What is the meaning of life?

Tonight I spent the evening looking for literature that would help me answer that question - well, actually, that will help me answer the question "How do people find/construct/discover etc meaning in life"

Remember the research question is “What does organizational leadership mean in a chaotic, nihilistic, and apocalyptic era?”

My objective is to finish a draft of the first chapter by Tuesday!!!

Wandering in the Revelation Wilderness

Tonight I have spent the evening trying to unravel who are the important Book of Revelation/Apocalypse scholars. There is so much literature that finding a path through it all feels like wandering though a wilderness trying to discover landmarks left by previous travelers who can point the way to a my destination.

I'd like to thank two travelers who have been especially kind: Harry Maier and David Barr.

Harry Maier has a short but helpful review of the contemporary literature in his book: Apocalypse Recalled: The Book of Revelation after Christianity.

David Barr has excellent bibliographies in his books Reading the Book of Revelation: A Resourse for Students and Tales of the End: A Narrative Commentary on the Book of Revelation.

In surveying these works, I've discovered a list of important scholars. They are:

• David E. Aune
• David L. Barr
• Richard J. Bauckham
• Adela Yarbro Collins
• Tina Pippin
• Jean-Pierre Ruiz
• Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza
• Leonard L Thompson

A little of this and a little of that - and a great little tip

Tonight I cleaned up the new database so that it works more efficiently. I imported a number of books from WorldCat into my Endnotes dissertation library.

Here's a great tip I learned from my boss and fellow doctoral student. You can search for a book in WorldCat and import the citation directly to Endnotes. This saves a lot of time if you have a several books you want to enter into your Endnotes library.

I also requested a book chapter from Regent Library.

Last but not least, I read Du Rand's article: An Apocalyptic Text, Different Contexts and an Applicable Ethos.

Reference

Du Rand, J. A. (1992). An apocalyptic text, different contexts and an applicable ethos. Journal of Theology for Southern Africa no 78 Mr 1992, 75-83.

Creating a Concordance

Tonight I began to wonder how I could create a concordance to keep track of themes across works. So, I experimented with a simple Access database. It has three tables: Master Table, references, and themes. I imported the references from Endnotes using a txt file export/import. It has two forms: a master form and a sub form for entering new themes. Here's what the master form looks like. I tested it and it may be helpful. If it works well, I'll let you know

Establishing the chaotic background of John's Apocalypse - Part 1

Tonight I began to explore the chaotic context of John's Apocalypse. I delved into an interesting book, Reading the Book of Revelation: A Resource for Students edited by David L. Barr. Chapter 2 is an essay by Leonard L. Thompson titled "Ordinary Lives". Thompson argues that contrary to the typical approach of attributing the persecution of Christians during the reign of a particular Roman Emperor (typically Nero or Domitian) as the causal context of John's Apocalypse; the text was motivated by the day to day ordinary life for Christians in the Roman Empire. Generally, the official attitude of Rome was not to hunt down Christians. In fact, Christians could live, work, and prosper in the empire. However, if charges were brought against them, they could be executed just for being a Christian.

"Some could travel throughout the empire, taking advantage of its peace and prosperity, visiting and founding Christian congregations. Others might immediately be viewed with suspicion and killed by officials of that same empire. Thus, some could view the Roman Empire as a source of divine blessing, while others could see it as an evil power destroying the godly. Every Christian, however, would be more or less aware of the contingency of life" (p. 37).

A Good Night's Sleep

Last night I had the best night's sleep that I've had in years. So, I have been reflecting on what I did differently that would have contributed to such a restful night. I've had no great revelations. However, yesterday I felt like a learned more about my subject and made good progress in writing was a contributer. Although I spent most of the day reading and writing, I also had a lengthy phone call with a friend, cut grass in the back yard, and watched TV with my family in the evening. In terms of time investment it was a healthy day.

