Search results

1 – 10 of over 1000
Article
Publication date: 1 June 1997

Lewis E. Hill and Eleanor T. von Ende

Explains that Michael Polanyi was an internationally reputed philosopher who may be remembered as the greatest epistemologist of the twentieth century. The one aspect of his…

644

Abstract

Explains that Michael Polanyi was an internationally reputed philosopher who may be remembered as the greatest epistemologist of the twentieth century. The one aspect of his philosophy which has been neglected is his philosophy of history. Sets out to explicate Polanyi’s interpretation of the history of the late modern period. He emphasized the historical importance of three revolutions: the French Revolution; the Bolshevik Revolution; and the Hungarian Revolution. Polanyi called for a return to traditional moral values, such as truth, justice, and love. Presents a clarification of Polanyi’s interpretation of late modern history which it is hoped will contribute to the resolution of the crisis which threatens contemporary civilization.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 May 1981

J. Ron Stanfield

Karl Polanyi (1886–1964) was educated in Hungary, worked in exile in Vienna in the 1920s, and after 1933 alternated his residence between England and the USA. His early career was…

Abstract

Karl Polanyi (1886–1964) was educated in Hungary, worked in exile in Vienna in the 1920s, and after 1933 alternated his residence between England and the USA. His early career was in law and philosophy, then international relations. From 1940 to his death, he concentrated on universal economic history, a broadly defined area encompassing fields that are more conventionally known as economic anthropology, economic history, and comparative economic systems. This work aimed ultimately at the creation of a new and more universal economic theory, founded on the interaction of economy and society, i.e., social economics.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 8 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2015

Struan Jacobs

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of management ideas as a resource for developing a new understanding of science and society.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the role of management ideas as a resource for developing a new understanding of science and society.

Design/methodology/approach

Three important articles of Polanyi are studied in detail.

Findings

That writings of Graicunas, Foch and Liddell Hart definitely influenced the development of Polanyi’s thinking and writings of Gulick, Mooney among other management/organization theorists also likely contributed to Polanyi’s thought.

Research limitations/implications

The study opens a new seam for Polanyi intellectual – historical scholarship.

Practical implications

The article sheds light on facets of scientific life, including how scientists themselves participate in the overall management of science.

Social implications

This discussion of Polanyi deepens the appreciation of Liberal society’s functioning.

Originality/value

No other Polanyi scholar has dug deeply into the history of management, considering its intellectual value to Polanyi.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 31 May 2011

Fuat Oğuz and Ayşe Elif Şengün

This study aims to discuss how organizational researchers use the concept of tacit knowledge. The concept has become a “buzzword” in the last decade and has given rise to an

3191

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to discuss how organizational researchers use the concept of tacit knowledge. The concept has become a “buzzword” in the last decade and has given rise to an extensive literature. The current study views tacit knowledge as a crucial concept that may help link individual understanding and skills and organizational routines and capabilities, a rare topic of discussion in extant literature.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper also addresses some of the misunderstandings in the theoretical and empirical organizational literature on tacit knowledge. Organizational researchers usually refer to Michael Polanyi's conception of the term as tacit knowledge, though they mean Gilbert Ryle's concept of “knowing‐how” instead.

Findings

Accordingly, the primordial nature of tacit knowing is lost in the transition and what is left is a linear dichotomy of tacit and explicit knowledge.

Originality/value

This misunderstanding creates an obstacle in the way toward establishing the link between individual skills and organizational routines and capabilities. The paper ends with suggestions offered toward bringing the individual and the organization under the same theoretical explanation of human action.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 May 2007

Martyna Śliwa

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the consequences of globalization, in particular the increasing disparity between the wealth of nations and individuals…

2923

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on the consequences of globalization, in particular the increasing disparity between the wealth of nations and individuals in society. It discusses mechanisms which lead to perpetuation and reinforcement of the situation in which, despite being characterized by inequalities and fragmentation, societies remain by and large cohesive and stable.

