Tackling Grand Challenges Pragmatically: Robust Action Revisited
Organization Studies, March 2015
University of Alberta School of Business Research Paper No. 2015-903
55 Pages Posted: 1 Nov 2014 Last revised: 18 Nov 2015
Date Written: October 22, 2014
Abstract
In this paper, we theorize a novel approach to addressing the world‘s grand challenges based on the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism and the sociological concept of robust action. Grounded in prior empirical organizational research, we identify three robust strategies that organizations can employ in tackling issues such as climate change and poverty alleviation: participatory architecture, multivocal inscriptions and distributed experimentation. We demonstrate how these strategies operate, the manner in which they are linked, the outcomes they generate, and why they are applicable for resolving grand challenges. We conclude by discussing our contributions to research on robust action and grand challenges, as well as some implications for research on stakeholder theory, institutional theory and theories of valuation.
Keywords: robust action, complexity, uncertainty, evaluativity, pragmatism
JEL Classification: D7, D8, I18, I3, O31, O32
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