Exploring usage of autobiography in managerial intellectual learning (MIL) via an agile literature review

 

Working paper: jh-2021-03-018-a (https://josephho33.blogspot.com/2021/03/exploring-usage-of-autobiography-in.html)

 

 

Exploring usage of autobiography in managerial intellectual learning (MIL) via an agile literature review

 JOSEPH KIM-KEUNG HO

Independent Trainer

Hong Kong, China

Dated: March 18, 2021

 

Abstract: The agile literature review exercise has recently been employed to study a number of learning and psychological topics so as to further enhance intellectual knowledge on the research theme of managerial intellectual learning (MIL) as proposed by Ho (2014). This article adopts the same tactic of conducting an agile literature review on autobiography to flesh out the MIL study. It presents the literature review findings on autobiography and then argues for the significant intellectual relevance of the autobiography literature to the MIL research. As such, the article demonstrates the value of the agile literature review exercise for managerial intellectual and management research purposes.

Key words: agile literature review, autobiography, managerial intellectual learning (MIL).

 

 

Introduction

Managerial intellectual learning (MIL) was a research theme proposed by the writer in 2014 (re: Ho, 2014; 2021). The latest MIL study effort is directed at using the agile literature review exercise on different learning and psychological topics, e.g., situated learning, sel-determination theory, and social identity theory, to make further conceptual enhancement on the MIL theme, especially on the MIL process model (Ho, 2014). This article follows that same research tactic by conducting an agile literature review exercise on autobiography in order to flesh out the MIL theme with additional stimulating ideas. Specifically, in the next section, the writer conducts an agile literature review exercise on autobiography; the review findings are then employed to examine the MIL theme.

An agile literature review on autobiography

An agile literature review is nimble, evolutionary and responsive. This is in contrast to the more conventional literature review exercise which is much more comprehensive and vigorous, thus lengthier to perform. The agile exercise is intended to be in sync with the busy life-style of managerial intellectual learners as scholar-practitioners. This agile literature review exercise took three days part-time effort to carry out, from March 15 to 17, 2021. The literature search on autobiography relied on Google Scholar and two UK universities’ e-libraries. The main literature review findings are presented in Table 1. The academic ideas are grouped into three categories, with keywords in bold font.

Table 1:  A set of gathered academic ideas related to autobiography, grouped into three categories

