1st Edition
A Handbook of Practical Wisdom Leadership, Organization and Integral Business Practice
The current financial and on-going ecological crises have taught us that without practical wisdom, business, organisations and leadership cannot be sustainable. In response to this situation, the Handbook of Practical Wisdom presents a critically informed understanding of wise practices, contributing to more integrative organizational and leadership studies and practice. The focus on integration emphasises the interdependencies of practical wisdom in relation to members, groups and cultures of organisations in their socio-cultural spheres. Wisdom has long slipped from the scholarly map, and so this handbook provides revived and new mappings for today and the future. Seeking to actualize creative potentials of practical wisdom, this book and series aspires to contribute to the contemporary odysseys and quests for orientation in organisation and management research and practice. Wisdom research, as presented in this book, provides bridges to underestimated, neglected or forgotten knowledge and offers transformative passages between Scylla - the rocks of dogmatic modernity - and Charybdis - the whirlpool of dispersed post-modernity. Practical wisdom allows for a better equipped and more experiential and reflexive journey and fosters the art of mindful travelling, beyond a reactive, moralizing sentimentalism. Accordingly, this handbook serves as a medium for reassessing and rearticulating more responsible ways of ’praxis’ in the field of organization and management. In this spirit, each chapter opens a space for dialogue and debate, inviting further inquiries, conversations and explorations by and among its readers: students, academics and practitioners.
A Handbook of Practical Wisdom
Biography
Dr Wendelin Küpers is an Associate Professor at the School of Management, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand and Dr David Pauleen is Associate Professor of Business Information Systems in the same School.They are the editors of Gower's Practical Wisdom in Leadership and Organization Series. Wendelin Küpers undertakes phenomenological, interdisciplinary and integral research on embodied, emotional and aesthetic dimensions of relational and responsible leadership and organizational practices. He has authored various books and journal articles, is involved in editorial and review activities and serves as conference co-convenor. He teaches in the areas of management, organisation studies and research methodology. David J. Pauleen has edited several books, most recently, Personal Knowledge Management (2011). His work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Management Information Systems, the Journal of Information Technology and Sloan Management Review. Dr Pauleen teaches knowledge management and other topics.
'This Handbook of Practical Wisdom is the the first, to my own knowledge, that is a collection looking at practical wisdom through several differing lenses, all embedded in an academic frame. It succeeds on several levels, and I will state at the outset that anyone interested in the subject should get it - full stop. This is particularly true given the fact that the book is very well research and organized and will lead you to almost all the relvant literature currently available in English.' Academy of Management Learning and Education 'In a world of change and escalating risk, this book on practical wisdom offers new vision and hope. It is based in the best of human nature, and draws on the forefront of innovative management scholarship, teaching, and practice today.’ Ruth Richards, Saybrook University and Harvard Medical School, USA and editor of Everyday Creativity and New Views of Human Nature ’Practical Wisdom is slowly becoming one of the more important issues in contemporary management thinking and this excellent new book is an ideal introduction to the topic. Covering all of the many facets and dimensions of this type of wisdom, it has the merits of being very clearly written and exceptionally well researched. I cannot imagine anyone not intrigued by the subject after reading it and then trying to do something to increase their own practice of wisdom. Highly recommended.’ Larry Prusak, Visiting Professor, Columbia University, USA
