Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The challenges the organizational research community faces in promoting evidence-based management and practices parallel circumstances institutional entrepreneurs and reformers commonly face. This essay links these challenges to lessons derived from the actions and insights of the exemplary institutional reformer Teresa of Avila, who reintroduced an authentic spirituality into organizations within the Catholic Church following the Reformation. Framed as a letter nominating Teresa as the patron saint of organizational research, the essay addresses the risks and vulnerabilities associated with institutional transformations, and evidence-based management and practices specifically, and the Teresian processes pertinent to overcoming these.

Keywords

change evidence-based management institutional transformation organizational transformation Teresa of Avila

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Arndt, M. & Bigelow, B. ( 2009). Evidence-based management in health care organizations. A Cautionary Note. Health Care Management Review.

Barnard, C.A. ( 1938). Functions of the executive. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Bartunek, J.M. , & Moch, M.K. ( 1994) Third order organizational change and Western mystical traditional. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 7, 24-41.

Collins, J. ( 2001) Why some companies make the leap . . . and others don’t . New York: Collins.

Davis, J.H. , Schoorman, F.D. , & Donaldson, L. ( 1997) Toward a stewardship theory of management. Academy of Management Review, 22, 20-47.

Frohlich, M. ( 1993) The intersubjectivity of the mystic: A study of Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle. Atlanta: Scholars Press.

Hodgkinson, G.P. , & Rousseau, D.M. (2009). Bridging the rigor-relevance gap in management research: It is already happening! Journal of Management Studies, 46, 534-546.

Howells, E. ( 2002). John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila: Mystical knowing and selfhood. New York: Crossroad .

James, W. ( 1911). The varieties of religions experience. London: Longmans, Green & Co.

10.

Jensen, M.C. , & Meckling, W.H. (1976). Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure. Journal of Financial Economics, 3, 305-360.

11.

Kieser, A. , & Leiner, L. ( 2009). Why the rigor-relevance-gap in management research is unbridgeable. Journal of Management Studies, 46, 516-533.

12.

Lanzetta, B.J. ( 2005). Contemplative ethics: Intimacy, Amor Mundi and dignification in Julian of Norwich and Teresa of Avila. Spiritus, 5, 1-18

13.

Locke, E.A. ( 2002). Setting goals for life and happiness. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 299-350). New York: Oxford.

14.

Medwick, C. ( 1999). Teresa of Avila: The progress of a soul. New York: Image.

15.

Merton, T. ( 1951). The ascent to truth. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.

16.

Mintzberg, H. ( 2004). Managers not MBAs. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

17.

Mujica, B. ( 2008). Sister Teresa: The woman who became Saint Teresa of Avila . New York: Overlook Press.

18.

Rousseau, D.M. ( 2006). Is there such a thing as evidence-based management? Academy of Management Review, 31, 256-269.

19.

Simon, H.A. ( 1997). Administrative behavior (4th ed.). New York:

20.

Saint Teresa de Avila. (1987). Collected works (Vol. 1). Washington, DC: Institute of Carmelite Studies.

21.

Weber, A. ( 1990). Teresa of Avila and the rhetoric of femininity. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

22.

Weick, K.E. ( 2001). Making sense of the organization. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

23.

Wilson, E.O. ( 1999) Consilience: The unity of knowledge. New York: Vintage.

24.

Zalesnik, A. ( 1977, May-June). Managers and leaders: Are they different? Harvard Business Review, pp. 67-78.

Patron Saint of Organizational Research?

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References