Categories	Academic ideas of autobiography
Category 1: nature of autobiography [idea 1.1]	“Autobiographies, or, as it is today more popular, memoirs, have gone, in the past two decades or so, through a complete make over. Memoir, in fact, is nothing short of a phenomenon. What is, to wit, phenomenal about memoir is how prismatic it is, how prone to morphing, to play, crisscross, and perhaps even violate the boundaries and definitions that philosophy and literary criticism have, throughout the centuries, attached to different genres—in fiction and nonfiction alike” (Summa-Knoop, 2017).
Category 1: nature of autobiography [idea 1.2]	“Autoethnography is one possibility within CAP [creative analytic process]. Ethnography typically focuses on interpreting the lives of others. Autoethnography involves an examination of the self related to others within a social context (e.g., Berger, 2001; Couser, 2005; Vidal-Ortiz, 2004)” (Henderson et al., 2008).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.1]	“…for many adult learning theorists, the revisiting of past experience is learning. Whether a particular experience has led to valuable skills and insights or constricting habits and beliefs—and adult learning theory recognizes both—“learning may be defined as the process of making a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of an experience, which guides subsequent understanding, appreciation, and action” (Mezirow, 1990, p. 1)” (Michelson, 2011).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.2]	“Within narrative theory, what has come to be known as narrative psychology posits human beings fundamentally as story tellers who organize their understanding of the world and their own sense of self according to narrative structures. Drawing both on Freudian practices of self-narration and on postmodernist notions of the provisional self, narrative psychology rests on the understanding that the stories through which people construct themselves are, in some ways, necessary fictions” (Michelson, 2011).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.3]	“Self-narratives are mediated by multiple external factors, among them the social and ideological circumstances of the telling, the primary recipient of the narrative, the ways people have been socialized into particular discursive self-representations, and the strategies people have learned for negotiating their relationships with others (Bruner, 2004; Ochs and Capps, 1996)” (Michelson, 2011).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.4]	“Autobiographies ask their readers to engage in a specific “mode of reading,” one that, …. combines the reader’s role as a believer with her ability to empathize, sympathize, but also to judge and question the content of an autobiography” (Summa-Knoop, 2017).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.5]	“…  creative analytic process (CAP) … allows for innovative presentations of data in the form of stories, visual images, poetry, performances, personal stories, and autoethnography. Dupuis (1999) advocated for what she described as a reflexive methodology that acknowledges “that our selves and personal experiences cannot be removed from the research process” (p. 59)” (Henderson et al., 2008)
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.6]	“An actant can be literally anything, human or non-human, provided it is granted to be the source of an action, and it should be employed with the same analytical and descriptive framework no matter whether it is a person, a text or a machine. This means that all the actants in a network; i.e. texts, machines, human beings, buildings etc., are all generated in, form part of and are essential to the networks of the social, and all should be analysed in the same terms (Law, 1992; Latour, 1996)” (Hanssen,  2019).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.7]	“As an actant the researcher-initiated autobiography interacts in networks with other actants (the participant, the researcher, the computer), and as an actant ‘in itself’. This means that in order to discuss how the researcher-initiated autobiography works as a method of producing data and a methodology as a means for analysing data, one has to trace associations between the autobiography and other human or non-human actants” (Hanssen,  2019).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.8]	“Richardson and St. Pierre describe CAP [Creative Analytical Practices] as different formats where the authors move outside conventional social scientific writing, and the stories covers several new forms in how subjects present their lives (see also Diversi and Moreira 2009; Norris and Sawyer, 2012; Pelias, 2004, 2011; Spry, 2011). According to Denzin (2014), these are ‘the methods by which the “real” appearances of “real” people are created’ (2014: 7)” (Hanssen,  2019).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.9]	“Instead of the simple retrieval of episodic events, autobiographical memory illuminates why an event is significant for the self, while it is also related with and affected by the local culture in which the person is located (Rubin, 1998)” (Charatsari, 2014).
Category 2: ingredient concepts of autobiography [idea 2.10]	“… autobiographical memories, by containing important retrospective information, could significantly advance our understanding of many social phenomena, as well as their course over time” (Charatsari, 2014).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.1]	“Grounded in reminiscence and life review, the guided autobiography method emerged in educational and research activities in the 1970s to explore the many psycho-social issues shaping adult development. Over the next 30 years, it evolved into a dynamic, flexible format that is used in education, counseling, and psychotherapy interventions and many of the social sciences for data (stories) about the human condition. Each discipline seeks access to information (autobiographical memory) from participants about self–other dynamics, for example, experiences, emotions, images, and perceptions.” (Thornton, 2008).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.2]	“As an educational intervention, the guided autobiography method is organized by learning principles shaping small temporary social groups. Participants share their life stories as a “social act” with expectations of learning about others and about themselves and of enhancing self-awareness and personal abilities” (Thornton, 2008).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.3]	“When guided autobiography groups are organized as a class or course for academic and professional training, relationships are as teacher or instructor and student. Group dynamics and information exchanged are less situated in the lives of participants and are focused on knowledge in professional practice. In a community setting, the social context influences that workshop format, requires greater flexibility regarding goals and responsibilities, and situates knowledge in participants’ narratives” (Thornton, 2008).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.4]	“Autobiographical narratives take up a good deal of space both in the adult learning classroom and in the literature on adult learning. In some contexts, including the assessment of experiential learning for college credit, students are required to narrate the events of their lives and articulate the ways in which their experiences have led to knowledge. In other contexts, adult educators use critical incidents from students’ pasts to tease out habitual life patterns and suppositions or else to identify and celebrate incidents that led to more inclusive understandings of self and world. In still other contexts, adults are encouraged to find more genuine ways of living by distinguishing between what they truly want and the roles and values that have been imposed on them by others” (Michelson, 2011).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.5]	“Teacher as a writer, writer as a teacher     I want to attend to how autobiographical narratives could be understood as useful to reflexive practitioner-research. Put simply, I understand such narratives as a series of scattered stories of my life written by myself and moving between the personal and the political, the local, the historical and the cultural. ….  Alzbouebi (2004, 2) suggests that: ‘… As researchers we need to maintain an informed reflexive consciousness to contextualize our own subjectivity in data interpretation and representation of experiences in the research process …’..” (Holmes, 2009).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.6]	“As with many other domains (such as commerce but also various forms of social interactions), the Internet and more particularly social media have drastically altered what we still call autobiography, or life writing. Based on this evolution, these terms could be regarded as obsolete, no longer in touch with reality. Indeed, for someone who studies the autobiographical potential or even value of an Instagram account, the expression ‘life writing’ is generally ill-suited, and in some cases certainly irrelevant; such a way of displaying various aspects of your day-to-day, your travels or a host of other experiences is undoubtedly about life, but in the case of Instagram, it is definitely much more than writing. It seems that life narrating or even life showing might be more appropriate words in this case” (Schmitt, 2018).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.7]	“Autobiography is increasingly seen less as a literary genre or as a means of aesthetically presenting a certain vision of one’s self, and more as a narrative modality endowed with the over bearing responsibility of grappling with facts, events, lives or simply History” (Schmitt, 2018).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.8]	“‘Blogs, vlogs, graphic memoirs, and other media have opened new possibilities for historians’ experiences to be recounted “in the-moment”; the traditional medium of a written life is now but one of many options’ (Prodromou and Demetriou 2017, 470)” (Schmitt, 2018).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.9]	“The contemporary explosion of academic autobiography is often associated with a loss of faith in broad explanatory paradigms or ‘grand narratives’. In the absence of convincing collective schemas of meaning, scholars turn to tracing the history of the self as the only way of making sense of their experiences (Megill 2007, 43–6)” (Popkin, 2009).
Category 3: application considerations of autobiography [idea 3.10]	“The idea of putting together a volume of autobiographical essays by a number of academics in a specific discipline seems to have come from a young student of philosophy named Raymund Schmidt – known today primarily as the editor of the standard critical edition of Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason” (Popkin, 2009).

