Ontology Matters in Management Sciences

Zusatztext

Scientific Study from the year 2025 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management, language: English, abstract: Management theory has been dominated by epistemology-driven models, which focus on how organizational knowledge is acquired and validated. This article argues for a fundamental ontological turn: a shift toward understanding what organizations are at their core. The author proposes the Theory of the Learnable, a novel ontological framework that reframes organizations as dynamic ecosystems of meaning. Grounded in Critical Realism and enriched by insights from neurosemantics, ecological psychology, and operational linguistics, the Learnable is defined as a structured semantic field of latent affordancespossibilities for meaning. The article introduces the Learnable Enhanced Bhaskarian Ontology (LEBO), adding a fourth stratumthe Learnable (Magni, 2011)to Bhaskar's classic triad (the Real, Actual, and Empirical) to account for the mediating role of symbolic structures. The author demonstrates how language, particularly syntax and metaphor, functions as an attentional instrument that shapes perception, decision-making, and behaviour. Consequently, leadership is reconceptualized as Generative Leadership of Meaningsthe practice of activating, profiling, and leading semantic affordances to foster coherence and adaptation. The framework provides a transdisciplinary foundation for a generative management science, positioning meaning as ontologically primary and causally powerful in organizational life.

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