Conceptual Pragmatism Team

Running Head: CONCEPTUAL PRAGMATISM 1

Conceptual Pragmatism: A Leadership Perspective

Individual Assignment: Class 4

Emmalie Beaman

Medaille College

Author Note:

This paper was prepared on 4 April 2016 for MOL623X

MOL18RA, taught by Professor Ann Horn-Jeddy

Conceptual Pragmatism: A Leadership Perspective

CONCEPTUAL PRAGMATISM 2

Introduction

Pragmatism is a movement in American philosophy that stresses the notion that a

statement is true if it produces positive results consecutively (Wikipedia, 28 March 2016).

Practicality is the cornerstone of which pragmatism is based. In relation to organizations, a

solution or truth must be practical in order to be implanted, managers may overlook the

practicality in favor of what has worked in the past or what the competition does differently that

makes them thrive. A decision or theory can only be proven as true when put into action and

producing a positive result. There is no one right answer or solution that can be applied to every

situation, it is dependent on the context and the experience. In relation to organizations and

leadership these same principles can be applied. Truth is not a rigid absolute but instead it is

contingent on the circumstances. Pragmatism is about thinking outside the box and ultimately

making decisions based on both experience and rationality which is paramount in the realm of

leadership.

Philosophers in general come from two schools of thought; the same can be said for

managers. These concepts distinguish the difference between simply managing and leading.

Managing as a job connotes supervising the employees that are doing the groundwork, making

the products and interacting with the customers to make sure revenue is achieved. Managers

generally stay in their position at the top, delegate responsibilities, and deal with any grievances

that went through many layers until it reaches them (Mintzberg, 1990). They generally stick to

set guidelines and solutions set forth by the organization like a field guide and apply these

guidelines to similar issues. In philosophy this school of thought most closely relates to the

“tough minded” philosophers, those who believe the world is only made of physical concrete


things and empirical knowledge, they believe in an absolute truth that exists in the world and that

things are determined to happen a certain way (Carneades.org, 2015). Leadership is categorized

as more of an art form in which it is a set of skills that are inherent in certain individuals and is

not limited to job title or level. Leading entails creating teams, motivating employees, extrinsic

rewards, and having a genuine care for the betterment of the entire organization including

mission, vision, and employees. Leaders constantly look ahead, make goals, and implement

change and foster innovation and creativity. They do not get hung up on or intimidated by

competition, challenges, or politics (De Pree, 2004). These traits most closely relate to the

opposing philosophical school of the “tender minded” in which the followers believe that the

world is made only of mental things and that what is learned is “a priori”, meaning learned

through thinking and the mind. Decisions are reached through analysis of the issue at hand and

not from applied experiences. In contrast to the “tough minded”, the “tender minded” believe

people do have the free will to change things.

Conceptual pragmatism as proposed by C.I. Lewis attempts to rationalize the “tender

minded” and “tough minded” philosophical theories. “Tender minded” philosophers believed

more in the power of the mind, an abstract phenomena that is a projection of the brain while

“tough minded” were more interested in the biological neurological chemical brain itself. Lewis

claimed that there is not just one logic, but many logics from which we must choose the one that

best explains our experience, the mind and brain working together, with no distinction (Hunter,

2012). Epistemology is a discipline within the field of philosophy that studies how we know

what we know (Krier, 2016); Lewis believes that our narrative is influenced by our preconceived

notions, stereotypes, and previous encounters with similar stimuli. The brain is made up of

chemical reactions that are sent to the mind, the mind then assigns meaning and words to the


outside stimuli the brain has taken in previously. In organizations these preconceived notions are

ingrained in the culture that has been set into motion and reinforced over the course of the

existence of the organization. For example, when you look at a wall it generally is painted a

color, color is nothing more than light being bounced off electromagnetic waves that is detected

by the retina of the eye, the neurons of the eye then take in the stimuli of the color, this all

happens on the brain level, the color only gains meaning when the mind filters through

experience and memory of perceiving this color in the past and labels it, someone once told you

that color is orange, so the wall matches that perception, it must be orange, this process happens

so quickly we are not even aware of it (Krier, 2016). The same can be said for preconceived

notions in the work place. There are certain methods and solutions that others fear to question

because “it’s the way it’s always been done” or because it is the quickest way to relieve a

symptom. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein expanded on C.I. Lewis’ projections by illustrating

that “narrative precedes perception” (Wikipedia, 2 April 2016). In an organization this can be

summarized by a staff meeting, before the employees even enter the room they have

preconceived notions and are informed by their own experiences at the company before the

speaker even starts talking. If they are told a meeting will be held feelings of dread or boredom

may come into play and this will cause them to shut their brain off to any new information before

it is presented. A leader must attempt to unravel this narrative so a new perception is able to

come across to employees. A leader should present new ideas slowly and describe the extrinsic

benefits as well as intrinsic and how these benefits positively impact the individuals, teams, and

organization as a whole. The employees must feel a sense of security and feel genuinely cared

for, the leader has their best interest in mind, and this can inform the process of buy in and team

mentality to move the organization forward as one entity. Change must be gradual and the


leader must explain their passion for the changes and admit that they must make changes

themselves, the employees must feel the leader is leveling with them and moving forward with

them. A leader must harness the ability to implement change, create efficient teams, and most

importantly gain trust and buy in from these teams in order to foster creativity and innovation to

move into a successful future.

