Robert Shaw Publications Online

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Robert Shaw, Stephen Dun-Hou Tsai, Ted Yu-Chung Liu & Mansour Amjadi (2011). The Ontology of Entrepreneurship: A Heideggerian perspective. Proceedings of the Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management. 7 December 2011.

This theoretical paper begins the Heideggerian study of entrepreneurship. It explores the use of the ontological-phenomenological method in the study of a practical activity, entrepreneurship. Enquiries into this situation are facilitated by Heidegger’s insights into the nature of the ontic sciences. To gain access to his insights it is necessary to clarify his concept of truth and to dismiss those enquires that are generated by ontic disciplines. Heidegger develops for our use an ontological method of enquiry, a form of phenomenology, and this provides access to the particular formation of being-in-the-world which provides for the possibility of entrepreneurship. The paper concludes with a reasoned assurance that ontological enquiry has the potential to deepen our insight into the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Quick View> Download pdf> Presentation>

Ashish Malik & Robert Shaw (2011) The phenomenology of union decision-making: A new way to enquire into reality. Proceedings of the ANZAM conference, Wellington, New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management. 7 December 2011.

This paper inaugurates a discussion about the phenomenology of union decision-making. Phenomenology provides a new lens that may enable us to gain penetrating insights into how unions function in the fractious world of human resources management. The present paper is preliminary to any fieldwork that may be undertaken. Its main purposes are to identify theory that could be the foundation of further practical work, relate recent work in the phenomenology of management to union practices and to propose directions of enquiry. The relevant theory is that of Edmund Husserl who provides us with a practical method of enquiry into the real world of human resource practice. Husserl’s work has already been applied in relation to local government functioning and some of the findings there appear relevant to the present enquiry. In particular, the nature and role of plebiscites. Quick View> Download pdf> Presentation>

Robert Shaw (2011). Book Review: Ihde, D., Heidegger’s Technologies: Postphenomenological Perspectives (Perspectives in Continental Philosophy). New York, Fordham University Press, 2010. Educational Philosophy and Theory,Vol. 43, No. S1, 2011 doi: 10.1111/j.1469-5812.2011.00782.x.

Both Don Ihde and his publications are popular. Students in diverse disciplines—such as management, engineering, and computer science—ﬁnd in his works the bridge between their technical passions and the human concerns which philosophy reﬂects. Ihde makes the philosophy of technology accessible and popular. Consequently, we expect much from his new works and those of us who gain inspiration from Heidegger take an acute interest in Ihde’s initiatives. Quick View> Download pdf>

Beverley McNally & Robert Shaw (2011) Proximal and Distal Emergency Management. In Proceedings of the ANZAM conference, Wellington, New Zealand, Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management. 9 December 2011.

This paper records issues in the Wellington regional response to the recent Canterbury earthquakes. It begins work on the concept of proximal and distal emergency management. That concept relates to emergency planning and crisis response. Specifically, it refers to the requirements when there is a major response required outside of the authority's territory. The main aspects of this situation explored in the present paper relate to human resource management. The ideas in this paper are based on interviews with crisis managers in Wellington, New Zealand, who had to respond to the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010-11. The authors dedicate this work to those in distress because of the Canterbury emergencies and to those who work in a practical way to alleviate their suffering. Quick View> Download pdf> SSRN> Presentation>

Robert Shaw (2011) Submission to the New Zealand Qualifications Authority on the Review of Business Qualifications, 14 October, 2011.

This submission to a government agency argues for greater leadership in decision-making about the structure and curriculum for business qualifications. The focus is on the governance structure which will best deliver the skills the country will need and provide a liberal education for all students. Quick View> Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (2011) Understanding Public Organisations: Collective Intentionality as Cooperation . In Proceedings of the 2011 Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia Conference, Auckland, New Zealand. 1 December 2011.

