Essay On Postmodernism

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INTRODUCTION Faigley (1992) provided a good description of postmodernism when he provided the description that: “There is nothing outside contingent discourses to which a discourse of values can be grounded—no eternal truths, no universal human experience, no universal human rights, no overriding narrative of human progress. This assumption carries many radical implications. The foundational concepts associated with artistic judgment such as “universal value” and “intrinsic merit,” with science such as “truth” and “objectivity,” and with ethics and law such as “rights” and “freedoms” suddenly have no meaning outside of particular discourse and are deeply involved in the qualities they are alleged to be describing objectively’’ (Faigley 1992, p. 8). The basic precepts contained in the traditional universal theories are being challenged by the views of the postmodern ethics and in particular consequential and deontology. The overall movement of postmodern has a significant component that mainly questions the modernistic organizations traditions which had originated in the enlightenment age in Europe during the later Renaissance duration of 18th and 19th centuries. Human ideas were developed along the science philosophy lines leading to the encroachment of the rationalistic movement in line with the philosophical thought. The scientific/philosophical trends for instance empiricism, rationalism, mechanism, communicative rationality and positivism through the various trends of management like Fordism and scientific management have significantly been components of the movement of modernistic enlightenment and the rationality, the pursuit of knowledge, universality and rationality have been the main philosophical thoughts drivers. The... ... middle of paper ... ... relativism and fluidity. The multifaceted measurements implementation is supported by both paradigms but they differ with regards to the ontological, methodological, axiological and epistemological assumptions related to research. Postmodernism can be regarded as generally problematic. There is a contradiction exhibited in the postmodernism claim on truth lacking validity and meta-narratives. The criticism of meta-narrative is in fact a meta-narrative. Nevertheless postmodernism has contributed greatly to the organizational research and its critique has led to the revealing of the assumptions held in the positivism theories. It has exposed the concealed values and generalizations for the presumed objective research. Therefore the postmodern perspective should not be dismissed on the view of its inherent flaws rather its contributions should also be considered.

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