 

 

The academic ideas in Table 1 are grouped into the three categories of “nature of autobiography”, “ingredient concepts of autobiography” and “application considerations of autobiography. By reviewing the main ideas of the academic literature (re: Table 1), a summary description of the three idea categories is presented as follows:

About the “nature of autobiography” (category 1 of Table 1), autobiography, in its more contemporary innovative forms, is more prismatic and morphing; nevertheless, it remains essentially an examination of (i) the self as well as (ii) the relation of the self to others, within a specific social context.

On the “ingredient concepts of autobiography (category 2 of Table 1), the autobiography topic comprises a number major concepts; these are the concepts of “learning”, self narratives, narrative psychology (including the notion of narrative structure), creative analytic process (CAP), actants in a network, reflexive methodology, mode of reading, autobiographical memory, researcher-initiated autobiography, guided autobiography method, and retrospective information.

On the third category of Table 1 (application considerations of autobiography), autobiography applications cover life-stories as “social acts”, learning effort to enhance self-awareness and personal abilities, more inclusive understanding of the self and world, self-other dynamics, and knowledge (including professional practice)  gained from experience.

 

The agile literature review findings reveal autobiography as a set of rich and evolving methods for critically and socially-aware (i) learning (individual and group-based) and (ii) social research; this kind of methods that radiates from self-narratives towards others within a specific context. With this understanding, the article moves on to the next task of examining managerial intellectual learning with reference to autobiography.