Presently, the Villa of Hope is in a “restructuring” phase. There are two sides to

this narrative, however. The powers that be advertise this restructuring to the employees and

community as a move toward a more therapeutic sanctuary model. In reality this is a façade for

the greediness of the now top heavy management pyramid, made up of mostly VP’s who expect

and demand a certain salary. By shifting to a more clinical approach, they will be less regulated

by the strict and supervised state funding; instead they can receive money to the ever greedy

health insurance and private pay money. The cognitive dissonance occurs in that the powers that

be believe they are actually benefiting the youth they serve when in reality they are laying off the

ground floor as their greed snowballs and tearing apart delicate relationships. They are really

motivated by money whether they are aware of it or not, again the narrative (money) precedes

the perception (therapeutic care for at risk teens). Until they take off the blinders and realize it is

their own greed driving this “restructuring” they will fold on top of themselves at the expense of

the teens they claim to be serving.

St. John’s Skilled Nursing Home is also attempting to make a shift for the better. Like

Villa of Hope, on paper everything looks aesthetically pleasing and innovative, behind the

scenes, they are trying to fit a square into a circle, metaphorically speaking. St. John’s evolved

its vision of Skilled Nursing and implemented the “small homes” model in conjunction with the


Eden Alternative and built the Greenhouses, there are two currently. From the beginning the

Eden principles of patient centered care and home like experience were implemented. The great

success in this model has presently led to the decision to attempt to deinstitutionalize the current

Skilled Nursing building located on Highland Avenue. Through new construction and retraining

of staff, St. John’s goal is to make the building less like a hospital and more like a home. This

goal may be too idealistic and it is hard to reverse the ingrained culture in the staff. The vision

was for floors to be an open floor plan with bigger rooms for residents, a shared kitchen where

residents and care partners cook meals together, and each staff person is trained in every aspect

of the resident’s life, from recreation to meals to medication. This concept, known as Shabazam

has thrived in the Greenhouse homes where staff was hired on the basis of sharing this attitude.

Retraining staff presently at the Home is a different story, buy in seems to be assumed and

training mandatory for all staff members. They feel as though they are invisible robots that can

be reprogrammed without resistance. Of course the staff care deeply about what they do and the

elders they care for but in return they want to be cared for by the administration and feel they

have choices too, they want to feel they fit into the puzzle. They were never consulted on the

remodeling of how these kitchens and activity rooms would work best with them, and they are

the people that will be working in them every day with the residents, not the administrators or

construction workers. Again like Villa of Hope, at St. John’s Home the narrative precedes the

perception.

In the context of management and leadership, a manger may look at a decline in sales as a

vicious reinforcing loop where failure is imminent and the only solution is to apply past heuristic

solutions that will create the fastest result including cutting costs through lay-offs, employee

benefits, and manufacturing costs. A leader applying conceptual pragmatism may look at this


decline in sales in an optimistic light, as an opportunity for delving deeper, surveying customers,

looking into each department and finding room for improvement in all the moving parts that

contribute to the organization running as one unified machine. A leader would see opportunity

for learning, improvement, and change. Both the manager and the leader are faced with the same

problem but the leader chooses to seek a solution that is specifically related to the present

problem that is occurring right in front of them. The manager chooses to use rule of thumb

techniques based on past experience with a similar issue to make a quick symptomatic solution.

It is almost as if the manager puts a “band aid” on the problem, while the leader is scrubbing in

for surgery.


References

Carneades.org [Producer]. (2015). Pragmatism (William James and Charles Sanders Peirce)

[Video clip]. Available from: http://youtu.be/u0EOF56roHI.

Depree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York, NY: Doubleday.

Hunter, B. (2012). Clarence Irving Lewis. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved

from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lewis-ci/#OveConPra

Krier, L. MSW, LPC (2016) [Speaker]. An oral history with (Professor) Dr. Leon Krier :

Conceptual pragmatism [Telephone Conversation]. University of Colorado: Denver, CO.

Mintzberg, H. (1990). The manager’s job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review.

Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-managers-job-folklore-and-fact.

Wikipedia (28 March 2016). Pragmatism. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved from:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism


Wikipedia (2 April 2016). Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved

from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein

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Conceptual Pragmatism Team