This book provides a forum for leading scholars in organization theory to engage in meta-theoretical reflection on the historical development, present state, and future prospects of organization theory as a scientific discipline. The central question explored is the epistemological status of
organization theory as a policy science. This is a meta-theoretical question; the object of analysis and debate in this volume is not a set of organizational phenomena, but organization theory itself.
By drawing attention to organization theory as a practical social activity, this
handbook reviews and evaluates important epistemological developments in the discipline. More specifically, the focus is on issues related to the nature of knowledge claims put forward in organization theory and the controversies surrounding the generation, validation, and utilization of such
knowledge.
Five sets of questions are raised in the handbook, each one of which is dealt with in a separate section:
1) What does a science of organizations consist of? What counts as valid knowledge in organization theory and why? How do different paradigms view organization
theory as a science?
2) How has organization theory developed over time, and what structure has the field taken? What assumptions does knowledge produced in organization theory incorporate, and what forms do its knowledge claims take as they are put forward for public adoption?
3) How
have certain well-known controversies in organization theory, such as for example, the structure/agency dilemma, the study of organizational culture, the different modes of explanation, the micro/macro controversy, and the differnet explanations produced by organizational economists and
sociologists, been dealt with?
4) How, and in what ways, is knowledge generated in organization theory related to action? What features must organization theory knowledge have in order to be actionable, and of relevance to the world 'out there'? How have ethical concerns been taken into
account in organization theory?
5) What is the future of organization theory? What direction should the field take? What must change in the way research is conducted and key theoretical terms are conceptualized so that organization theory enhances its capacity to generate valid and relevant
knowledge?
Haridimos Tsoukas and Christian Knudsen: Introduction: The Need for Meta-theoretical Reflection in Organization Theory
Part I: Organization Theory as Science
1. Lex Donaldson: Organizational Theory as a Positive Science
2. Mary Jo Hatch and Dvora Yanow: Organization Theory as
an Interpretive Science
3. Hugh Willmott: Organization Theory as a Critical Science: Forms of analysis and 'new organizational' forms
4. Robert Chia: Organization Theory as a Postmodern Science
Part II: The Construction of Organization Theory
5. William H. Starbuck: The
Origins of Organization Theory
6. Yehouda Shenhav: The Historical and Epistemological Foundations of Organization Theory: Fusing sociological theory with engineering discourse
7. Silvia Gherardi: Feminist Theory and Organization Theory: A dialogue on new bases
8. Barbara Czarniawska: The
Styles and the Stylists of Organization Theory
9. Christian Knudsen: Pluralism, Scientific Progress, and the Structure of Organization Theory
Part III: Meta-theoretical Controversies in Organization Theory
10. Michael Reed: The Agency/Structure Dilemma in Organization Theory: Open
doors and brick walls
11. Andreas Georg Scherer: Modes of Explanation in Organization Theory
12. William McKinley and Mark A. Mone: Micro and Macro Perspectives in Organization Theory: A tale of incommensurability
13. Richard Swedberg: Economic Versus Sociological Approaches to
Organization Theory
14. Joanne Martin: Meta-theoretical Controversies in Studying Organizational Culture
Part IV: Organization Theory as a Policy Science
15. Chris Argyris: Actionable Knowledge
16. Karl E. Weick: Theory and Practice in the Real World
17. Richard P.
Nielsen: Organization Theory and Ethics: Varieties and dynamics of constrained optimization
18. Iain Mangham: Character and Virtue in an Era of Turbulent Capitalism
Part V: The Future of Organization Theory
19. Gibson Burrell: The Future of Organization Theory: Prospects and
limitations
20. Stewart Clegg: Managing Organization Futures in a Changing World of Power/Knowledge
21. Arie Y. Lewin: The Future of Organization Theory: Beyond the selection-adaptation debate
22. Marta B. Calas: At Home from Mars to Somalia: Recounting organization theory
23.
Haridimos Tsoukas: New Times, Fresh Challenges: Reflections on the past and the future of organization theory
There are no Instructor/Student Resources available at this time.
Haridimos Tsoukas is the George D. Mavros Research Professor of Organization and Management at ALBA in Greece, and Professor of Organization Theory and Behaviour at the University of Strathclyde Graduate School of Business, UK. Previous positions held include Lecturer at Warwick Business
School (1990-5), and Associate Professor at the University of Cyprus. Christian Knudsen is a Research Fellow at Copenhagen University and Århus Business School, Associate Professor at Copenhagen Business School, Visiting Professor at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences,
and Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics and Stanford University.