I had not heard of Ai, but I am
sure that if I did use that the business schoolians would have bundled me up
and sent me to the fine arts department.  Then again, some fine arts
academics question whether or not there is anything at all academic about
business schools.

Is there hope for postmodernism beyond the postmodernist untopians in the
real world of positivism?

If you want to read an enjoyable thesis see http://intergon.net/phd or for a
real tonge in cheek approach to business see my book: The Sustainable Way
http://intergon.net/tsw or http://www.myspace.com/thesustainableway (turn up
the volume), which is an effort to turn my PhD into a novel to help business
leaders become more postmodern.

So, I suppose if you are planning to pursue a PhD harnessing postmodernism
you want to understand the context of your specific academy and faculty, and
determine whether or not the academics you will be subjected to for three or
four years can cope with postmodernism.  If not, save the postmodernism for
post-doctorial pursuits.

I have always admired the work of Ken and David and Jane and the rest of
those on this list, but we tend to be extraordinary in the ordinary world of
academia.

;-)

Lionel Boxer CD PhD MBA BTech(IndEng) - 0411267256
Associate of RMIT University - lionel.boxer at rmit.edu.au
Graduate School of Business
What's up?: http://intergon.net/events.html
The Sustainable Way: http://intergon.net/tsw

>>> "Jane Magruder Watkins" <jane at appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com>
11/05/2008 4:11 am >>>
Dear Parashu:

I have a story for you. When I first met David in the mid-1980's as he was
finishing his PhD at Case, I was very interested in learning more about his
work. He said, "I'll send you a copy of the book that started me on this
journey into post-modernism." I have to admit that I didn't have a clue who
Ken Gergen was and didn't know a great deal about post-modern thought. A few
days later, a Xeroxed copy of Ken's first book arrived (it was out of print
at the time) and I began my journey with David into the world of AI!

It was Ken's work that sent David on this journey -- post modern for sure!

Best to you,

Jane

Jane Magruder Watkins & Ralph Kelly
Appreciative Inquiry Unlimited
An Organization Development Center for Teaching, Consulting and Mentoring

Office & Home
233A Woodmere Drive
Williamsburg, VA 23185
(757) 259-9942

MarshHaven Retreat Center
P.O. Box 541
1702 Wheat Patch Road
Belhaven, NC 27810
(252) 964-3072 

www.appreciativeinquiryunlimited.com 

Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination by Jane Magruder
Watkins & Bernard Mohr can be ordered from Amazon.com or JosseyBassWiley

-----Original Message-----
From: ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu 
[mailto:ailist-bounces at lists.business.utah.edu] On Behalf Of Parashu Ram
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2008 10:18 AM
To: ailist at lists.business.utah.edu 
Subject: [Ailist] AI & Postmodernism

Dear All
I am in search of materials that can prove that AI is a postmodern theory.
Can anybody help me with the resources (websites/url or any other) that help
me to find out the linkage between AI & Postmodernism? If you have written
any article on the subject, that will also help me. 

Appreciatively
Parashu Ram Timalsina
Nepal 