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Philosophy and management, how doubt fuels strategic thinking

Doubt and questions are essential tools for managers, fostering dialogue, personal growth and strategic adaptation in organisations

by Luca Barni*

12 December 2025

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

4' min read

Translated by AI

Versione italiana

How many managers do not aspire? This is to be understood not only with reference to the organisational chart, and thus the role, but also to the individual project or group management. Few would raise their hand, because the essence of the manager is usually aimed at continuous improvement as well as the achievement of goals.

Having said that, it must be said that the pursuit of ambition, and the eventual rise in the organisation chart, has consequences:

- you 'lose' the day-to-day operations, the ones that keep the company running under ordinary conditions;

- one no longer deals directly with resource and project management to enter the decision-making area, the last mile of market analysis and interpretation;

- complexity increases but, above all, doubts and perplexities increase. And with them the questions increase, or perhaps it is better to say press.

And this is where management and philosophy meet: in questions. Karl Jaspers sums up this fundamental junction well by stating that 'philosophy is born from doubt, and every genuine answer opens up new questions'. It is a principle that perfectly describes what happens to those who take on roles of responsibility: the higher one rises in the organisation chart, the more it becomes necessary to know how to pause in doubt.

Let us philosophise a little: questions are the genesis of thought. Gianfranco Giudice and Filippo Casati in their book What remains of philosophy go to extremes by saying that there are only questions and not answers, unless the latter are understood as 'provisional stations in the movement of endless questioning and interrogation'.

If one of the most important meanings of managerial activity is related to people management, then questions become absolutely fundamental. They imply listening to the interlocutor and accepting his thinking, especially when it is the depth of the content that supports it. And the content of the answer convinces others when it withstands the force of other questions that attempt to contradict, supplement or extend it. In practice, the dialogue only ends when the interlocutor's thesis has the strength to support every question put to him.

Here Hannah Arendt's thought fits in well: 'Thinking is a solitary act, but it is never an isolated act: it binds us to the world and to others'. In business, the same applies: a decision is generally accepted when it stands up to open confrontation between team members.

Having philosophised a little, let us come back down to earth, as some would say, and ask ourselves two questions.

The first: are there always conditions in the company to ask questions?

Not always. Sometimes, the role in the organisation chart can be used as an alibi for not going beyond a facade confrontation, thus opening up to individualism, based on power and not on logos.

Second question: how useful is philosophy in business dynamics? I would say a lot, because if working in the marketplace means capturing the needs of customers you have to ask the right questions. If working in the market means anticipating customer needs, you have to ask the right questions. If working in the market means evolving the product/service, you have to ask the right questions.

In conclusion, the principle also applies to the company that to give the right answers to the market you must first ask the right questions. And asking the questions means undergoing an examination, the etymology of which derives from the Latin word examen, meaning needle of the scales, weighing instrument.

Let us go further. In business, questions represent the genesis of knowledge but, also and above all for those who ask them, a powerful tool for the growth of the people around them.

On the subject of the growth of people, or rather their valorisation, Piero Pagnotta's statement from the book Philosophy of Management comes to mind: 'If the application of technical parameters were sufficient to manage an organisation's human resources well... there would be no explanation for so many widespread inefficiencies and real crises'. People must be involved and motivated, and questions are the best of the tools at the manager's disposal.

David Cooperrider sums it up well: organisations, and their fates, gravitate around the questions they ask/ask themselves, and the thoughts they have.

In conclusion, ambition and responsibility do not find their strength in certainties, but in the quality of the questions generated by those who take on roles of responsibility: it is there that the maturity of a manager but, above all, the vitality of an organisation is measured. Questions open up space for people, generate thought, set change in motion. And they remind us, every day, that growing means never stopping questioning.

And, as is often the case, I return to Socrates and his best known thought: 'True wisdom lies in him who knows that he does not know'.

*Director Bcc Centropadana