WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORY? TOWARD A CREATIVE SYNTHESIS OF HISTORY AND ORGANIZATION STUDIES

• 成果类型: Editorial Material
• 署名作者: Godfrey, Paul C.; Hassard, John; O'Connor, Ellen S.; Rowlinson, Michael; Ruef, Martin
• 署名单位: Brigham Young University; University of Manchester; University of Exeter; Duke University
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0363-7425
• DOI: 10.5465/amr.2016.0040
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 590-608
• 关键词: UNITED-STATES; INSTITUTIONAL WORK; collective memory; BUSINESS HISTORY; management; TRANSFORMATION; FOUNDATIONS; EVOLUTION; RECONCEPTUALIZATION; entrepreneurship

摘要

As a synthesis of organization theory and historiography, the field of organizational history is mature enough to contribute to wider theoretical and historiographical debates and is sufficiently developed for a theoretical consideration of its subject matter. In this introduction to the Special Topic Forum on History and Organization Studies, we take up the question, What is organizational history? and consider three distinct arguments that we believe frame the next phase of development for historical work within organization studies. First, we argue that following the historic turn, organizational history has developed as a subfield of organization studies that takes seriously the matter of history, promoting historical research as a way to enrich the broad endeavor of organization. Second, if history matters, then organization theory needs a theoretical account of the past that goes beyond the mere use of history as a context to test or as cm example to illustrate theory. Third, the focus on history that matters in the present leads to two important considerations: how organizations can use rhetorical history as a strategic resource and the need to engage with historiographically significant subjects that connect organization theory to larger humanistic concerns, such as slavery and racism.