This paper introduces the concept of collective intentionality and shows its relevance when we seek to understand public management. Social ontology – particularly its leading concept, collective intentionality – provides critical insights into public organisations. The paper sets out the some of the epistemological limitations of cultural theories and takes as its example of these the group-grid theory of Douglas and Hood. It then draws upon Brentano, Husserl and Searle to show the ontological character of public management. Modern public institutions – such as advisory organisations and service delivery agencies, including schools and universities – are expressions of human collective intentionality. The central concept within these institutions, as a phenomenology reveals, is cooperation. Public institutions are natural structures that emerge from our evolutionary ancestry as cooperative animals and enduringly display all the features of that ancestry. Quick View> Download> Presentation pptx >

Robert Keith Shaw (2011) The Reformation of Business Education: Purposes and Objectives. In Proceedings of the New Zealand Applied Business Education Conference, Nelson, New Zealand, 11 October, 2011.

Business education is at a critical juncture. How are we to justify the curriculum in undergraduate business awards in Aotearoa New Zealand? This essay suggests a philosophical framework for the analysis the business curriculum in Western countries. This framework helps us to see curriculum in a context of global academic communities and national needs. It situates the business degree in the essential tension which modernity (Western metaphysics) creates and which is expressed in an increasingly globalised economy. The tension is between those who insist that the degree is to serve modernity and those who hope that it may contribute to a new era of justice and harmony with nature. One critical battle ground for the business curriculum is the subject Business Ethics. The business ethics curriculum often indicates the intention of the business ethics degree itself. Kant's distinction between heteronomy (rule following) and autonomy (making your own decisions) provides us with a means to judge the purposes of business ethics courses: there are courses which seek to produce reliable and compliant (heteronomous) employees, and there are those which seek to produce independent creative (autonomous) human beings. The question for this conference is: what do we as business educators see as our task? Quick View > Download pdf>

Robert Keith Shaw (2011). Heidegger's Hermeneutic Method in Tertiary Education. In Fowler Pip, Strongman Luke & Kobeleva Polly (eds.), Writing the Future. Wellington: Tertiary Writing Network.

Heidegger’s hermeneutic method and his account of pedagogy are useful in teaching students how to think and write. This paper interprets the method of thinking which Martin Heidegger taught to his students and indicates strategies that have been used to introduce that method to New Zealand students in an online course. The method appears to philosophers as a technique of conceptual analysis, although Heidegger may not have agreed with that characterisation or its use in this way. To tertiary teachers it is one framework that they may use to teach a strategy and techniques under the rubric of critical thinking. The use of the method of procedure proposed is well within the capabilities of teachers in practical subjects such as business, management, medicine and law. Students in the author’s business analysis course say that a hermeneutic strategy forces them to struggle, but ultimately they report satisfaction at their increased abilities and believe that they have gained something efficacious. Quick View> Download pdf> Presentation pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (2010). Husserl's Phenomenological Method in Management. In Proceedings of the ANZAM conference, Adelaide, Australia. Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management.

There is a palpable need for a new theory that embraces organisations and management – the hegemony of scientific theories is at an end. This paper argues that the phenomenological method which Husserl inaugurates has the potential to provide new insights. Those who adopt a phenomenological attitude to their situation within a business can explore unusual, and as yet unseen, depths within phenomena. The paper introduces Husserl’s method which requires the development of skills and a thoroughgoing rejection of scientific methods of enquiry. However, this method is unlikely assist practitioners to achieve already determined business goals. Quick View > Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (2010). Truth and Physics Education. Doctoral dissertation, University of Auckland

