Guest editorial

Citation

Rausch, E. (2009), "Guest editorial", Management Decision, Vol. 47 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/md.2009.00147caa.001

Guest editorial

Article Type: Guest editorial From: Management Decision, Volume 47, Issue 3

This special issue focuses on common sense, a concept on which agreement and coinciding views are hard to come by, as aptly phrased in Benjamin W. Redekop’s paper: “Long assigned to the dustbin of history by philosophers, scientists, behaviorists, and critical theorists, common sense is a notion that refuses to die”. The fuzziness of the concept with roots in so many disciplines but lacking depth of meaning, are the reasons that triggered the idea to present a variety of papers to explore the many aspects of the topic. Though there was not room for all of them, submissions came, not only from US scholars, but also from the UK, China, Taiwan, Trinidad, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Australia.

This special issue is also intended, in part, to highlight the fact that, as in other non-technical disciplines such as leadership, it is virtually impossible to create a universally acceptable definition. Nonetheless it is possible to explore, and even research, what can be done to help individuals improve their relevant competencies for decisions that apply some form of common sense.

I believe that this special issue has accomplished these two objectives. It builds on the widely accepted fundamental core of common sense – that refers to good judgment. But then it demonstrates in several papers that such judgment has different meanings depending on the individual’s background and environment. As can be seen from the many inappropriate decisions that one encounters, it appears to be very elusive in human affairs.

The paper objectives and the many dimensions that the authors consider to be part of common sense do not readily lend themselves to empirical analysis. So much depends on personal, subjective interpretation of the meaning of words. Even “ethics”, as a common sense component, though it probably has a widely accepted foundation for a definition, is vague on the edges. If “white lies” are ethical, what are the criteria that will make them so?

The papers look at many perspectives. Some focused on comparing the definitions and meaning of common sense. Others show the way it is applied in management, at the role of ethics, at inherent contradictions, at the relationship to analytical reasoning, and at methods for measuring application of some of common sense aspects by individuals. One (Jim Clawson’s “Level three common sense”) even discusses how it relates to memes (a relatively new concept – an idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve). Still another one looks at the way broader common sense is developed when there is a need – in that case the consideration of trust and commitment issues when selecting and maintaining partnerships.

Despite this broad conceptual coverage of the topic, many readers may correctly expect that papers in Management Decision should be highly professional meaning that they should be research oriented. It might therefore be worthwhile here to point out that the call for papers specifically invited a wide range of types: “Papers for this special edition can address research or viewpoints. They can be technical or conceptual papers, case studies, literature reviews, or general reviews.” Without that leeway, it might not have been possible to create a journal issue on common sense. That would be true even when the scope is expanded to include “other decision influences” because there are hardly any reports of empirical work in the literature and because it is so difficult to do such research on an ambiguous issue with enormously widespread implications.

It is hoped that these papers contribute to and encourage the continuing conversation on common sense, and that readers benefit from the insights and thoughts put forward by our esteemed authors.

Erwin RauschGuest Editor