Hermenutic Phenomenology and The Revelation to John

I spent today primary reading Ricoeur's essay Phenomenology and Hermeneutics. One of the main ideas Ricoeur advances in this essay is the interdependency of these distinct disciplines. You can find the essay in John Thompson's collection of Ricoeur's writings titled: Hermeneutics & the Human Sciences .

From this reading I attempted to construct a hermeneutic phenomenological philosophic foundation for The Revelation to John as the data source for my study.

Here's what I wrote:

Hermeneutic phenomenology provides the philosophic framework for this study. The goal of hermeneutic phenomenology is to describe and interpret lived experience. Hermeneutic phenomenology always asks questions concerning the meaning or nature of being in the world (Van Manen, 1990).

Ricoeur (1981) underscores the parallel nature of hermeneutics and phenomenology in the following definitions:

Phenomenology begins when, not content to ¨live¨ or ¨relive¨, we interrupt lived experience in order to signify it. . . . Hermeneutics similarly begins when, not content to belong to transmitted tradition, we interrupt the relation of belonging in order to signify it. (pp. 116, 117)

Hermeneutic phenomenology is concerned with interpretation of lived experience. However, what is open to philosophical reflection is lived experience within the “lingual condition of all experience” (p. 115).

Lived experience ultimately finds lingual expression (oral or written). However, there is a mediating stage, the “epoché”. The epoché is that moment of interruption with lived in experience in which the subject signifies the experience linguistically. Ricoeur (1981) remarks that “hermeneutic philosophy begins with the experience of art” (p. 117). By an “experience of art”, Ricoeur refers to the epoché as a creative process that is “the virtual event, the imaginary act . . . by which we exchange signs for things and signs for other signs” (p. 116). This creative event – art – precedes and supports the linguistic expression of life experience. In the epoché, the subject distances self from experience in order to interpret the experience and present it symbolically for self and others.

Likewise, Ricoeur (1981) proposes that the hermeneutic counterpart of lived experience is “consciousness exposed to historical efficacy” (p. 117). The hermeneutic counterpart of epoché is “distanciation”. In distanciation, the subject find “empty space” between self and his or her participation in a historic tradition in which to construct the signification of the historical tradition, to which he or she belongs, for self and others. In the same sense that the creative epoché precedes and supports language, it is “the interplay of distance and proximity, constitutive of the historical connections, is what comes to language rather than what language produces” (p. 118).

Ricoeur (1981) identifies the common source of meaning in phenomenology and hermeneutics when he writes, “The reference of the linguistic order back to the structure of experience (which comes to language in the assertion) constitutes, in my view, the most important phenomenological presupposition of hermeneutics” (p. 118). The hermeneutic phenomenologist is concerned with describing and understanding the background structure of experience through the foreground representation of the linguistic expression of experience. Consequently, the philosophical reflection of hermeneutic philosophy revives this “empty space” where the creative epoché and distanciation occur “to render thematic what was only operative, and thereby makes meaning appear as meaning” (p. 116).

Language as the mediator of lived experience opens up the possibility that the interpretation of any linguistic of expression of the nature of human being within chaotic, nihilistic, or apocalyptic realties could be informative for a hermeneutic phenomenological exploration of the research question at hand. Likewise, language as a mediator of historical connection makes it possible to “render present the historical past.” This hermeneutic phenomenology philosophy undergirds the choice of The Revelation to John as an appropriate data source for this study.

References

Ricoeur, P. (1981). Hermenutics and phenomeology (J. B. Thompson, Trans.). In J. B. Thompson (Ed.), Paul Ricoeur hermeneutics and the human sci-ences: Essays on language, action, and interpretation. New York: Cam-bridge University Press.

Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Acts of God and writing a dissertation

Well, I had good intentions of writing some on my dissertation last evening, then the storms hit. My basement was flooded and I spend the night pumping and bailing water. Today we cleaned up the mess and tried to be better prepared for storms predicted for tonight. Tomorrow will be the real clean up of the basement.

