The last couple of weeks we have been exploring some of the
ways in which science may be influenced by or shaped through culture and
society. Some people, along the
lines of Latour, have pointed out that the laboratory and the outer world may
not be so distinct as portrayed in some of the ethnographic accounts we
read. There has been some
discussion of, not only, how is science being influenced, but also how is
scientific knowledge being shared and/or translated in the social domain.
One phenomenon that interests me is the way in which various
relational disciplines (social sciences, psychology, etc.; but especially
business and organizational development) use processes in biology, physics or
chemistry as metaphors for social behavior. Used appropriately or not, it seems like models based on science
metaphors not only attract a lot of attention (popularity), but are often seen
as especially legitimate or worthy of consideration when compared to other kinds of
models.
Below is a youtube link describing one such model: “Friedman’s Theory of Differentiated
Leadership”. For those of you with a biology background, what do you
think? Does this kind of
differentiation track well with differentiation in cell biology?
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