Design/methodology/approach

This article engages with the so‐called “Polanyi problem” and with Polanyi's and other authors’ responses to it. In the discussion, the analytical approach is adopted by reference to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, in particular his concept of soma.

Findings

Using the metaphor of soma, developed into four interrelated dimensions, illustrations of social and organizational processes, which ensure sustainability of, and cohesion within, a society based on inequality and fragmentation, are indicated. It is argued that the existence of stratified societies, and inequalities of wealth within and between them, is accompanied by phenomena which support and sustain them.

Practical implications

Drawing upon literary fiction can offer valuable insights into issues pertinent to contemporary academic debate.

Originality/value

Engagement with Huxley's work provides an alternative way of contributing to the globalization debate and, in particular, to the literature addressing the so‐called “Polanyi problem”.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 3 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 July 2014

Roberto Grandinetti

This paper aims to clarify that the link between Michael Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and the field of knowledge management research does not withstand in-depth analysis…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to clarify that the link between Michael Polanyi’s tacit knowledge theory and the field of knowledge management research does not withstand in-depth analysis. Second, the paper suggests a way to emerge from the ambiguity that unavoidably results from using the tacit knowledge concept in knowledge management studies.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper begins with an analysis of the tacit knowledge theories developed by Polanyi, by cognitive psychologists and by knowledge management scholars. It goes on to formulate a new conceptual framework of tacit knowledge.

Findings

This proposal consists in assuming that the terms “unconscious” and “tacit” are not interchangeable and, consequently, redefining the epistemological profile of knowledge management theory so as to acknowledge the existence of two planes of analysis. One is occupied by the process through which individuals gain knowledge, or the knowing process, which may be unconscious or conscious. The other contains the dichotomy between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge, where the two terms indicate two alternative states that only consciously developed knowledge can adopt.

Research limitations/implications

The paper provides support for the two-planes idea by referring to contributions from various disciplines, and particularly from cognitive psychology studies concerned with unconscious knowledge; a more thorough and extensive review would be needed, however, to fully demonstrate the proposal.

Originality/value

Distinguishing between two planes of analysis makes it possible to unveil the mystery of tacit knowledge.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 21 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 June 2012

Dan Herman

The purpose of this paper is to seek to apply Polanyi's theory of the double movement as a response to the effects of economic liberalization and globalization to the pre‐2007…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to seek to apply Polanyi's theory of the double movement as a response to the effects of economic liberalization and globalization to the pre‐2007 American economy. In so doing, it seeks to ascertain the reasons why this assumed double movement did not materialize until after the post‐2007 global economic crisis.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is structured as a theoretical and historical analysis, building upon Polanyi's nineteenth century observations and applying them to contemporary policy economic and social experience in the USA in the late twentieth century. The argument proposes a correlation between the missing and/or delayed movement and the role of access to debt and participation in equity markets.

Findings

This paper argues that Polanyi's concept of a societal countermovement has been absent from the post‐1970 period of economic liberalism and globalization until just recently due to an explicit attempt by the forces of capital to circumvent its role in lessening the harmful effects of American capitalism. In particular, the double movement that should have sought to lessen income inequality, unemployment and wage stagnation was instead replaced by access to cheap credit and the democratization of market investments that spurred consumer purchases and a false belief that what was good for the markets was good for working class Americans.

Research limitations/implications

This paper highlights the need for ongoing research into the sociotropic nature of trade and of economic policy, and its evolution throughout the contemporary period of economic uncertainty and economic transition.

Practical implications

The paper proposes several policy implications arising from the contemporary application of Polanyi's double movement, notably related to international trade and public and political support for ongoing trade liberalization.

Social implications

This paper highlights important connections in the relationship between economic policy and the day‐to‐day lives of those who are governed by it. Building on “everyday political economy”, it provides a foundation for arguments that a new balance must be found between economic globalization and transnational capital interests and domestic stability.

