1. Running Head: CONCEPTUAL PRAGMATISM 1
Conceptual Pragmatism: A Leadership Perspective
Individual Assignment: Class 4
Emmalie Beaman
Medaille College
Author Note:
This paper was prepared on 4 April 2016 for MOL623X
MOL18RA, taught by Professor Ann Horn-Jeddy
Conceptual Pragmatism: A Leadership Perspective

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Introduction
Pragmatism is a movement in American philosophy that stresses the notion that a
statement is true if it produces positive results consecutively (Wikipedia, 28 March 2016).
Practicality is the cornerstone of which pragmatism is based. In relation to organizations, a
solution or truth must be practical in order to be implanted, managers may overlook the
practicality in favor of what has worked in the past or what the competition does differently that
makes them thrive. A decision or theory can only be proven as true when put into action and
producing a positive result. There is no one right answer or solution that can be applied to every
situation, it is dependent on the context and the experience. In relation to organizations and
leadership these same principles can be applied. Truth is not a rigid absolute but instead it is
contingent on the circumstances. Pragmatism is about thinking outside the box and ultimately
making decisions based on both experience and rationality which is paramount in the realm of
leadership.
Philosophers in general come from two schools of thought; the same can be said for
managers. These concepts distinguish the difference between simply managing and leading.
Managing as a job connotes supervising the employees that are doing the groundwork, making
the products and interacting with the customers to make sure revenue is achieved. Managers
generally stay in their position at the top, delegate responsibilities, and deal with any grievances
that went through many layers until it reaches them (Mintzberg, 1990). They generally stick to
set guidelines and solutions set forth by the organization like a field guide and apply these
guidelines to similar issues. In philosophy this school of thought most closely relates to the
“tough minded” philosophers, those who believe the world is only made of physical concrete

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things and empirical knowledge, they believe in an absolute truth that exists in the world and that
things are determined to happen a certain way (Carneades.org, 2015). Leadership is categorized
as more of an art form in which it is a set of skills that are inherent in certain individuals and is
not limited to job title or level. Leading entails creating teams, motivating employees, extrinsic
rewards, and having a genuine care for the betterment of the entire organization including
mission, vision, and employees. Leaders constantly look ahead, make goals, and implement
change and foster innovation and creativity. They do not get hung up on or intimidated by
competition, challenges, or politics (De Pree, 2004). These traits most closely relate to the
opposing philosophical school of the “tender minded” in which the followers believe that the
world is made only of mental things and that what is learned is “a priori”, meaning learned
through thinking and the mind. Decisions are reached through analysis of the issue at hand and
not from applied experiences. In contrast to the “tough minded”, the “tender minded” believe
people do have the free will to change things.
Conceptual pragmatism as proposed by C.I. Lewis attempts to rationalize the “tender
minded” and “tough minded” philosophical theories. “Tender minded” philosophers believed
more in the power of the mind, an abstract phenomena that is a projection of the brain while
“tough minded” were more interested in the biological neurological chemical brain itself. Lewis
claimed that there is not just one logic, but many logics from which we must choose the one that
best explains our experience, the mind and brain working together, with no distinction (Hunter,
2012). Epistemology is a discipline within the field of philosophy that studies how we know
what we know (Krier, 2016); Lewis believes that our narrative is influenced by our preconceived
notions, stereotypes, and previous encounters with similar stimuli. The brain is made up of
chemical reactions that are sent to the mind, the mind then assigns meaning and words to the

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outside stimuli the brain has taken in previously. In organizations these preconceived notions are
ingrained in the culture that has been set into motion and reinforced over the course of the
existence of the organization. For example, when you look at a wall it generally is painted a
color, color is nothing more than light being bounced off electromagnetic waves that is detected
by the retina of the eye, the neurons of the eye then take in the stimuli of the color, this all
happens on the brain level, the color only gains meaning when the mind filters through
experience and memory of perceiving this color in the past and labels it, someone once told you
that color is orange, so the wall matches that perception, it must be orange, this process happens
so quickly we are not even aware of it (Krier, 2016). The same can be said for preconceived
notions in the work place. There are certain methods and solutions that others fear to question
because “it’s the way it’s always been done” or because it is the quickest way to relieve a
symptom. Philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein expanded on C.I. Lewis’ projections by illustrating
that “narrative precedes perception” (Wikipedia, 2 April 2016). In an organization this can be
summarized by a staff meeting, before the employees even enter the room they have
preconceived notions and are informed by their own experiences at the company before the
speaker even starts talking. If they are told a meeting will be held feelings of dread or boredom
may come into play and this will cause them to shut their brain off to any new information before
it is presented. A leader must attempt to unravel this narrative so a new perception is able to
come across to employees. A leader should present new ideas slowly and describe the extrinsic
benefits as well as intrinsic and how these benefits positively impact the individuals, teams, and
organization as a whole. The employees must feel a sense of security and feel genuinely cared
for, the leader has their best interest in mind, and this can inform the process of buy in and team
mentality to move the organization forward as one entity. Change must be gradual and the

