I have bought a couple of books from Amazon. This will help in having a sound basis for another look at things.

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I have read articles about 'mode 2 knowledge' and have an idea what it is about. The actual book seems to confim my impression so far but there is a lot of detail to consider. On the web there are several PDFs that seem consistent with the book and explain the ideas ok. A short one with relevance for management is at

http://www.sses.com/public/events/euram/complete_tracks/managing_and_knowing/van-aken.pdf

Found through Google. This explains a view that most management studies aim at mode 1, although managers trying to learn something would benefit from mode 2.

I think my own project is definitely mode 2 so I am going to stop trying to write as if for mode 1. I think this explains some of the problems with critique etc. The article by Joan van Aken has not got a critique angle on practitioners or 'prescription', just an explanation of academic attitudes to 'Heathrow' types of book such as managers read. I can't help thinking though that Foucault and Habermas are definitely Mode 1 as they appear in the literature.

The New Production of Knowledge Gibbons and others Sage 1994

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A Manager's Guide to Leadership is the latest book from Mike Pedlar, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell. I hope to understand why there is a new emphasis on Leadership. I am still stuck on organisations as such. Somehow the 'learning organisation' proved to be difficult so the Management Learning subject has moved on. My first impression is that this will be a useful book. It includes a Senge quote and the idea of a learning organisation is still included. There is even a positive presentation of the Excellence model and a mention for Dr Deming. Previously 'quality' ideas were seen as outmoded, particularly quality circles. The book is concentrating on personal development but there is an idea of organisation as well. The question of how people learn from quality systems is inside the scope.

McGraw Hill 2004

I don't think Deming is 'prescriptive', he seems less so the more I find out about what he said. Change cannot come from within the system. Well, what can that mean?