This thesis develops a hermeneutic philosophy of science to provide insights into physics education. -/- Modernity cloaks the authentic character of modern physics whenever discoveries entertain us or we judge theory by its use. Those who justify physics education through an appeal to its utility, or who reject truth as an aspect of physics, relativists and constructivists, misunderstand the nature of physics. Demonstrations, not experiments, reveal the essence of physics as two characteristic engagements with truth. First, truth in its guise as correspondence enables a human being to prepare for the distinctive event of physics. Second, the event of physics occurs in human perception when someone forces a hidden reality to disclose an aspect of itself. Thus, the ground of physics is our human involvement with reality achieved by way of truth. To support this account of physics, the thesis reports phenomenological investigations into Isaac Newton’s involvement with optics and a secondary school physics laboratory. These involve interpretations of Heidegger’s theory of beings, schema and signification. The project draws upon, and contributes to, the hermeneutic phenomenology of modern physics, a tradition in continental philosophy that begins with Immanuel Kant, and advances particularly from Martin Heidegger to Patrick Heelan. The thesis advocates an ontological pedagogy for modern physics which has as its purpose each individual student’s engagement with reality and truth. Students may achieve this through demonstrations of phenomena that will enable them to dwell with physics, an experience that contrasts with their embroilment in modernity, and which perpetuates nature’s own science. Quick View> Download pdf from PhilPapers>

Robert Keith Shaw (2010). The Violence in Learning. Analysis and Metaphysics 9:76-100.

This paper argues that learning is inherently violent. It examines the way in which Heidegger uses – and refrains from using – the concept in his account of Dasein. Heidegger explicitly discussed “learning” in 1951 and he used of the word in several contexts. Although he confines his use of “learning” to the ontic side of the ontic-ontological divide, there are aspects of what he says that open the door to an ontological analogue of the ontic learning. In this discussion it emerges that what precludes “learning” behaving as does “willing”, “waiting” and “thanking”, is something that derives from the relatedness of Dasein. The paper finally examines violence within the disclosure of truth. The approach to the investigation is experimental and is to some extent modelled on Heidegger's own later enquires. Quick View>

Robert Shaw (2010). The Nature of Science in Schools. New Zealand Science Teacher 125, 45-46.

The Nature of Science is now a compulsory part of all science teaching in New Zealand secondary schools, and yet the expression is controversial in science itself, in philosophy, in curriculum documents and in the teaching practice. Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (2009). The Nature of Democratic Decision Making and the Democratic Panacea. Policy Futures in Education 7 (3):340-348.

'Democracy thrives because it helps individuals identify with the society of which they are members and because it provides for legitimate decision-making and exercise of power.' With this statement, the Council of Europe raises for us some fundamental questions: what is the practice of democracy, its merits and its limitations? A phenomenological insight into democracy as it displays itself indicates that its essence is decision making by vote. The strength of this mechanism is that it operates without a requirement for rationality on the part of the participants, and its imperative is always to achieve a decision - any decision. Thus, the mechanism enables decisions in situations of incommensurable choice. The history of the engagement of Maori with local government in Aotearoa New Zealand makes apparent the limitations of democracy and challenges democracy itself. Maori have no tradition of democracy and they aspire to the exercise of their traditional decision-making practices. As a minority in a democratic country, Maori find themselves always at the mercy of the vote. Democracy is a tool of colonisation. The situation of Maori provides lessons for those who would applaud the Council of Europe and their belief in coexistence by way of democratic decision making. Quick View>

Robert Keith Shaw (2009). The Phenomenology of Democracy. Policy Futures in Education 7 (3):340-348.

Human beings originate votes, and democracy constitutes decisions. This is the essence of democracy. A phenomenological analysis of the vote and of the decision reveals for us the inherent strength of democracy and its deficiencies. Alexis de Tocqueville pioneered this form of enquiry into democracy and produced positive results from it. Unfortunately, his phenomenological method was inadequate and he missed the essential core of his 'associative art'. The frequent association of democracy with rationality misleads us about its nature and its requirements. The phenomenology of democracy aligns with the governance concept of democracy. Many attempts to reform democracy, or impose it on others, are misplaced because they do not attend to the essence of democracy. Quick View>

Robert Shaw (2008). An opening in management for Martin Heidegger. Annual Philosophy of Management Conference, St Anne's College, Oxford, 3 June 2008.

