'Making Sense of Common Sense' takes writing honors

• May 28, 2010 11:00am

Congratulations to Michael Moon, assistant professor of Public Affairs and Administration, for having his paper chosen as a Highly Commended Award Winner by the Emerald Group Publishing Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2010. In “Making Sense of Common Sense for Change Management Buy-In,” published in “Management Decision,” Moon finds that common sense can become an issue when we ignore it. 

Be it a job candidate, a prospective date, or a colleague, that’s when we recoil, "What were they thinking?" When change violates others' notions of common sense, there is the risk of making an uphill battle to obtain change impossible.

Moon’s article proposes a model for organizational change that links greater buy-in on planned change among employees with self-awareness and receptivity to common sense perspectives. He proposes that common sense – the collective sense or judgment of humankind – differs among subgroups within an organization, based on a wide variety of differences among them: their upbringing, social networks, job responsibilities, and demographics. 

Depending on the nature of the planned change, Moon finds that different aspects of common sense become relevant.

The entire paper may be read at: emeraldinsight

DD