Introduction to The Handbook of

Introduction to The Handbook of Organization Studies
Organizations, Organization, and Organizing
By Stewart R. Clegg & Cynthia Hardy

Approach: ìto conceptualize org. studies as a series of conversationsÖ. relating to
organizations as empirical objects
organization as theoretical discourse, and
organizing as social process,
and to the intersections and gaps between and within themî (p. 3).

[Deeply imbued with communication theory!] ñ ìSuch conversations and their associated practices arrange the organizational arena as a contested terrain: one where scenes are configured, agencies enrolled, interests translated, and work accomplished, a space in which the empirical object is constitutedî (p. 4). ìOrganization theory matters because it not only reflects organizational practice, but helps constitute itî (p. 23).

Seeks to be ìa mapî (p. 1) through Org. Studies history and itís tensions: ënormalí and ëcontraí science, the paradigm wars (and the wielding of incommensurability as a conceptual weapon), politics, and the unrepentant emergence of new organizational forms.

Organization theory as a sequence of overlapping narratives (p. 14):
1) organizations as rational instruments
2) organic, humanistic side -> functionalist, contingency theories
3) emphasis on the market -> org. economics & population ecology
4) the many faces of power
5) melding of knowledge and power (reveals institutional biases on the microsocial level)
6) societal, institutional structures -> institutional theory and globalization

The ìthree-corneredî (p. 5) incommensurability debate. (Most intense debates between rebels [horizontal hostility]):
o Possibility of building bridges between paradigms
o Conversion from one paradigm to another
o The old way or die (i.e., Donaldson)

Academic approaches: contingency theory, organizational ecology, economic and psychological, sociological (institutional theory), and feminist, critical, and postmodern theories. [Not to mention COMMUNICATION! J - ìThe connection of theory and practice invariably draws on particular conceptions of what is to count and not to count as dataî (p. 13). ìÖthe status of representation: on how representation occurs, and what it is that is being representedî (p. 13).

ìFrom Bureaucracy to Fluidity: New Organizational Formsî ñ ìchanges have led to increasing diversity and fluidity, and decreasing certainty and structureî (p. 11).

Bureaucracy - functionalist, emphasizing ìconsensus and coherence rather than conflict, dissensus and the operations of powerî (p. 2). This ënormal scienceí paradigm has been joined by interpretativist, radical humanist and radical structuralist paradigms, plus postmodernism ñ ìthat which is marked by discontinuity, indeterminacy and immanence (Hassan 1985)î (p. 2).

ìThe newly found fluidity in the external appearance of organizations rests on the assumption that the interorganizational relations into which an organization enters may be a more important source of capacity and capability than internal features such as ësizeí or ëtechnologyí (p. 9). [Not only context, but relationships more important than form?]

For example: critical linkages, clusters, networks, (p. 9); strategic alliances (p. 10).

To be successful:
1) new external relations require new internal ones (p. 10)
2) majority are designed on a ëdistributedí modelÖteam-based, decentralized (p. 10-11)
3) ìhierarchies become one means among many to coordinate and control actions across people, knowledge, time and spaceî (p. 11)

Current Issues in Organization Studies: ìÖdifferent conceptualizations not only provide insight and illumination, but also produce silences around certain issues and themes, particularly issues pertaining to levels of analysisÖî (p. 16).
o Strategy (deconstructed)
o Leadership (trait -> style -> contingency -> New Leadership/Super Leadership)
o Decision-making (from rationality to power dynamics). Is decision-making conceptualized as coherent or chaotic, problem-solving or political? (p. 17)
o Cognition (negotiation as a central topic and the dominance of a cognitive orientation) (p. 17)
o The constitution of ìthe subjectî ñ individual and organization
o Diversity (a ìproblem?î)
o Work group performance in relation to technology (little understood, as illustrated by îa misunderstandingÖof the differences between information and communicationî (p. 18) ìIt is through communication that we negotiate the meanings of technological infrastructureî (p. 18).
o Metaphors of ìcommunicationî and ìorganizationî ñ ìour images of organizations are largely shaped by the metaphors that represent organizing, not the way communicating and roganizinag co-produce each otherî (p. 18). We need new metaphors!
o Technology ñ ìboth a process and a productî (p. 18)Öîbot a cause and a consequence of structureî (p. 19).
o Innovation ñ 4 tensions: internal/external focus, old/new, directing strategy/allowing it to emerge, freedom/responsibility.
o Organizational Learning ñ ìoxymoron? ìÖto learn is to disorganize and increase variety; to organize is to forget and reduce varietyî (p. 19).
o Place of the natural environment (term usually doesnít mean the eco-environment)
o Globalization ñ organization both instigate and are on the receiving end (p. 20)

Reflections on the relationship(s) between theory, research, and practice.
o Different kinds of data ñ ìData represent the empirical world, the one that we invent, rather than discover, through our researchî (p. 20).
o Action research ñ bridge between theory and practice, emphasis on reflexivity.
o Emotion and organizing ñ ìif organizations are socially constructed, emotions are central to their constructionî (p. 21).
o The whole person ñ aesthetics
o Time and temporality ñ 3 main time problems that organizations must solve: the reduction of temporal uncertainity, conflict over time; and scarce timeî (p. 22)
o Culture
o Power ñ ìthe least understood concept in organization analysisî (p. 22)Öîa curiously inactive conceptualization: we know more and more about the way power works on us but less and less about how we might make it work for usî (p.23).

ìThe potential, for both theory and practice, resides in our ability to transcend the debate between normal and contra science and to engage with the duality and ambiguity of organizational lifeî (p. 23)Öîthe way forward is the ethical interrogation of experience in terms of what our practices mean to us and to othersî (p. 24).