This paper expounds an aspect of Heidegger’s corpus with the ultimate objective of his enlightening management practice. It begins with a summary of Heidegger’s practical involvement in management, particularly his experience as a university manager in Nazi Germany. Further, it suggests an area of Heidegger’s theory that might be of serious interest to practical managers who seek to understand management. This is Heidegger’s distinctive theory of Dasein and the paper introduces the notion of Dasein-manager. The paper does not assume that all its readers are familiar with Heideggerian ontology and accordingly takes a pedagogical approach. Finally, the paper provides a rudimentary ontological analysis of customers. It argues that customers are inevitably equipment. The paper will succeed if it wedges open a door to a radical re-interpretation of management founded upon the concept of Dasein-manager. Quick View>

Robert Keith Shaw (2007). Pedagogic Thinking That Grounds E-Learning for Secondary School Science Students in New Zealand. E-Learning and Digital Media 4 (4):471-481.

Course designers adopted a language-learners approach to the online teaching of New Zealand secondary school students in the subject of astronomy. This was possible because the curriculum for astronomy that was in 2004 established as a part of New Zealand's national curriculum was specifically designed to engage underachieving students in science and technology. A criterion-referenced assessment regime was established and an Internet platform was built specifically to facilitate this form of assessment. This platform contrasts with the norm-referenced assessment programmes that are most frequently used with online instruction. In this situation - where the essential task is to reward students for learning basic vocabulary and to motivate them to further study - the theory of psychologist William James assisted the teachers to develop their online pedagogy. The article concludes with a comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet to deliver science courses to secondary school students. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2007.4.4.471 Quick View>

Robert Keith Shaw (2007). The Peculiar Place of Enlightenment Ideals in the Governance Concept of Citizenship and Democracy. In Michael Peters, Harry Blee, Penny Enslin & Alan Britton (eds.), Global Citizenship Education. SENSE Publishers.

This chapter examines a foundational democratic practice by considering how it expresses concepts of the Enlightenment. The practice is that of the vote or plebiscite as it appears in governance. The leading enlightenment concept is rationality as it is expounded by Kant. Kant did not participate in national democratic processes. He expected decisions of any consequence to be made in Berlin and thrived when his City was invaded by the Russians and their officers became his students, until they left suddenly in 1762 (Kuehn, 2001, p.126). Kant participated in political debate where the issues were in the main constitutional and about the processes of government reform. He became known for his theory of natural law and the justification of positive law. He advocated the separation of powers, but denied the right of revolution. This latter conclusion was in apparent contradiction of his support for republicanism, including the French, English, and American revolutions (Beck, 1971, p.413). The term “republican” in Kant’s writings is sometimes interpreted to mean “parliamentary democracy”. This is probably a mistake, and Reiss suggests Kant’s term does not carry the “connotation” of modern Western democracy (Reiss's "Introduction" in Kant, 1991a, p.25). Kant himself wrote that he wanted to prevent “the republican constitution from being confused with the democratic one, as commonly happens” (Kant, 1991a, .100). So it is that, whilst Kant wrote about the interaction of morality and politics, he did not write on the topic of the present chapter which focuses on those mechanisms or mechanics that democracy displays when it works. Quick View> Download pdf>

Robert Keith Shaw & Dan Love (2007). A Heideggerian Analysis in the Teaching of Science to Maori Students. He Kupu 1 (3):31-43.

Teachers frequently find that their teaching is unsuccessful with a particular group of students. This paper describes how Heidegger’s ontology was useful to teachers as they developed a distance education platform to teach astronomy to culturally diverse Aotearoa New Zealand secondary school students. Māori students do not perform well within their State’s model of normalising education, and academic authors ascribe this “failure” to the effects of cultural difference and imperialism. This paper conjectures that Māori are not merely “culturally different” but that they represent a metaphysical heritage that is akin to that described as Greek metaphysics by Heidegger. There are cultural artifacts and practices that serve for modern Māori in a way that parallels Heidegger’s account of the ancient Greeks. Māori may represent an ontological tradition that stands completely outside of Western metaphysics. If the conjecture is correct, normalising education is unlikely to ever to be satisfactory for Māori. Quick View> Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (2005). Marshall—Making Wittgenstein Smile. Educational Philosophy and Theory 37 (3):397–405.