This experience caused me to think about the many unexpected things that come up during the dissertation writng process - things out of your control - that eliminate writing time. It wouldn't be so bad if I was planning on taking several years to writing it - but I'm on a short time frame. I'm also off the pace I set for myself.

My solution - stay focused, recommit to doing what I know is right - write something everyday even if it is only 15 mins. Finally, trust God that he will redeem the time. He has throughout my program.

Another part of my solution is to eliminate known distractions that I can control. For instance, I was recently asked to sing at a wedding. I love sing. I have a master's degree in music, but I rarely get to do anything musical. I would really like to do this. However, it means learning new music, at least two rehearsals and the wedding. All of this falls within days of an international trip for my work which may take me away from writing consistently for up to 12 days. As much as I would like to do the wedding, it is something I can choose not to add to my schedule that will not take away from my writing time.

Even More Thinking Biblically

How can a hermeneutic philosopher think exegetically?

1. Become a reader of exegesis and through understanding that literary genres are forms of discourse that give rise to philosophical thinking.
   
2. Moving beyond the traditional philosophic texts, and embracing discourse that is not scientifically descriptive, explanatory, apologetic, argumentative, or dogmatic and embracing a world where the metaphoric language of poetry is the closest secular equivalent .
3. Understand the relationship between the text and historic communities of reading and interpretation. It is being willing to enter sympathetically the hermeneutic circle in which, it is in interpreting the Scriptures in question that the community in question interprets itself p. xvi).

LaCocque, A., & Ricoeur, P. (1998). Thinking biblically: Exegetical and hermeneutical studies (D. Pellauer, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

More Thinking Biblically

How can an exegete work philosophically? By incorporating concern for the "foreground" of the text into the method of historical-criticism. Attention to the "foreground" involves three disciplines for the exegete:

1. Understanding that reading is a response to writing. The first effect of reading is to give a life to the text that is autonomous. This opens the text up for further development and enrichment that affects the meaning of the text. The autonomy of the text is the abandonment of the idea of the recovering the original intent of the author in order to impose these "intentions" as the guide to all interpretation.
   
2. Awareness of the "trajectory" of the text i.e. the journey the text has taken through its traditional readings that has left an imprint on the text. This trajectory has its origin in the text itself not in the author's intent.
3. Taking into consideration the connection between the text and a living community.

In other words, if we take the relation to its author as the background of a text, the relation to the reader or readers constitutes the foreground. We must therefore say emphatically that the foreground outruns the background (p. xiii).

LaCocque, A., & Ricoeur, P. (1998). Thinking biblically: Exegetical and hermeneutical studies (D. Pellauer, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Thinking Biblically

Tonight I did some initial reading in Thinking Biblically by André LaCocque and Paul Ricoeur. In this volume LaCocque, an exegete and Ricoeur, a heurmenutic philosopher, write essays on the same biblical passages. The point of the work is not to illustrate how the two approaches differ, but rather how they work in tandem. It illustrates, how the exegete can think philosophically and the hermeneutic philosopher can think exegetically.

I'd love to write more, but its time for bed!

Revised problem, purpose, and question

Here are the summary points that were revised today

Research Problem

The research problem this study addresses is the need for organizational leaders to discern meaning and act meaningfully in a chaotic, nihilistic, and apocalyptic world.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study is to elaborate and apply a philosophic framework for organizational leadership in the contemporary organizational context. At this stage in the research, the general definition of philosophic framework is a hermeneutic phenomenological method for critically describing, interpreting, and initiating meaningful organizational leadership behaviors within the chaotic, nihilistic, and apocalyptic reality of contemporary organizations.

Research Question

The overarching research question is, “What does organizational leadership mean in a chaotic, nihilistic, and apocalyptic era?”

Focusing the study

Today I am continuing to work on the three items that give the study focus: (1) the research problem, (2) the purpose of the study, and (3) the research question(s). I am happy with the draft of the first two. The research question is the main issue for today. In order to help me see the flow between between these three items, I will summarize them below.

The research problem
How can leaders and organizations discover meaning in their nihilistic world?

