A Heideggerian perspective of the lived experience of transformation in creative destruction: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

<p>The central aim of this dissertation is to explore and make explicit individuals’ lived experience of transformation in creative destruction. The term ‘creative destruction’ was used by Joseph Schumpeter to describe the essential mechanism of the capitalist free market, in which the creation of the new will ultimately destroy and replace the old. Over the past few decades, the disruptions experienced during the process of creative destruction have defined much of the context in which individuals, businesses and organisations have operated. The impacts of these disruptions on people’s careers, work and employment have been profound. For some, creative destruction has been an opportunity for transformation, while for others, it has caused despair. By making explicit the lived experience of transformation in creative destruction, this dissertation aims to highlight the various existential challenges individuals face in this process and to draw out potential ways of responding to creative destruction that may lead to transformation.</p> <div>In <em>Being and Time</em>, Heidegger well encapsulated the rare opportunity that is made available in the destruction of the old and not yet creation of the new. Heidegger’s philosophical work together with Schumpeter’s economic theory of creative destruction provide a strong theoretical foundation for developing a framework that allows for a description of both the experiences of transformation in creative destruction, and a way of working through the lived experience of creative destruction. This dissertation builds on Segal’s extensive studies of Heidegger to first make explicit that the disruption experienced in creative destruction is the lived experience of the breakdown in meaning. It then develops the theoretical framework of transformation in creative destruction.</div> <p>Interpretative phenomenological analysis was then used to explore individuals lived experience of transformation in creative destruction. By situating lived experience within the theoretical framework, this dissertation created a shared understanding of the phenomenon of individual transformation in creative destruction. It also transformed the abstract theoretical knowledge into practical insights, which are essential for those who might be going through the same rewarding but existentially challenging process of transformation in creative destruction.</p>