Interdependence and Cultural Resources to Mediate Change
What Was Missing in Engeström’s Third Generational Activity Theory
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21252003 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Enno Freiherr Von Fircks (0000-0002-9617-6654, Keele University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 931-943 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Human Arenas (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2522-5790 • E-ISSN: 2522-5804 |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s42087-022-00303-9 |
| OpenAlex | W4292408604 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 21 |
In the present paper, I praise the benefits of organizational activity theory by means of an empirical example. I draw here on my work experience within a pharmacy. A client enters the pharmacy and demands medication for skin issues. The pharmacist wanting to prescribe a standard ointment refrains suddenly from this standard treatment while asking for the specific nature of the problem. The client lifting up his shirt lets him glimpse into his very intimate action field (body) which is the basis for an innovative solution – contacting a befriended dermatologist. The client entering the pharmacy is thus – equally – entering the complex interlocked action sphere of the pharmacist that can be made fertile for specific goals and purposes. Activity theory was able to decipher this complex human interaction while showing innovative solutions on the side of the pharmacy. It is thus doing justice to the complexity of dynamic people moving in time. Yet, activity theory lacks concrete cultural mechanisms of change. Here, I appeal interested readers not to create a new generation of organizational activity theory but to complement the third generation of it. I argue that interdependence and jointly negotiated cultural resources can mediate sustainable change within an organizational system. Interdependence of goals is important for the dermatologist to join the pharmacist in an alternative treatment while client and pharmacist need to negotiate the concrete details of exchanging contacts, sending photos of the skin issues and transferring contact details. I argue that these mechanisms should be the beginning of a research program that pays attention to cultural mechanisms that mediate change within organizational activity theory. The time is ripe
Appeal · Negotiation · Pharmacist · Political science · Praise · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Medicine · Nursing · Psychology · Social Psychology · Social Representations and Identity · Pharmacy
An Invitation to Cultural Psychology
From Methodology to Methods in Human Psychology
Activity theory as a framework for analyzing and redesigning work
Culture and Leadership
Cultural Resources for Leadership
The meaning and origin of the activity concept in Soviet psychology—with primary focus on A. N. Leontiev’s approach
Resolving social conflicts and field theory in social science
Using Resources
Embodied Germ Cell at Work
From mediated actions to heterogenous coalitions
Symbolic Action Theory and Cultural Psychology
Value‐Based Praxis in Community Psychology
Existential Humanistic Leadership (EHL) as a Dialogical Process
Reflections on activity theory
Making Management Human
Thinking Rich as Well as Simple
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,67 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |