Theoretical Framework of an Eliasian Approach: An approach to Process Analysis

We explore the manifestation of problematic barriers in business analysis, with a focus on the work of Sociologist Norbert Elias (1897–1990). we suggests that a common feature of contemporary management issues is the underlying uncertainty regarding what causal factors account for a problem, and what management strategy should be employed to resolve the problem. In this respect, this paper puts forward a theoretical perspective, which suggests that Norbert Elias’s process-oriented approach to problematic enquiry, “a figurational approach”, can be developed to better support elemental overlap of perspective, social construct, process data and organisational strategy in a business or organisational context. This paper advocates that analysis can take place within pertinent organisational structure, and at the same time, appreciate individualistic perspectives regarding data interpretation, by adopting open ended data streams and long term perspectives. Wherein, multilevel analysis on both the perspective and contextual plane, within a figurational ‘plexus’, allows the process to appear as an emergent entity, importantly, without the need to reduce problems to suit the method of analysis. Embracing this point of view, the paper cultivates the notion of a figurational approach by establishing real time interdependency ties, power balances, social and organisational associations as dynamic structures, which support analytical provenance. Further, a figurational approach utilized in this way, reduces ambivalence typically associated with unplanned outcomes by combining structural analysis of both the ‘networks’, and the mechanisms at work within the ‘networks’ simultaneously. This inimitable view is sustained by an explanation of how unique associations of data collection and analysis countenances clear identification of these structures. Accepting that this theoretical association is somewhat complex, the paper relates these to outcomes within mechanisms of adaptive change and leadership, in a business context