The purpose of the study
The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study is to elaborate and apply a philosophic framework for organizing and leading in the chaotic 21st century context.

The research question
The overarching research question is, “What does it mean to organize and lead in chaotic – even apocalyptic –times?”

When I look at the summaries group together, I'm not so happy with the research problem. It looks like a research question to me. It makes me wonder if in my writing, I have really uncovered and presented a problem or just raised a question that I'm personally interested in answering and called it a problem.

So, my work for today is refine these statements so that it is obvious how the three are interdependent.

Searching a specific journals uncovers some gems

Doing meta-searches in databases such as Proquest or Business Source Complete is a good thing, but I discovered tonight that querying individual journals you can uncover some important articles that may not show up in meta-searches.

I was delighted to find that the most recent issue of Leadership Quarterly is a special issue on leadership and complexity. Additionally, in 2003 there is a special issue of leadership and spirituality. So, I intend to do more specific searches in top journals.

Purpose statement summary

It felt good to get back to writing tonight after taking several days off. I worked on the purpose statement tonight. While there quite a bit of text that builds the argument for the study's purpose, here's a first draft of the summary statement:

The purpose of this hermeneutical phenomenological study is to elaborate and apply a philosophic framework for organizing and leading in the chaotic 21^st century context. At this stage in the research, the general definition of philosophic framework is a hermeneutic phenomenological method for critically describing, interpreting, and initiating meaningful organizational and leadership behaviors within the chaotic reality of contemporary organizations.

Not so Quick!

Well, it appears that I will not be writing as quickly as I thought. After work today, I had some yard work that had to be done.

Tomorrow is our 25th wedding Anniversary - so I definitely will not be working on my dissertation tomorrow evening!

Back to the Writing!

I spent a great weekend at Potato Creek State Park with Stephen and Mark. It was good to get a way both from work and from thinking about the dissertation for awhile. I do feel ready to tackle them both again tomorrow.

Picture: Taking off for the weekend. Stephen is at the wheel. Mark is in the middle. I'm the guy in the hat.

Here are my goals for this week:1) finish the entire research problem section by then end of the weekend.2) finish reading Continental Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction3) make a plan to finish the rest of the introduction by my target date.

Tomorrow I will work clean up the purpose statement and work on the research question statement (both of which are subsections of the research problem).

Picture: My idea of a good time!

Some progress - gone for the weekend

I got some work done on the purpose statement tonight. However, I spent most of the evening getting ready to go camping with my sons Stephen and Mark over the weekend. Tomorrow morning, I plan to do some work on the research question before I leave with the boys after lunch.

Plan for today

Just to keep me on track, I want to state my plan for today. This evening I plan to work on the subsections of the Research problem: (1) the purpose of the study and (2) the research question.

Yes, I cleaned up the introduction

Tonight I cleaned up the text to the introduction to the research problem statement. I also cleaned up the research problem section. Here's the introduction to the problem statement which is the opening text of Chapter 1.

Chapter 1 – Introduction

Unexpected phenomena continually pierce the fabric of the 21st century organizational context. Change processes initiated by events, both internal and external to organizations, are continuous. Leaders are fearful that they cannot keep up with the pace of change in their organizational environment. Yet, they know survival of their organization depends on its ability to adapt its equivocal environment. With response times shorter and the stakes for failure ever raising, knowing and implementing what must be done is increasingly difficult (Conner, 1998, pp. vi-vii).

Traditional models of organizing seem ineffective in a world of constant flux and unpredictability (Wheatley, 2006). Bennis (2006) notes the traditional leadership ideal of the triumphant individual directing downward from the pinnacle of a bureaucratic hierarchy “is dysfunctional in today’s world of blurring, spastic, hyperturbulent change and will get us into unspeakable trouble” (p. 131).

