A perspective on ethical agency in complex adaptive systems : providing a philosophical description and analysis of the Cynefin Framework and Sensemaker Suite™

Abstract

This study explores the implication of complexity theory on our understanding of knowledge before proposing a cognitive shift, to move from a rule-directed business ethics to a more responsive and relational approach to ethics in organisations. I argue that storytelling may be able to accommodate more of the agonistic nature of complex systems while still playing an orientating role, without suffering from the deterministic implications of central control structures like codes and rules. I base the study on three assumptions: (1) Ethical decision-making and accountability in complex systems are relational rather than based purely on reason and on universally accepted codes or principles; (2) Storytelling can contribute to sense-making in complex situations and to our understanding of appropriate/inappropriate behaviours in ethically challenging situations, and (3) Pattern recognition and analyses could be helpful in reinforcing positive behaviours and weakening ethically risky behaviours. I approach the study through the lenses provided by Paul Cilliers, Michel Foucault and Alisdair MacIntyre. Through Cilliers, I refer to Jean-Francois Lyotard and Jacques Derrida’s notions on the dilemma of knowledge and the fragmentation of meaning in postmodernism. A reading of Foucault provides a view on how the ethical agent emerges through participation in power relationships and through personal practices on becoming an ethical agent. MacIntyre provides a view on how personal history, duty and roles in a community, and the history and traditions of a community combine to define a subject’s moral identity. Despite differences in philosophical perspective between MacIntyre (a Communitarian approach) and Foucault (the development of ethical agency through participation in power struggles), both perspectives on agency provide an important basis for the development of my own understanding of the relational character of ethics and the development of ethical agency through agents’ participation in relationships. These philosophical theories provide an entry point into discussing business dilemmas relating to organisational culture and subcultures, and the use of stories to embed ethical values in organisations: Joanne Martin’s perspective on cultural studies provide a view on how our approach to culture studies can limit our understanding of what culture entails; David Bøje and Ken Baskin’s perspectives on storytelling provide a link to complexity theory and the role of living stories in making sense of complex relationships. Cilliers and Karl Weick provide insights on sense-making as a human capability that allows us to organise and simplify our world: Weick, through his description of pattern-creation and pattern-entrainment, shows how certain patterns can be reinforced and others weakened, in order to develop ethical sensibilities in an organisation. Through an exploration of these theories, I propose that storytelling, as a natural sense-making ability of humans, can be integrated into organisational ethics programmes. I finally analyse the Cynefin Framework and Sensemaker Suite™ process and methods and discuss some possibilities and tensions in using the framework as intervention in enabling ethical sensibilities in complex organisations.