Paradigms
Yonatan
Reshef
School of Business
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Paradigms
are interconnected webs of basic assumptions about how the organization
should be run both economically and socially, and about roles assigned to
each party.
Because of their systematic character, paradigms exert a
powerful inertial influence over the collectivities governed by them.
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Paradigms are generalized cognitive structures, or frameworks, that people
use to impose structures on and impart meanings to particular events. |
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Paradigms are self inflicted rules or regulations that set an emotional
and cognitive boundary to our thinking and abilities to be creative. |
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In summary, paradigms are mental models, or
filters of information, that
condition our behaviors and institutionalize them. As a result, our
behaviors are often taken for granted, and we hardly ever explore their sources.
They are hard to change because we don't recognize the assumptions which
underlie them. In other words, we are prisoners of existing values, norms,
and practices that strongly condition our search to understanding new problems
-- such as quality -- and their solutions. As a result, when we encounter a
quality problem, initially, we tend to respond at the tactical level. For
example, if students complain about a course, the professor is likely to dismiss
the complaint, or change the readings/assignments/marking scheme. However,
it is possible that the teaching approach (strategy) is the problem. But
the change of a well-established teaching approach, requires a thorough
examination of the assumptions underlying it and a will to change them.
And how can someone change something of which s/he is not aware?
HOW STUDENTS CAN BE VIEWED
LAZY
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HARD WORKING
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ONLY WANT FUN
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KEEN
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APATHETIC
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ENGAGING
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CHEATERS
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HONEST
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DULL
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ORIGINAL
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BURDEN
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BLESSING
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