Appearing to make the traditional forms of organizing and leading obsolete, the chaotic times of the 21st century introduce a crisis of organizational form and leadership behavior. A postmodern analysis of contemporary organizational reality assumes the underlying positivistic assumptions of traditional organizational forms and leadership behaviors are undermined (Johnson & Duberley, 2000). Consequently, one can postulate that the fundamental problem for 21st century organizations and their leaders is the rediscovery of meaning. What does it mean to organize and to lead in chaotic – even apocalyptic - times?

References

Bennis, W. (2006). The end of leadership: Exemplary leadership is impossible without full inclusion, initiatives, and cooperation of followers. In W. E. Rosenbach & R. L. Taylor (Eds.), Contemporary issues in leadership. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Conner, D. R. (1998). Leading at the edge of chaos: How to create the nimble organization. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Johnson, P., & Duberley, J. (2000). Understanding management research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Wheatley, M., J. (2006). Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world (3rd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Reasons why I didn't write yesterday

I did not write yesterday, because we had a special opportunity with my family last evening. However, I felt bad because I did not do anything, and in retrospect I could have done at least 15 mins. The reason I didn't is because I did not have a plan for the day and I did not follow the "write first" rule. So, today it is at least 15 min:

Cleaning up what I have already written on my introduction.

No Progress Today - Revised timeline

I did not work on my dissertation today, because I had to do some edits for an article that Dail Fields and I co-authored: Exploring Servant Leadership across Cultures: A Study of Followers

in Ghana and the USA . It will appear in the Nov. 2007 issue of Leadership (Sage Publications).

Dail is presenting our paper at the Academy of Management meeting in Philadelphia this week.

Due to my travel schedule at work I had to revise my timeline to complete my proposal. Here's the new one

• August 22 - Chapter 1 finished
• September 7 - Chapter 2 finished
• October 1 - Chapter 3 finished.

Taking Sunday Off

It is Sunday and I took the day off. I went to church this morning. This afternoon the whole family went to the Bass Pro shop to get some supplies. I'm taking two of my sons Stephen and Mark on a camping trip next weekend. This evening, we all played Phase 10 together. I registered for the ILA conference Vancouver for October 30 - Nov 4 - and I made hotel reservations. I already had my plane tickets so that's all set now.

Trying to keep a balanced life when working full-time and writing a dissertation is a challenge, but taking time for God and family is worth it - and necessary.

Goal for today writing the Research Problem

My goal for today is to work on my research problem (i.e.) define it. The major issue is getting at what do I mean when I assert that the current organizational leadership crises is loss of meaning. I've looked at the literature on meaning in leadership and meaning in organization. However, it appears that the crisis goes much deeper than what is happening in contemporary organizations. Indeed, what is happening in organizations today is merely symptomatic of the world catching up to (in an experiential) way to Nietzche's understanding that the logical outcome of Kant's work to unify transcendental idealism and empirical realism. In the end, Kant regulates God, freedom, and immortality to the realm of cognitive meaninglessness. Thus producing two important philosopical assumptions:

(1) the radical finitude of the human subject i.e. there is no-God-like point of reference that humans can know and that could otherwise serve to evaluate human experience and (2) human experience is completely contingent and created. Human experience is made and remade by humans embedded in contingent circumstances(Critchley, 2001).

If human experience is a contingent creation, then it can be recreated in other ways. This is the demand for transformative practice of philosophy, art, poetry, or thinking that would be capable of addressing, criticizing, and ultimately redeeming the present. The demand, then, that runs through much Continental thought . . . is that human beingsemancipate themselves from their current conditions. (p. 64)

Nietzsche clearly identifies nihilism as the unforeseen crises in Kant’s criticism of metaphysics (Critchley, 2001). “For Nietzsche, nihilism as a psychological is attained when we realize that the categories by means of which we had tried to give meaning to the universe are meaningless” (p. 84).

It is clear then, that by the end of the 19th century, Nietzche had correctly foreseen the trajectory for humanity intent of pursuing empirical realistic knowledge through a positivist epistemological paradigm.

