What Happened to Organization Theory?

The ability to design complex organizations to meet challenges such as globalization, outsourcing, and capability development has become ever more important. Yet the field of organization theory has for long neglected the fine-grained study of design. It has opted instead for truncated characterizat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJournal of management inquiry Vol. 18; no. 4; pp. 273 - 279
Main Authors Miller, Danny, Greenwood, Royston, Prakash, Rajshree
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2009
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Organization theory
organization design
relevance
organization theory
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Summary:The ability to design complex organizations to meet challenges such as globalization, outsourcing, and capability development has become ever more important. Yet the field of organization theory has for long neglected the fine-grained study of design. It has opted instead for truncated characterizations of this complex phenomenon, or, more commonly, has ignored the subject entirely. As a result, the field has failed to develop insights that can inform practice. We argue that this is a serious problem that was avoided by the founders of our discipline, and describe its roots in the social climate and publishing constraints of our discipline. We conclude by presenting options for how design can be more thoroughly and usefully studied in a manner that is practical for researchers and revealing to academics and practitioners alike.
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ISSN:1056-4926
1552-6542
DOI:10.1177/1056492609344672