In the 1980s and 1990s the discipline of philosophy of education had an impact on schooling and the public service in New Zealand because of the contracted work of James Marshall and Michael Peters. This personal reﬂection by Robert Shaw is a tribute to James Marshall and provides insight into the relationship between Ministry ofﬁcials, the community, and educational researchers. Quick View>

Robert Shaw (2004). Black Hole Pedagogy: The Violence in E-learning. New Zealand Post-Primary Teachers Association Conference: Charting the Future Wellington, 20 April 2004

The National Observatory of New Zealand, The Carter Observatory, worked with the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to develop assessment standards for astronomy. Courses for these standards are now being taught online by the Observatory. This paper considers the pedagogy applied in the development of the distance education materials and course delivery. This theory of pedagogy is called the black hole theory because once a student enters the system they are trapped and pulled towards inevitable success. The paper considers the positive features of this system and the inherent violence within it. Quick view> Download pdf>

Burns, Christopher. & Shaw, Robert. (2001) How to Implement Policy: The Use of Judgement in Administrative Discretion. Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management conference, 7 December 2001, UNITEC, Auckland.

Many civil servants sit at their desk and make decisions about the correspondence that they receive. When they do this they are responding to situations that are governed by rules. The rules may be statutes or they may be informal guidelines. We have been concerned to teach officials how to better apply rules, having regard to the morality and politics. Over 300 case studies of decision-making in the New Zealand public service were examined to produce a model of decision-making that would be practical and effective. Trials were conducted to find the best means to teach the complex cognitive skills of decision-making to officials. This paper reports on the development project that produced the Executive Decision-Making Skills Course that is offered by the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. Quick View> Download pdf>

Robert Shaw (1999). Let's Teach Managers How to Implement Policy. Final Report from the Executive Decision-Making Skills Project. Wellington, New Zealand: The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand.

This is the final report of the Executive Decision-Making Skills Project which was funded by The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand. This project built upon the work funded by the New Zealand State Services Commission and brought up-to-date the decision-making model for the implementation of policy. It sets out a training package for senior managers who must make decisions in accordance with rules and where ethics is an issue. The course has been successfully taught by several institutions globally. Quick View> Download pdf>

Robert Shaw (1990) Purchasing Science. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Research, Science and Technology.

The New Zealand Government has established a fund of $250 million to purchase public good science projects. This paper:
(a) Describes the four organizations that are involved in the development of priorities for purchases (the Cabinet committee, the Ministry of Research, Science and Technology, the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, and the Royal Society of New Zealand.
(b) Discusses how the organizations will interact and how New Zealanders can influence decisions.
(c) Identifies constraints imposed upon the system by the statutes which govern this activity.
(d) Concludes with a more broad perspective on social science research which is funded by Government. Quick View> Download pdf>

Robert Shaw & Monte Ohia (1989). Te Reo O Te Taitokerau: He Tirohanga na Nga Kaimahi. New Zealand Council for Educational Research: First Conference on Education Policy. Wellington: New Zealand Council for Educational Research, December 1989.

The relationship between indigenous peoples and the governance of the State is often a challenge. New methods of project management are necessary if the aspirations of peoples and the needs of Government are to be simultaneously addressed. This paper reports on a project to address issues in relation to the assessment of the Maori language by the New Zealand Department of Education. The history of Te Reo O Te Taitokerau, from the perspective of departmental development officers, suggests important principles of project management. Quick View> Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (1989). The Public Interest: A Concept in New Zealand's Official Information Act. Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Institute of Public Administration. ISSN 0111-1423, ISBN 0-908626-14-2.

New Zealand's official information legislation frequently uses the phrase "the public interest". Can this concept guide officials, including the Ombudsman and the Courts, when they consider requires to release information? This book examines the concept of 'the public interest' in the academic literature, legal judgments and political debate. It concludes that the concept has utility in many contexts and is remarkably unsettled in its application. Quick view> Download pdf>

James D. Marshall, Michael A. Peters & Robert Keith Shaw (1986). The Development and Trials of a Decision-Making Model. Evaluation Review, 10 (1):5-27.

