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.