Originality/value

This paper promotes a novel approach to understanding the political economy of pre‐2007 America, in particular the reflexive nature of economic policy and societal perceptions.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 39 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 2006

René Brohm

The purpose of this research is to explore a concept of the management of professionals that can withstand critical questioning.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to explore a concept of the management of professionals that can withstand critical questioning.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study is analysed with use of key concepts from Polanyi.

Findings

The instrumental approach to knowledge, so frequently used in knowledge management, neglects important issues. The conventional question: “How should we organize knowledge?” neglects the question: “How should knowledge impact organization?”. With use of Polanyi's concept of knowledge, a richer interdependency between knowledge and organization can be conceived. Findings were drawn from an ethnographic case study in the IT sector to illustrate how professionals can successfully negotiate the content, meaning and development of their tasks and practices. The attempt to create a safe haven, supporting professional and personal development, illustrates how the tacit dimension has emancipatory potential.

Originality/value

Contributes to clarifying the richness of Polanyi's social thought and the uses of the concept of the “tacit” to organization when it is not functionally misunderstood but appreciated in its full critical force.

Details

Critical perspectives on international business, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1742-2043

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 18 June 2021

Michael J. Roy, Pascal Dey and Simon Teasdale

In today’s “market society” almost every aspect of the everyday lives is shaped by market forces. In this essay, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role of…

Abstract

Purpose

In today’s “market society” almost every aspect of the everyday lives is shaped by market forces. In this essay, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the potential role of social enterprise as one means of re-embedding the economy into society to ensure the economy works for people, rather than the other way around.

Design/methodology/approach

This is primarily a conceptual paper: a provocation.

Findings

The authors argue that to work as an embedding force, social enterprise needs to ensure both reciprocity and market exchange while acting in a way that attempts to compensate for the retreat of the state through providing public services and promoting collective decision-making and public deliberation.

Originality/value

Drawing upon the work of Karl Polanyi to conceptualise social enterprise as an “alternative” economic actor within a plural economic system, the authors contribute to on-going debates about social enterprise as an alternative way of organising markets and society. The authors highlight the challenges involved in achieving such a vision and suggest ways these might be overcome.

Details

Social Enterprise Journal, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1750-8614

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 July 2022

Victor Silva Corrêa, Marina de Almeida Cruz, Vânia Maria Jorge Nassif, Pedro Lucas de Resende Melo and Rosileine Mendonça de Lima

Embeddedness has gained prominence in entrepreneurship studies. However, the notion that the embeddedness metaphor relates to “market” structures prevails in studies in the area…

Abstract

Purpose

Embeddedness has gained prominence in entrepreneurship studies. However, the notion that the embeddedness metaphor relates to “market” structures prevails in studies in the area. Entrepreneurship scholars still know little about whether entrepreneurs are eventually embedded in other structures whose relationships go beyond the restricted dimension of the interested actor’s assumption. This study aims to propose investigating the social structures in which a specific type of entrepreneurship, the religious one, is embedded.

Design/methodology/approach

The research was qualitative, using interviews as an evidence collection instrument. A total of 17 entrepreneur-pastors responsible for business churches in Brazil and eight parishioners took part in the study.

Findings

Religious entrepreneurs are embedded in market structures, corroborating a perspective that associates embeddedness with the utilitarian notion. At the same time, entrepreneurs are embedded in two other social structures: reciprocity and redistribution.

Practical implications

This article emphasizes the relevance of going beyond the predominant perspective associated with the utilitarian and rationalized understanding of embeddedness in relationship networks.

Originality/value

This study makes essential contributions. Initially, it attests to the utilitarian perspective of Granovetter’s embeddedness while suggesting incorporating two other dimensions into the metaphor. By highlighting this, this article stresses the need to reinterpret the metaphor of embeddedness and how entrepreneurship scholars use it. Further, by emphasizing the need to consider embeddedness in networks beyond its still utilitarian perspective, this paper highlights unexplored opportunities for entrepreneurship scholars.

Details

Journal of Entrepreneurship in Emerging Economies, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2053-4604

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 1000