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leader must explain their passion for the changes and admit that they must make changes
themselves, the employees must feel the leader is leveling with them and moving forward with
them. A leader must harness the ability to implement change, create efficient teams, and most
importantly gain trust and buy in from these teams in order to foster creativity and innovation to
move into a successful future.
Presently, the Villa of Hope is in a “restructuring” phase. There are two sides to
this narrative, however. The powers that be advertise this restructuring to the employees and
community as a move toward a more therapeutic sanctuary model. In reality this is a façade for
the greediness of the now top heavy management pyramid, made up of mostly VP’s who expect
and demand a certain salary. By shifting to a more clinical approach, they will be less regulated
by the strict and supervised state funding; instead they can receive money to the ever greedy
health insurance and private pay money. The cognitive dissonance occurs in that the powers that
be believe they are actually benefiting the youth they serve when in reality they are laying off the
ground floor as their greed snowballs and tearing apart delicate relationships. They are really
motivated by money whether they are aware of it or not, again the narrative (money) precedes
the perception (therapeutic care for at risk teens). Until they take off the blinders and realize it is
their own greed driving this “restructuring” they will fold on top of themselves at the expense of
the teens they claim to be serving.
St. John’s Skilled Nursing Home is also attempting to make a shift for the better. Like
Villa of Hope, on paper everything looks aesthetically pleasing and innovative, behind the
scenes, they are trying to fit a square into a circle, metaphorically speaking. St. John’s evolved
its vision of Skilled Nursing and implemented the “small homes” model in conjunction with the

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Eden Alternative and built the Greenhouses, there are two currently. From the beginning the
Eden principles of patient centered care and home like experience were implemented. The great
success in this model has presently led to the decision to attempt to deinstitutionalize the current
Skilled Nursing building located on Highland Avenue. Through new construction and retraining
of staff, St. John’s goal is to make the building less like a hospital and more like a home. This
goal may be too idealistic and it is hard to reverse the ingrained culture in the staff. The vision
was for floors to be an open floor plan with bigger rooms for residents, a shared kitchen where
residents and care partners cook meals together, and each staff person is trained in every aspect
of the resident’s life, from recreation to meals to medication. This concept, known as Shabazam
has thrived in the Greenhouse homes where staff was hired on the basis of sharing this attitude.
Retraining staff presently at the Home is a different story, buy in seems to be assumed and
training mandatory for all staff members. They feel as though they are invisible robots that can
be reprogrammed without resistance. Of course the staff care deeply about what they do and the
elders they care for but in return they want to be cared for by the administration and feel they
have choices too, they want to feel they fit into the puzzle. They were never consulted on the
remodeling of how these kitchens and activity rooms would work best with them, and they are
the people that will be working in them every day with the residents, not the administrators or
construction workers. Again like Villa of Hope, at St. John’s Home the narrative precedes the
perception.
In the context of management and leadership, a manger may look at a decline in sales as a
vicious reinforcing loop where failure is imminent and the only solution is to apply past heuristic
solutions that will create the fastest result including cutting costs through lay-offs, employee
benefits, and manufacturing costs. A leader applying conceptual pragmatism may look at this

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decline in sales in an optimistic light, as an opportunity for delving deeper, surveying customers,
looking into each department and finding room for improvement in all the moving parts that
contribute to the organization running as one unified machine. A leader would see opportunity
for learning, improvement, and change. Both the manager and the leader are faced with the same
problem but the leader chooses to seek a solution that is specifically related to the present
problem that is occurring right in front of them. The manager chooses to use rule of thumb
techniques based on past experience with a similar issue to make a quick symptomatic solution.
It is almost as if the manager puts a “band aid” on the problem, while the leader is scrubbing in
for surgery.

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References
Carneades.org [Producer]. (2015). Pragmatism (William James and Charles Sanders Peirce)
[Video clip]. Available from: http://youtu.be/u0EOF56roHI.
Depree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York, NY: Doubleday.
Hunter, B. (2012). Clarence Irving Lewis. Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy. Retrieved
from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/lewis-ci/#OveConPra
Krier, L. MSW, LPC (2016) [Speaker]. An oral history with (Professor) Dr. Leon Krier :
Conceptual pragmatism [Telephone Conversation]. University of Colorado: Denver, CO.
Mintzberg, H. (1990). The manager’s job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Business Review.
Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/1990/03/the-managers-job-folklore-and-fact.
Wikipedia (28 March 2016). Pragmatism. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatism

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Wikipedia (2 April 2016). Ludwig Wittgenstein. Wikipedia: The free encyclopedia. Retrieved
from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Wittgenstein