We describe an evaluation undertaken on contract for the New Zealand State Services Commission of a major project (the Administrative Decision-Making Skills Project) designed to produce a model of administrative decision-making and an associated teaching/learning package for use by government officers. It describes the evaluation of a philosophical model of decision-making and the associated teaching/learning package in the setting of the New Zealand Public Service, where a deliberate attempt has been initiated to improve the quality of decision-making, especially in relation to moral factors. Quick View> Download pdf >

Robert Shaw (1983) Science Policy: Choice Among Incommensurables and Problems of Justification. New Zealand Science Review, 40(2), 26-32.

This paper describes the problems inherent in decision-making when government agencies must determine priorities for research funding. It draws upon the author's experience as a manager of New Zealand's largest social science research programme which is that of the New Zealand Ministry of Education. The work considers the relationship between accounting and the philosophies of science and technology and public policy. Quick View> Download pdf>

Robert Keith Shaw (1979). New Zealand's Recent Concern with Moral Education. Journal of Moral Education 9 (1):23-35.

References to moral education in New Zealand over the last fifteen years are traced through official and semi-official government reports, teachers’ publications, and other sources. It is argued that since 1962 there has been an increasing awareness of and concern with moral education. The Commission on Education in New Zealand in 1962 stressed that New Zealand schools’ prime responsibility was for intellectual education, although they should also be concerned with physical, emotional, and moral development. Since the Commission’s report it has been noticeable that subsequent reports and papers such as the Education Departments booklet Social Education, the reports from the nation-wide educational development conference and the teachers’ union publication Education in Change have indicated that the school should adopt greater responsibility in the area of moral education. The 1977 Johnson Report strongly supported the introduction of moral education in schools and precipitated considerable public debate. Quick View> Download pdf >

Robert Keith Shaw (1997) Assessing Components of Morality. Thesis (Master of Philosophy). Auckland: The University of Auckland.

An investigation into the assessment of the moral components which were developed by John Wilson, is reported. Tests fox the classroom measurement of two components were developed. The components were; PHIL(CC), the claiming of concern for other persons as an overriding, universal, and prescriptive principle in moral decision making; and; GIG, knowledge of factual information which is relevant in making moral decisions which subjects face. The test development exercise was undertaken at a time when public interest in moral education was growing. The recent demand for moral education in Auckland is reviewed. Quick View> Download pdf >

Presentation Slides (teaching resources)

Truth: its theory and practice in science education (HiPSTer research network conference, History, Philosophy and Social Theory in Educational Research, University of Waikato; The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand) Download pdf>

The phenomenology of union decision-making: A new way to enquire into reality. (Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management)

The Ontology of Entrepreneurship: A Heideggerian perspective (Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management)

Business Research Methods: classification and innovation The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand Download ppt>

Introduction to Ethics (Victoria University of Wellington) Download ppt>

Introduction to Truth (Victoria University of Wellington) Download pdf>

The Rejuvenation of Business Education (New Zealand Applied Business Education Conference) Download pptx>

Distal and Proximal Emergency Management (Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management) Quick View> Download ppt >

The Essence of Technology (with an introduction to Martin Heidegger) (The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand) Quick View> Download ppt>

The Metaphysics of Physics (University of Hawaii) Download ppt>

Husserl & Phenomenology: an introduction (The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand) Download ppt>

Customers are Equipment (Heideggerian analysis) (Oxford University) Download ppt > Download pdf>

Astronomy Pedagogy (with an introduction to Astronomy Aotearoa) (New Zealand Association of Science Educators) Quick View> Download pdf >

Hermeneutics in Tertiary Education (Victoria University of Wellington) Quick Veiw > Download pdf >

The Governance of Curriculum and the Plight of Maori (Auckland University of Technology) Download ppt>

The Nature of Science and Science Education (New Zealand Association of Science Educators) Download ppt>

New Zealand's National Observatory: Priorities & Business (The Carter Observatory, Wellington) Download pdf>

Understanding public organisations: collective intentionality as cooperation (Philosophy of Education Society of Australasia) Download ppt>

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