 

Enriching the managerial intellectual learning (MIL) process model with the autobiography literature

Managerial intellectual learning (MIL) was launched by the writer in 2014 (Ho, 2014; 2021). It is about learning academic ideas in the business management field via the critical systems thinking and multi-perspective, systems-based research lens. Thus, it is a specific form of intellectual learning in business management. Its main focus is on how such intellectual learning constitutes a personal development journey for the learner to become a competent scholar-practitioner. To make further clarification on study scope of MIL, the MIL process model (re: Figure 1) was proposed by Ho (2014), which is composed of a number of components, namely, the MIL capability-building mechanism (MILCBM), the infrastructural support, the managerial intellectual learning process, the world of management practices (via the enriched cognitive lens with MIL), feedbacks from management practices and, finally, work & non-work influences, supports & constraints.

(re: Ho, 2014)

 

With reference to the literature on autobiography, it can be said that both MIL and autobiography both emphasize (i) the self-centered role of learning, (ii) the critical and social awareness of learning and (iii) the learning from practice and actions. The autobiography literature, thus, contributes to the study of all the MIL components of Figure 1. While, so far, the autobiography field has no published academic works that employ critical systems thinking and the multi-perspective, systems-based research lens, this article acknowledge the noteworthy intellectual relevance of autobiography to MIL study.

 

Concluding remarks

The academic literature of autobiography has much to contribute to the MIL study. It is demonstrated in this article with an agile literature review exercise on autobiography. Moreover, the value of the agile literature review exercise for management research and intellectual learning is illustrated in this article. It is thus a useful reading for those who are interested in MIL, the agile literature review and autobiography.

 

 

References

Charatsari, C. 2014. “Collecting and Using Autobiographical Memories in Rural Social Research: A Step-by-Step Guide” Journal of Agricultural & Food Information 15:19–41, Taylor & Francis.

Hanssen, J.K. 2019. “The researcher-initiated R autobiography’s work as an actant in producing knowledge about the social” Qualitative Research 19(3): 311–322.

Henderson, K., Oakleaf, L., James, P., Swanson, J., Moore, A., Edwards M. and Hickerson, B. 2008. “The Experience of Learning/Teaching Qualitative Research Approaches: An Ethnographic Autobiography” SCHOLE: A Journal of Leisure Studies and Recreation Education 23(1): 27-41, DOI: 10.1080/1937156X.2008.11949608.

Ho, J.K.K. 2014. “An empirical study on managerial intellectual learning (MIL) and managerial intellectual learning capability-building mechanism (MILCBM)” European Academic Research 2(8) November: 10564-10577.

Ho, J.K.K. 2021. “An updated account of the research theme status of managerial intellectual learning (MIL)” Joseph KK Ho e-resources March 4 (url address:  https://josephho33.blogspot.com/2021/03/an-updated-account-of-research-theme.html).

Holmes, R. 2009. “Theatre of the self: autobiography as performance” International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 22(4): 399-416, DOI: 10.1080/09518390802541194.

Michelson, E. 2011. “Autobiography and Selfhood in the Practice of Adult Learning” Adult Education Quarterly 61(1): 3–21, Sage.

Popkin, J.D. 2009. “The origins of modern academic autobiography: Felix Meiner's DieWissenschaftderGegenwartinSelbstdarstellungen, 1921–1929” Rethinking History 13(1): 27-42, DOI: 10.1080/13642520802639595.

Schmitt, A. 2018. “From Autobiographical Act to Autobiography” Life Writing 15(4): 469-486, DOI: 10.1080/14484528.2018.1478598.

Summa-Knoop, L.D. 2017. “Critical autobiography: a new genre?” Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 9(1), 1358047, DOI: 10.1080/20004214.2017.1358047.

Thornton, J.E. 2008. “The guided autobiography method: a learning experience” Int’l. J. Aging and Human Development 66(2): 155-173.