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Believing
in the
world
A very short and
snappy course in
phenomenological
thinking for
managers by guest
editor rik maes

omputerised data are objectified representations goes back to a philosophical tradition starting with René

C of reality; at least, so the story goes. Managers

reasoning from figures taken from spreadsheets,
balanced score cards or other management reporting
systems by and large continue to believe – against their
better judgement – in this “objectivity”. They thereby
pass over in silence that the definition and the recording
of the same figures were processes full of
interpretations, understandings, compromises, etc and
that the very use of these figures proactively influences
their actual value.
How on earth can this unconditional belief in
“objectivity” and the subsequent detached way of
behaving be explained?
Investigating this prevalence more profoundly
reveals that it is deep-seated in western thought and
Descartes, the “founder of modern philosophy”. The only
indisputable knowledge according to him is based on a
man’s thinking, in this manner discarding his senses and
perception as a source of knowledge. This disconnected
way of reasoning culminates in August Comte’s
positivism, stating that the only authentic knowledge is
scientifically proven knowledge. Believers in objective
figures behave as if philosophy has since died out.
Believers in reality know better!
Edmund Husserl, generally regarded as the founder
of phenomenology, re-established experience as the
source of knowledge. Objectivity, in his reasoning, is not
the absence of subjectivity, but the consensus of
subjective experiences; sharing these experiences is part
of our subsistence.

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Starting from this world view, management can no
longer refrain from engagement: knowledge is in the
encounter with the real world, not with its image in
whatever thinkable format. Managers should leave their
sterile headquarters and the virtual world of their
information systems in order to gain and share real-
world experience. They are themselves part of the world;
they are in the world and not above it.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty elaborated on Husserl’s
philosophy by investigating our perception of the world.
In his view, perceiving is an active encounter with
reality, intrinsically ambiguous and dependent on our
understanding of and involvement in it. Our perception
of the world is “believing in the world”. Managers should
be aware, according to Merleau-Ponty, that objective
data simply don’t exist, since data are nothing but
frozen perceptions.
More specifically, information managers should be
aware that any attempt to build information systems
from generalised, disengaged business architectures are
doomed to fail.
Hans-Georg Gadamer is another philosopher in the
phenomenological tradition worthwhile considering. The
essence of his philosophical investigations, known as
hermeneutics, is that continuous interpretation is at the
heart of real living.
No interpretation stands alone or is a priori better
than any other. All the more so, no interpretation is final
or can claim to be objective. Truth is not the truth of the
facts or the data, but the truth of the actual
interpretation.
The corresponding managerial attitude should be
one of listening, contemplating and dialoguing, trying to
find answers to questions preceding decisions. Figures
are nothing but the temporary representation of
previous interpretations; they are always tentative and
objects for further interpretation.
Emmanuel Lévinas, for his part, starts from the
experience of our encounter with the other: every
encounter is a privileged phenomenon, an invitation to
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affirm or deny, but never to take hold of. We are
fundamentally responsible for the other and the pursuit
of knowledge is subordinate to our duty-to-the-other.
Lévinas’ ethical stance is the most radical one: he leaves
any manager with the basic concern for the other above
the chase for profit or any other ephemeral achievement.
Along Lévinas’ lines, any management is responsible
management.
No treatise on phenomenological thinking, however
short it may be, can bypass Martin Heidegger as an
influential and, at the same time, obscure and
controversial thinker.
Here we limit our exposition to his vision on
technology as managers’ deep belief in figures goes
hand in hand with an implicit vision of technology as a
reliable, passive source of information. Advances in the
direction of business intelligence, digital dashboards
and other applications of data mining are just symptoms
of their basic belief in ICT as a means to their own ends.
According to Heidegger, however, they are
fundamentally mistaken in this: technology, and ICT in
particular, is neither neutral nor a passive tool under
their control.
The essence of ICT is in its infrastructural nature, as
Claudio Ciborra has demonstrated: a vast system of
organisation that includes us, rather than standing
objectively and passively ready for our instructions.
Humans’ control over technology is an illusion, is
Heidegger’s deep caution, shaped (“enframed”) as our
destiny is through the technology we are using.
This tour of five prominent phenomenological
philosophers might appear confrontational, if not
shocking. It isn’t. These thinkers aren’t first and
foremost warning us against false impressions, but
offering perspectives worth envisioning. Authentic
engagement and a sense of own relativity, they tell us,
are key values for any human being, not least for any
manager feeling responsible for his organisation and
society in general.
Why shouldn’t we take advantage of their insights?
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