The Reading Room - Robert Quinn

Profile and Personal Reflections
Comments by Chris Rodgers

Robert Quinn is Distinguished Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the University of Michigan Business School.

He is a researcher, analyst and writer in the field of organisational behaviour.

I was first attracted to Quinn's writing in his book Beyond Rational Management, below, which introduced his "competing values framework" as a way of viewing the paradoxical nature of organizations and management.

The following quotation from Beyond Rational Management typifies Quinn's approach:

"The journey from novice to master is a long and difficult one. In sports, art or work, a master knows and understands the many elements of an action domain and sees things in the domain that the novice does not see. The master responds to the cues that he or she encounters in complex, creative ways that reflect a deep, internalized theory. The results are oneness with the task and fluidity of performance. Hidden beneath this surface manifestation of mastery, however, is a capacity to continuously hold, test, and experiment with opposing conceptualizations of reality. The novice, limited by the mechanistic assumptions that are implanted by technical instruction, has little understanding of such a notion."

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