A Process Theory of Organization

ISBN-13: 9780199695072 / Angielski / Twarda / 2014 / 256 str.

Tor Hernes

Opis

This book presents a novel and comprehensive process theory of organization applicable to "a world on the move," where connectedness prevails over size, flow prevails over stability, and temporality prevails over spatiality.
The process theory developed in the book draws upon process thinking in a number of areas, including process philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, and science and technology studies. Salient ideas from these schools are carefully woven into a process theory of organization, which makes the book not only a thought provoking theoretical contribution, but also a much needed glimpse into the challenges faced by organizers. Taking a distinctly temporal view of organizational life the author shows how actors operate in an on-going present in which they draw upon their past and project their past as ambitions for the future. This on-going work in which technologies, concepts, and social actors take part is crucial for the making of any type of organizational formation. A key construct of the book is that of events, which provide force, movement, and continuity to organizational life.
The book is suitable for scholars and advanced level students in organization studies, management studies, technology studies, and sociology. It contains a number of practical examples to illustrate the theoretical framework.

Recenzje

A world on the move and how to catch it without making it static; this is the big challenge that the book addresses. The author offers a great introduction to a process theory of organization since it makes evident how temporality is at the heart of organizational life, and how it should be studied.

O autorze

Tor Hernes is Professor of Organization Theory at the Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business School and Adjunct Professor at Buskerud and Vestfold University College, Norway. He has published a dozen books as well as articles in top tier European and American journals over the last decade addressing various processual aspects of organizing and organizations. He is a leading figure in the emerging field of process thinking in organization studies and is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies.