Managing the Future Foresight in the Knowledge Economy

by Tsoukas, Haridimos; Shepherd, Jill

• ISBN13: 9781405116152
• ISBN10: 1405116153
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-07-16
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Summary

In this book, leading authors explore ways in which organizations can develop their ability to manage the future. An exploration of the ways in which organizations can develop their ability to manage the future. Consists of ten papers written by authors from both sides of the Atlantic and from Asia, all of whom are distinguished scholars in the fields of strategy or organizational learning. Addresses key questions about how organizational foresight can be conceptualized and developed, and the extent to which it is possible. The papers are prefaced by a foreword from Spyros Makridakis and an introduction from the editors. Helps to shape a new research agenda, and so will be of interest to academics, as well as to students and practitioners.

Author Biography

Haridimos Tsoukas is the George D. Mavros Research Professor of Organization and Management at the Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA), Greece and Professor of Organization Studies, Warwick Business School, UK. He has published widely in several leading academic journals, including the Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Studies, Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, and Human Relations. He is the Editor-in-Chief of Organization Studies, serves on the Editorial Board of several journals and is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory: Meta-theoretical Perspectives (OUP, 2003).

Jill Shepherd is Assistant Professor of Management at the Faculty of Business Administration, Simon Fraser University, and co-organizer of the First International Conference on Organizational Foresight in the Knowledge Economy. Her research interests centre around the use of evolutionary theory, particularly a branch called memetics, to investigate knowledge creation and innovation within corporates, high tech firms and clusters. Prior to becoming an academic, Jill worked in industry both in an international corporate setting and in a ‘dot.com’ and operated as an international management consultant for a number of years.

Table of Contents

Figures	vii
Tables	viii
Notes on the Contributors	ix
Foreword: Foresight Matters	xiii
Spyros Makridakis
Introduction: Organizations and the Future, From Forecasting to Foresight	1	(18)
Haridimos Tsoukas
Jill Shepherd
Part I: Making Sense of Organizational Foresight	19	(56)
Re-educating Attention: What is Foresight and How is it Cultivated?	21	(17)
Robert Chia
Invention and Navigation as Contrasting Metaphors of the Pathways to the Future	38	(20)
V. K. Narayanan
Liam Fahey
Strategy and Time: Really Recognizing the Future	58	(17)
T. K. Das
Part II: Foresight and Organizational Learning	75	(56)
Foresight or Foreseeing? A Social Action Explanation of Complex Collective Knowing	77	(21)
David R. Schwandt
Margaret Gorman
Retrospective Sensemaking and Foresight: Studying the Past to Prepare for the Future	98	(11)
Raanan Lipshitz
Neta Ron
Micha Popper
Can Illusion of Control Destroy a Firm's Competence? The Case of Forecasting Ability	109	(22)
Rodolphe Durand
Part III: Developing Foresightful Organizations	131	(73)
Time Traveling: Organizational Foresight as Temporal Reflexivity	133	(18)
Miguel Pina E. Cunha
The Concept of ``Weak Signals'' Revisited: A Re-description From a Constructivist Perspective	151	(18)
David Seidl
Meta-rules for Entrepreneurial Foresight	169	(18)
Ted Fuller
Paul Argyle
Paul Moran
Autopoietic Limitations of Probing the Future	187	(17)
Deborah A. Blackman
Steven Henderson
Afterword: Insights into Foresight	204	(8)
Kees van der Heijden
Index	212