Yet it is the positivist epistemology that has dominated the practice and scholarly understanding of organizational leadership through the 20th century. Johnson and Duberley point out, "the dominance of this perspective is such that it is ingrained into commonsense assumptions about how to do research . . . . . Even some of those who clam to reject positivism have not necessarily eschewed all the elements of the positivist approach" (p. 38). Much of the criticism directed at positivist research and practice in organizational leadership in the later half of the 20th century centered on its disconnect self-induced disconnect of theory and practice. "In searching to identify causal relationships, the focus has become narrower and narrower, to the extent that propositions being tested do not reflect the complex situations in which managers actually find themselves" (p. 43).

Consequently, the contemporary loss of meaning in organizational leadership is the logical out working that Continental philosophers identified in the late 19th century as the double failure of the Enlightenment (Critchley, 2001):
(1) The values of modernity or Enlightenment do not connect with the fabric of moral and social relations, with the stuff of everday life . . . . Enlightenment values lack any effectiveness, and connection to social praxis.
(2) However, not only do the moral values of Enlightenment fail to connect with the fabric of morel and social relations, but - worse still - they lead instead to the progressive degradation of those relations. (p. 86)

Consequently, 21st century leaders and organizations are left with a meaningless universe. In the face of nihilism how do leaders and organizations emancipate themselves from a situation that in which Dostoevsky identifies as suicide as the only solution (Critchley, 2001). The crisis is how do leaders and organizations construct meaning in their nihlistic world .

Focus on Efficiency, Not Perfection

Source: Complete Your Dissertation

by Dr. Rachna D. Jain

If you're stuck at any point in the dissertation process, borrow my phrase: "focus on efficiency, not perfection." What this means is that you find the fastest way to get out of the quagmire and moving ahead on the path. This will mean different things to different people, but the focus needs to be on finding an efficient and effective way to move ahead, even when it's not perfect.

For example: let's say that you've been working on a particular chapter, writing it, rewriting it, re-rewriting it. You are using a lot of energy and making a lot of effort, but, somehow, it's just not quite right (yet.) So you have to ask yourself, do I need to be efficient? or do I need to be perfect? (Answer: you need to be efficient.) This means, you then ask yourself: how can I wrap this up as quickly and painlessly as possible? What is the most efficient method to get through this material and on to something else?

Just the act of asking yourself this question may free you up enough to finish whatever you've been working on. But, even if it doesn't, just complete what you can, and then do the next thing and so on. The dissertation writing is sometimes an iterative process, where you write some, then write on something else, then come back to the first concept and write some more. Allow yourself to have that iteration time, by focusing on being efficient, first, and drafting as much as you can- and then polishing/refining your writing later.

If you're feeling frustrated or stuck, it's time to go for efficient completion of this stage, and forget about getting it perfect.

Outline for Chapter 1

Tonight I constructed the outline below for Chapter 1 and sent it to Dr. Bekker, my dissertation committee chairperson, for review. This took more time than I anticipated. The structure of an introductory chapter for a phenomenological study is somewhat different form an experimental study. Typically, a phenomenological study will not have hypotheses. In consulting Dr. Bekker’s guide, Creswell (1998), Van Manen (1990), and Moustakas (1994) , I arrived at the chapter structure below. The outline reflects what I anticipate the actual headings to be within the chapter. In parentheses, following the headings, I placed my estimated number of pages for each section.

Chapter 1 – Introduction
(1 page introductory text)

Research Problem (5)

Purpose of this Study

Research Question

Study Overview (28)

Relevant Theories

Chaos theory.

Spirituality.

Methodology

Philosophic framework.

Research procedures and analysis.

Scope, presuppositions, and limitations.

Significance of This Study (6)

Identifying its Place in the Scholarly Dialog

Anticipated Outcomes for the Practice of Organizational Leadership

Personally Engaging the Quest for Meaning

Timeline and Budget (1 paragraph)

References

Creswell, J. W. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Moustakas, C. (1994). Phenomenological research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.

