The words (and sometimes even concepts) that we use to describe how we approach and confront our subject matter.
What is a paradigm?
100
They believe that there is one (and only one) “reality” and it exists independent of any one observer’s perspective.
What are positivists?
100
A set of general principles to explain both natural and social phenomena.
What is general systems theory?
100
A set of components or elements that are interrelated, interactive, and interdependent.
What is a system?
100
A part of a system that separates it from other systems.
What is a boundary?
200
When long periods of stability are punctuated by radical, discontinuous shifts in the basic assumptions held by members of that field.
What is a paradigm shift?
200
They believe there is no “objective reality” because reality is constructed by individuals based on their own experience and beliefs.
What are social constructionists?
200
Seemingly contradictory opposition within a social system.
What is a paradox?
200
Everything beyond the boundary of the system.
What is the environment?
200
The space through which exchanges between systems must pass.
What is an interface?
300
What theories developed under different paradigms that have no common criteria for adjudicating differences are said to be.
What is incommensurable?
300
They believe there is no “objective reality” and that word meanings should be deconstructed to reveal inconsistencies and hidden hierarchies.
What are postmodernists?
300
When separate cognitive worlds of different individuals begin to overlap or converge.
What is symbolic convergence?
300
A means for organizations to determine how outputs compare with goals and how well outputs are received in the environment.
What is feedback?
300
The idea that organizations and other social institutions are fragmented and cohesive system-like behavior can only be found in localized “patches” within the organization.
What is local determinism?
400
A person’s set of beliefs about the nature of reality.
What is ontology?
400
They would argue that hierarchical distinctions are not based on inherent, universalistic principles such as merit, truth, or reason.
What are postmodernists?
400
A theory which interprets the scientific emphases of positivism as having embedded in them a bias of their own.
What is critical theory?
400
The natural tendency to move toward equilibrium.
What is homeostasis?
400
The tendency of systems to drift toward disorder.
What is entropy?
500
A person’s beliefs about the nature of knowledge.
What is epistemology?
500
The process by which attempts are made to transcend the initial “starting points” of the respective paradigms and generate new conceptual frameworks by weaving together insights from multiple paradigmatic traditions.
What is metaparadigm theory building?
500
An organization’s unexamined values and assumptions that affect how meaning is produced.