Learning from Friends: Developing appreciations for unknowing in reflexive practice

Allen, Stephen

Abstract

© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016. In this article, I develop a new perspective on being reflexive, which appreciates unknowing as a core aspect. The intention is to promote more inclusive and equitable ways of managing and organising. By drawing on my own and others’ experiences of the ‘business method’ of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, images of the possibilities for reflexive practice, which embrace individual unknowing and help foster systemic intelligence, are explored. A relational ontology is pursued as these ideas can offer a suitable bridge to bring the processes of Quakers into conversation with debates about reflexive practice. The implication is that in the perspective developed, managing reflexively can be understood as a collective practice of searching for unity, or ‘sense of the meeting’, which is achieved through relational processes.

Citation

Allen, S. (2017). Learning from Friends: Developing appreciations for unknowing in reflexive practice. Management Learning, 48(2), 125-139. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507616671486

• Acceptance Date: Sep 6, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Oct 19, 2016
• Publication Date: Apr 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 19, 2016
• Journal: Management learning
• Print ISSN: 1350-5076
• Electronic ISSN: 1461-7307
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 125-139
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507616671486
• Keywords: Group processes; Quakers; Reflexive practice; Reflexivity; Spirituality; Unknowing
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/442981
• Publisher URL: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1350507616671486
• Additional Information: This is the author's accepted manuscript of an article which has been published in: Management learning, 2016, v.48 issue 2.