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Fatien Diochon P, Defiebre-Muller R, Viola F. Toward an “Ethics of Serendipity”: Disrupting Normative Ethical Discourses in Organizations. HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT REVIEW 2018. [DOI: 10.1177/1534484318796321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Although most ethics development programs favor cognitive, individual, and top-down approaches, our article discusses, using the illustrative example of Volvo Group’s CreaLab, the cohabitation of multiples ethical discourses in organizations and implications for human resource development (HRD). We introduce the concept of the ethics of serendipity resulting from the ongoing dialogue and confrontation between three ethical discourses that we came up with building on Levinas’ work: The Being I discourse, the Being with discourse, and the discourse of the Call of the Other. The ethics of serendipity, thus, appear as a compromise that results from dissatisfaction with the traditional power dynamics of the Being I discourse, the desire to do something together illustrated in the Being with discourse, and the irresistible Call of the Other. Overall, this article answers a call for more social and experiential approaches to ethics in HRD.
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Abstract
Purpose
Serendipity is an interesting phenomenon to study in information science as it plays a fundamental – but perhaps underestimated – role in how we discover, explore, and learn in all fields of life. The purpose of this paper is to operationalize the concept of serendipity by providing terminological “building blocks” for understanding connections between environmental and personal factors in serendipitous encounters. Understanding these connections is essential when designing affordances in physical and digital environments that can facilitate serendipity.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, serendipity is defined as what happens when we, in unplanned ways, encounter resources (information, things, people, etc.) that we find interesting. In the outlined framework, serendipity is understood as an affordance, i.e., a usage potential when environmental and personal factors correspond with each other. The framework introduces three key affordances for facilitating serendipity: diversifiability, traversability, and sensoriability, covering capacities of physical and digital environments to be diversified, traversed, and sensed. The framework is structured around couplings between the three key affordances and three key personal serendipity factors: curiosity, mobility, and sensitivity. Ten sub-affordances for serendipity and ten coupled personal sub-factors are also briefly outlined. Related research is compared with and mapped into the framework aiming at a theoretical validation. The affordance approach to serendipity is discussed, including different degrees and types of serendipity.
Findings
All the terminological “building blocks” in the framework are seen to resonate with the included related research. Serendipity is found to be a commonplace phenomenon in everyday life. It is argued that we cannot “engineer” nor “design” serendipity per se, but can design affordances for serendipity. Serendipity may thus be intended by designers, but must always be unplanned by users. The outlined affordance approach to serendipity points to the importance of our sensory-motor abilities to discover and explore serendipitous affordances.
Research limitations/implications
Implications of the framework for designing physical and digital environments with affordances for serendipity are briefly considered. It is suggested that physical environments may have a primacy regarding affordances of sensoriability for facilitating serendipity, and digital environments a primacy regarding traversability, whereas physical and digital environments may afford similar degrees of diversifiability. In future research, the framework needs further empirical validation in physical and digital environments.
Originality/value
No other research has been found addressing affordances for serendipity and connections between environmental and personal factors in similarly detailed ways. The outlined framework and typology may function as a baseline for further serendipity studies.
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Gabriel Y. Case Studies as Narratives: Reflections Prompted by the Case of Victor, the Wild Child of Aveyron. JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT INQUIRY 2017. [DOI: 10.1177/1056492617715522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Drawing on a celebrated case study of a feral child in France, the author argues that there are similarities between stories and case studies as types of narrative and that they are both capable of acting as insightful tools of management inquiry. Both case studies and stories call for narrative imagination to develop meaningful narratives. Serendipity, the accidental discovery of meaning or purpose in what seems random and purposeless, is an important part of narrative imagination. As meaningful narratives, both case studies and stories follow a structure of interwoven actions and events with beginnings, middles, and ends. However, where storytellers enjoy poetic license to distort facts for effect, case study researchers are more constrained by factual accuracy. The beginnings and ends of case studies are not as clearly defined as those of stories and fictional narratives.
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