Double Hermeneutic

I came across this term (pronounced 'her men you tic') in my strategic management PhD travels and was quite intrigued by it as it's both simple (despite its name) and very enlightening.  Hopefully I'll do the simple part justice here!!!!

It was coined by Anthony Giddens, a famous British sociologist, and it reveals a major difference in the way we should (stress on the should) theorise about the natural world versus our social world and of particular interest to me, theories about how we should manage people.

In essence, a theory about our natural world has no impact on the natural world which remains the same no matter what we think.  For example it was previously thought that the world was flat (and yes there are some of you still out there) but that didn't change the shape of the earth which remained a sphere (oh yes it is).  This is a single hermeneutic.

However in the social sciences this isn't the case and, if for example, a management theory gains sufficient currency then this can start to influence how managers act despite the robustness or validity of the theory.  This is double hermeneutic, there is no universal truth to be discovered and our theories alter practice.

I blogged a while ago about the two management authors who brought 50,000 copies of their own book so as to push it up the best sellers list.  If managers then brought the book because it was a best seller and implemented their suggestions we end up with management practice being led via a cunning marketing strategy.

It is a rather interesting perspective (well I think so anyway)..............

Comments

  1. Marcus (Germany, Business Administration Student)May 5, 2013 at 3:31 AM

    Very comprehensible descritpion.
    Thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownNovember 13, 2014 at 8:38 AM

    nicely explained

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownNovember 28, 2018 at 1:14 AM

    Very well explained! Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownSeptember 8, 2019 at 1:53 PM

    Thanks for explaining! Am a politics student and found this one hard to grasp. Now it's clearer :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Roger McEwanSeptember 9, 2019 at 1:29 PM

    I'm glad it helped and it is an interesting concept...

    ReplyDelete

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