Kantian Inquiring Systems: A Case Study

Abstract

Kantian inquiring systems can be used as a model for learning organizations. Based on Churchman’s (1971) inquiring systems and Courtney, Croasdell, and Paradice’s (1998) inquiring organizations, this chapter discusses the Kantian inquiring system and applies it to an organization in the retail industry. Kantian systems take input, process the input using multiple models, and interpret the data in terms of the best fitting model. Accepted output from the system is integrated into the system’s fact net. The guarantor of the system is the fit between the data and the model. The authors make recommendations in light of the Kantian inquiring system to the retail organization.