Van Manen, M. (1990). Researching lived experience: Human science for an action sensitive pedagogy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Positioning My Disseration in the Philosophic stream

Tonight I wrote 4 pages on Continental Philosophy.

Tasks for tomorrow:

1. define the outline for the research problem section.
2. determine the page proportion I will give this section within the introduction.
3. write 4 pages of the research problem section.

60 days to write my Proposal

I have revised my timeline. I want to defend my proposal in October. So, I want to submit it by October 1. That gives me exactly 60 days. Three chapters in 60 days! That's 20 days a chapter. So here are my targets:

• Chapter 1: Aug 22
• Chapter 2: Sep 11
• Chapter 3: Oct 1

I expect each chapter to average 40 pages that equals 120 pages. So, I need to write 2 pages of usable material a day. So, I am going to set myself a goal of writing 4 pages a day, with the expectation that 2 pages of that content will be usable somewhere in the work.

Goals for Tomorrw - and beyond

OK this is my last post for today. Bloker says you should have reasonable daily goals. What's my goal for tomorrow. Factor: Stephen and Ruth are coming home, and we have Mark's birthday party so, time will be really limited. Also, I have to get to work tomorrow before 7:30.

So, I can stop working at 4:00 on BL stuff and work on my dissertation stuff at least until 5:00

So tomorrow I will:
a) manually revise my timeline
b) read Continental Philosophy (Critchely, 2001) and make some notes.
c) make a post on my progress

Beyond:
download MS Project on my home computer
make changes to my timeline
get more literature on organizational meaning and leadership meaning

Prareto's Principle and the Dissertation

Remember Praeto's Principle - the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 is based on the principle that 80% of results are produced by 20% of the effort. This comes into play in many circumstances, such as marketing, sales and productivity.

i.e. Most of the work you do may actually be the result of only 20% of your time, the rest you’re procrastinating etc.

How would this apply to writing a dissertation? Well maybe it means that of all the literature you have collected to review, one should start with identifying the top 20% high value articles and books.

Task: identify the top 20% value of the literature I have for review.

What Shall I Name this Creation?

Bloker writes, "Imagine yourself deciding to go with the topic you've been considering. Now imagine finishing your dissertation and holding it in your hand. Ask yourself, 'What shall I name this creation?' Try naming it; paly with titles that are clearly too outrageous, and see which ones delight you. At the very least you'll have fun with your work; at the most you might be able to clarify and focus for yourself what your really want to write about."

I read this after I had working on some additional titles and sending them to my chairman for his commentary. So, I missed the fun of the outrageous titles, maybe I'll try that . . . but not today. Here's the serious list:

Here's a few titles in the order that I like the best - or at least what I liked best at time. Probably would put them in the same order today.

- Leading organizations in a chaotic era: Finding meaning for today in
John's Apocalypse through hermeneutic phenomenology

- Exploring leadership in John's Apocalypse: A hermeneutic phenomenology
inquiry into the meaning of leading organizations in chaotic times

- Discovering meaning for organizational leadership in chaos: Exploring
the relevance of John's Apocalypse for 21st century organizational
leaders through hermeneutic phenomenology

- A philosophical inquiry into the meaning of leading organizations in
chaotic times: Exploring leadership in John's Apocalypse through
hermeneutic phenomenology

- Exploring leadership in John's Apocalypse through hermeneutic
phenomenology: A philosophic approach to discovering meaning in
organizational leadership in chaotic times

- Exploring the meaning of organizational leadership in John's
Apocalypse: A hermeneutic phenomenology inquiry

- The recovery of meaning for organizational leadership in a chaotic
era: Exploring organizational leadership in John's Apocalypse through
hermeneutic phenomenology

- Toward a philosophy of leading organizations in chaotic times:
Exploring organizational leadership in John's Apocalypse through
hermeneutic phenomenology

Prospectus Abstract

I will not post the entire 13 page prospectus here, but in case you are interested here's the abstract.

