Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2009 The Human Side of Change: Towards a Pragmatic, Evolutionary Conception of Cognition and Emotion in Organizational Change Jason Smith Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Education Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/1864 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © Jason Wayne Smith 2009 All Rights Reserved THE HUMAN SIDE OF CHANGE: TOWARDS A PRAGMATIC, EVOLUTIONARY CONCEPTION OF COGNITION AND EMOTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Virginia Commonwealth University. by JASON WAYNE SMITH B. S. Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2000 B.A. Religious Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2000 M. Div., Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond, 2003 Director: DR. KURT STEMHAGEN Assistant Professor, Foundations in Education Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia August 2009 Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia Acknowledgement I have been fortunate to have received much love and support throughout my life, which has made this project possible. I doubt that without many of these influences I would have ever undertaken, much less completed this process. Broadly, I would like to thank my family, friends, colleagues, and educators. Unfortunately, I cannot recognize all of these individuals and organizations that deserve recognition by name. I owe a great debt of gratitude to my loving wife Glynda, who encouraged me to pursue doctoral education. Much of the sacrifice that this document represents was born by her. Thank you for giving me the gifts of time, encouragement, and most of all a handsome son along the way. Logan, nothing has given me more motivation to complete this project than your birth and the incredible joy that you bring to my life every day. I must also recognize a few other family members. Mom, you taught me that it is okay to think and live outside the box from a young age, and you stood behind me when I wanted to be Superman even when others thought it was silly. You will always be my Louis Lane. Dad, you have taught me what can be achieved through persistence and hard work. My interest in organizational studies is linked to the Christmas tree farm and lawn business that you helped me start and run for many years. Thank you for teaching me about leadership, business, and the importance of the work that gets done behind the scenes. Thank you also to my step-parents Paul and Carice and the extended family that you both added to my life. Thanks to all my sisters and brothers who have mustered up ii some interest in this project along the way: Ashley, Andrew, Paul, Debbie, and Alison. Thank you also to Pop and Granny for always encouraging me to continue my education and lending me a field to garden – where many of the thoughts in this project were worked out. To my Meme and late Papa, thank you for teaching me to enjoy simple things like gardening, canning, and other common arts that never get far from the process and people involved. Finally, without the use of Jimmy and Ruth’s river house towards the end of the writing process, this project would not have come together when it did. Finally, I would like to extend my appreciation to the countless educators within and beyond the walls of institutions who have contributed to my learning. Most immediate to this project, I owe a great deal of gratitude to Kurt Stemhagen for encouraging educational philosophy as a research direction, mentoring me in work of higher education during the last two years, and for serving as my dissertation chair. Susan Leone’s contribution to the process also merits special thanks. I am grateful for your advising within and beyond the doctoral program, as well as for the multiple hats you wore during this project: chair, co-chair, and ultimately dedicated committee member. Thank you also to Erik Laursen and Mark Williams who were both wonderful instructors and committee members. It was a pleasure working with all of you on this project, as well as Michael Davis, Gwen Hipp, and others who read portions of the project and provided feedback along the way. iii Table of Contents Page Acknowledgements............................................................................................................ iv Chapter 1 Background and Context of the Problem.......................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1 Disciplinary Context..................................................................................... 2 Organizational Change, Emotion, and Agency ............................................ 6 Organizational Change ............................................................................... 10 Statement of the Problem ........................................................................... 13 Purpose Statement ...................................................................................... 15 Rationale..................................................................................................... 16 Research Questions..................................................................................... 17 Research Approach..................................................................................... 17 Significance and Limitations of the Study ................................................. 21 2 Philosophical Underpinnings .......................................................................... 25 Introduction ................................................................................................ 25 Ontology and Metaphysics in Ancient Greece........................................... 28 The Atomists......................................................................................... 28 Plato...................................................................................................... 30 Aristotle ................................................................................................ 34 Implications for Epistemological Clusters ................................................. 36 iv Epistemological Clusters ............................................................................ 40 External Relations................................................................................. 41 Empiricism....................................................................................... 41 Classic positivism............................................................................ 43 Logical positivism .......................................................................... 43 Internal Relations.................................................................................. 44 Rationalism...................................................................................... 45 Subjective idealism.......................................................................... 47 Individual Internal Relations ................................................................ 50 Social Internal Relations....................................................................... 51 Historicism and the Incarnate Logos............................................... 51 Absolute idealism ............................................................................ 54 Social structuralism and dialectic materialism ................................ 57 Sociology of knowledge .................................................................. 60 3 Scientific – Psychological Underpinnings ...................................................... 63 Introduction ................................................................................................ 63 Darwin’s Naturalism................................................................................... 67 Darwin and Logic ................................................................................. 69 Logic as a Tool ..................................................................................... 73 Higher and Lower................................................................................. 77 Recapitulation, Progress, and the Body-Mind Dualism ....................... 80 v Mental Development ............................................................................ 84 Imitation........................................................................................... 85 Attention .......................................................................................... 85 Imagination...................................................................................... 86 Reason ............................................................................................. 86 Social Development.............................................................................. 87 Sympathy and sociability................................................................. 88 Social/self-consciousness, social-self-command............................. 89 Language and social education.......................................................