A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Prat-i-Pubill, Queralt Doctoral Thesis Axiological Knowledge in a Knowledge Driven World: Considerations for Organizations PhD Series, No. 37.2018 Provided in Cooperation with: Copenhagen Business School (CBS) Suggested Citation: Prat-i-Pubill, Queralt (2018) : Axiological Knowledge in a Knowledge Driven World: Considerations for Organizations, PhD Series, No. 37.2018, ISBN 9788793744219, Copenhagen Business School (CBS), Frederiksberg, http://hdl.handle.net/10398/9672 This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/209084 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. 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CONSIDERATIONS AXIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN A DRIVEN SOLBJERG PLADS 3 DK-2000 FREDERIKSBERG DANMARK WWW.CBS.DK ISSN 0906-6934 Print ISBN: 978-87-93744-20-2 Online ISBN: 978-87-93744-21-9 Queralt Prat-i-Pubill AXIOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE IN A KNOWLEDGE DRIVEN WORLD. CONSIDERATIONS FOR ORGANIZATIONS. Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies PhD Series 37.2018 PhD Series 37-2018 Axiological knowledge in a knowledge driven world. Considerations for organizations. Queralt Prat-i-Pubill Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies Queralt Prat-i-Pubill Axiological knowledge in a knowledge driven world. Considerations for organizations. 1st edition 2018 PhD Series 37.2018 Print ISBN: 978-87-93 744-20 -2 Online ISBN: 978-87-93744-21-9 © Queralt Prat-i-Pubill ISSN 0906-6934 The Doctoral School of Organisation and Management Studies is an active national and international research environment at CBS for research degree students who deal with economics and management at business, industry and country level in a theoretical and empirical manner. All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. 2/173 Foreword A tots els que amb coratge han lluitat i no han tingut recompensa. A tots els qui han triomfat i ens han mostrat que si no hi ha camí, es fa. To all who have fought with courage and without reward To all who have succeed and have showed us that if there is no path, we can make it. To my families, sense vosaltres aquesta tesis no seria possible A les meves families: Als pares, Aurora Pubill i Closa, Pere Prat i Puig, a les meves germanes, Bibiana, Aurora i Maria Prat i Pubill, i als meus familiars, Ferran Hernàndez i Murillo, Ovidi i Oleguer Prat i Vives i a la Filomena /Ambre Hernández i Prat. Present i futur. A la Teresa Guardans, Marta Granés, Marià Corbí, Montserrat Cucarull, Montserrat Macau, Jaume Agustí, Francesc Torradeflot, José Manuel Bobadilla, Oscar Puigardeu, … tot l’equip present i futur de CeTR. 3/173 4/173 Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the tribunal of this thesis professor Patrick Zapata, professor Xavier Castañer and professor Christina Lubinski. Thanks to their comments and suggestions this thesis has greatly improved. I would like to thank ESADE’s management, Eugenia Bieto, Alfons Sauquet, Alfred Vernis, Xari Rovira, Núria Agell, and Vicenta Sierra for the many opportunities I have enjoyed. Also special thanks to Josep Maria Lozano and Núria Fenero. Thank you. My thoughts of gratitude to my colleagues in St. Gallen Universität, professors Jörg Metelmann and professor Ulrike Landfester, and the team, Sophie Rudolph, Karen Lambrecht, Sabrina Helmer, and Yves Partschefeld. Also I would like to thank professor Ester Barinaga for her incredible friendship and encouragement. This thesis has benefited from abundant feedback of many reviewers. Many people have helped me to nuance my practical approaches, to further explain and contextualize my arguments. I am extremely grateful to all of them. I would like to express my gratefulness to my dearest Marià Corbí, Marta Granés and Teresa Guardans for their insights and love. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the funding from Porticus and from two other undisclosed benefactors for financing of books and IT, without which my research would have not been possible. Thank you! To my lovely parents, Aurora Pubill i Closa and Pere Prat i Puig. 5/173 Als guerrers de Sant Ignasi, n’he conegut a uns quants: El Marià Corbí, la Marta Granés, la Teresa Guardans, el Francesc Torradeflot….Jo també m’hi considero. 6/173 Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to focus in understanding axiological knowledge in knowledge driven societies which survive thanks to the creation of science and technology and new products and services. The considerations of this thesis are critical to organizations and society at large, because as I will show axiological knowledge is key to ensure the survival of human beings in specific survival conditions. Living in a knowledge driven world means the creation of knowledge in organizations is key. Thus axiological knowledge would need to be created to accommodate this need in organizations. Contrary to established beliefs, and although we experience most our behavior as intentional and volitional pertaining to our particular nature, we are constituted, in the form of automatic, evident, “true” interpretations and understandings of the world, through minimal constituent cultural configurations. This axiological knowledge is shaped by collective motivations through the communication of a constituent speech in the form of narratives, stories, myths, rituals and symbols created to ensure survival in specific material conditions. This axiological knowledge provides us with the adequate knowledge to interpret and value the world according to the existing survival conditions. Currently, many approaches aiming to change the axiological conditions, among others, to promote creativity, responsibility, sustainability and ethics in organizations appeal to personal responsibility and goodwill, without consideration of the affect system and the axiological knowledge currently in place. I argue these proposals are unsuccessful because they disregard the latest social sciences research and also because their key assumptions are outdated. These approaches either assume an anthropology of matter and spirit or an anthropology of matter and reason, as well as a mythical epistemology. This thesis is organized as a compendium of four articles structured in two parts dealing with the complexity of the axiological. The first part comprises two articles describing, argumenting and analysing our current axiological world. The second part, introduces and deals with the diverse discursive approaches to managing motivations in management studies, those of narratology, storytelling and rhetorics, and develops linguistic theory to intervene in collectivities by creating axiological knowledge. I argue, that focusing on the axiological knowledge is a pending need that will not be undetected for long in organization studies. The most difficult issue is to avoid current approaches to the axiological and thus to allow for new research to take place. This thesis is a step towards creating the theoretical basis for this research to develop. 7/173 8/173 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 7 PREFACE 11 INTRODUCTION 15 FIRST PART 53 Our axiological world Introduction to the first part 55 The three death of ethics. Clarifying the non-mythical 59 epistemology of ethics. A practical view from international institutions Axiological systems in the 21st century: A collage. The 81 downfall of axiological systems based on beliefs and the co-existence of varied beliefs in the spiritual market. Conclusions to the first part 105 SECOND PART 109 The role of axiological stories in the generation of collective motivations. Introduction to the second part 111 The role of stories in the creation and development of 115 axiological projects in organisations Intervening in collectivities using persuasive argumentation 135 Conclusions to the second part 161 CONCLUSIONS 165 9/173 10/173 PREFACE 11/173 12/173 PREFACE This thesis is organized in two parts consisting of a total of four articles. Each of the four parts has a brief introduction and conclusion to provide an overall link of the thesis. The thesis treats the topic of axiological knowledge in a knowledge driven world. It focuses on explaining its importance, understanding the current axiological