Working Title: What does it mean to organize and lead in chaotic times? Interpreting The Apocalypse through hermeneutic phenomenology

The chaotic times of the 21^st century make the traditional forms of organizing and leading obsolete because the ontological and epistemological assumptions of these forms are undermined. Consequently, the fundamental problem for 21^st century organizations and their leaders is the rediscovery of meaning.

Faced with this crisis of meaning, scholars and practitioners turn to symbolic interpretive and postmodern ontology and epistemology, as reflected in Chaos Theory and theories of spirituality, to make sense of their world. Unfortunately, there is not a philosophical framework for leading in chaos to guide scholars and practitioners in appraising and developing theory and practice. This study proposes one way of defining a philosophic framework in relation to the research question.

“What does it mean to organize and lead in chaotic – even apocalyptic –times?” This research question confronts The Revelation to John, also known as The Apocalypse, through hermeneutic phenomenology as developed by Paul Ricoeur.

Ricoeur’s work is well suited as a methodological framework for this study. His emphasis on metaphor, narrative, and understanding of hermeneutics as “the art of deciphering indirect meaning” (Kearney, 2004, p. 1) works well with the literary nature of The Apocalypse. Ricoeur’s four characteristics of text and social action offer the possibility of discovering spirituality in the text that is not dependent on The Apocalypse’s status as a religious text. Ample examples of Ricoeur’s application of hermeneutic phenomenology to biblical texts serve as guides in the research process. Significantly, this methodology offers a way to link, within the hermeneutic process, the meaning of the text with the meaning of social actions of organizing and leading.

This study has scholarly, practical, and personal significance. It builds on growing organizational leadership research streams in chaos and spirituality. However, this research uniquely uses The Apocalypse for instruction in organizational leadership. It also appears to stand alone in its concern for establishing a philosophic framework for leading in chaos. The fruit of this study will be practical insights concerning organizing and leading effectively in chaos. Additionally, it offers anyone a useful method to explain and understand any organizational text or organizational action. At the personal level, this research offers the chance to master the philosophic discipline of hermeneutic phenomenology. The topic is likely to be a major concern for organizational leaders throughout my lifetime. Thus, it prepares me well to serve as a leader, consultant, teacher, and mentor.

I believe the Bible “has God for its author . . . and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter” (Southern Baptist Convention, 2000). However, in this study I do not appeal to The Apocalypse as sacred text. Neither do I want to render an interpretation that has meaning only within the Christian faith. Rather, I propose to fashion the study so that any scholar or practitioner can judge its fidelity to what the text says about itself in relation to the research question. In doing so, I intend to open the possibility of any person taking action on the truth they find there.

References

Kearney, R. (2004). On Paul Ricoeur: The owl of Minerva. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Southern Baptist Convention. (2000). The Baptist faith and message. Retrieved June 5, 2004, from http://www.sbc.net/bfm/bfm2000.asp

First Steps - Creating a Timeline

One of the first things that I did was to create a timeline. I used a trial version of Microsoft project to do this. Now the trail version is expired and I need to make some changes. So, what to do: buy the student version of Project or do it in Excel or Word?

I was only a few days off my target for finishing the prospectus which turned out to be about 13 pages. I found that having the target date to work toward was very helpful.

Next task is to revise my target dates and produce a new timeline.

Why Am I doing This?

Well, this is it - the final stretch in my PhD journey - my dissertation! Actually, I've been working on it since May. The inspiration for this blog came from a book I ordered last week, Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes A Day by Joan Bolker. It came today, and I've read about half of it in the past couple of hours.

The book is an easy read with some good tips. Although Bolker admits that she doesn't know anyone who has actually written their dissertation in only 15 mins a day, the point is you must write something every day even if it is only for 15 mins.

One of the things that Bolker suggests is that one "become the researcher of your own work process" (p. 3). Thus my motivation and rationale for starting this blog. I intend to use this blog to post at least 6 days a week a short reflection on my progress. I hope others who are in this dissertation journey or who have completed it or who are anticipating it will contribute their learning, experiences, and questions.