Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor

• 成果类型: Review
• 署名作者: King, Brayden G.; Felin, Teppo; Whetten, David A.
• 署名单位: Northwestern University; Brigham Young University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1090.0443
• 发表日期: 2010
• 页码: 290-305
• 关键词: ORGANIZATION THEORY; social actors; SOVEREIGNTY; RESPONSIBILITY; ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY; goals

摘要

Organization theory is a theory without a protagonist. Organizations are typically portrayed in organizational scholarship as aggregations of individuals, as instantiations of the environment, as nodes in a social network, as members of a population, or as a bundle of organizing processes. This paper hopes to highlight the need for understanding, explicating, and researching the enduring, noun-like qualities of the organization. We situate the organization in a broader social landscape by examining what is unique about the organization as a social actor. We propose two assumptions that underlie our conceptualization of organizations as social actors: external attribution and intentionality. We then highlight important questions and implications forming the core of a distinctively organizational analytical perspective.