Pragmatism as practice theory: The experience of systems and OR scholars

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Abstract
The paper examines the application of American pragmatism by systems and OR scholars who attempt to understand the interactions between consultants and clients at a detailed level. Specifically it examines whether pragmatism can be considered to be a practice theory by examining the empirical evidence of published case studies. A search of mainly OR journals identified 12 published papers containing detailed descriptions of behaviour in systems and OR interventions. On closer examination, six were found to be based on pragmatism through their reliance on boundary theory; five utilised grounded theory; the remaining paper utilised unbounded systems theory, which is based explicitly on pragmatism. Nine conclusions are reached which summarise the progress to date of utilising pragmatism‐as‐a‐practice‐theory and three which point to the potential for future research, collaboration and application in the systems/OR domain. The paper addresses the perceived lack of empirical application of pragmatism to everyday affairs.

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