George Simmel’s Theory of Forms and its meaning for Transformation
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[This is a copy of an essay written by Tony May in 1993 for the Organisational Development course at Bath University.]
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
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Romans 12:2, Holy Bible.
This thesis looks at the work of George Simmel as reviewed by Oakes (1980) in “Essays on Interpretation in Social Science”. It suggests that his theory of forms and more specifically his work on forms and the concept of culture offer an important understanding of change and the notion of transformation. In addition, the thesis will also demonstrate how this is significant to our understanding of the way we approach change. As a result, it will enable ourselves and the organisations we create to survive in a world that is characterised by conflict between, what Simmel calls, the energies of life, which appear to be in a greater period of flux, and the structures created through our minds in which they are expressed. According to Simmel this phenomenon creates the forces for cultural change and the emergence of alternative paradigms which can disposes the reigning paradigm from its pre-eminence.
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Additionally, as we look at the phenomenon of change and transformation through the perspective of Simmel’s theory of forms, it will be demonstrated that we will need to think in a way that is characterised by the insight contained within the Pauline instruction to the church in Rome quoted above. This view it will be shown implies that our ability to continuously succeed and survive in business depends on a radical kind of conversion in the way we think and manage organisations. It is a way of thinking that initiates an organisations transformation, at the necessary time in order to revitalise it, so that it can effectively meet the realities it is facing by renewing the way its’ people think, which in turn renews the organisation’s collective mind so to speak. In other words, this approach will ensure that an organisation will no longer conform to its reigning tradition of rationality, when found to be inadequate, but will allow itself to be transformed so that it sees things in a new and radically different way. By doing this an organisation guarantees its’ survival by continuing to correspond more closely with the so called ‘energies of life’. An organisation’s survival and success, therefore, depends upon its capacity to meet the realities that the energies of life throw up. The problem, as noted above, is that these energies are dynamic, meaning that the realties are constantly changing. Thus a successful business culture under one pattern of realties can be rendered inadequate as the continuous change becomes too much for its’ reigning tradition of rationality to handle. To prevent extinction and maintain continued success, as this thesis will demonstrate, a company must renew its thinking and maintain this new form until it to becomes inadequate in the light of the new realities it is facing, setting off the process all over again. In other words this approach suggests that we should adopt a more morphogentic orientation towards managing organisational change, Smith (1984) and Wilkins & Dryer (1988).
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Put another way, the above viewpoint depicts a process, which is characterised by a shift from one culture or ‘kingdom’ to another - causing a change in an organisation’s cultural identity, Gagliardi (1986). This process enables a firm to avoid the declining path of a vicious circle, Gagliardi (1986), and pursue the path of transformation to another virtuous circle of thinking and activity, continuing its’ prosperity. This !1