Frank Dobbin, Claudia Bird Schoonhoven (eds) Stanford's Organization Theory Renaissance, 1970-2000, 2010. p. xvii
“Organizational theory is one of the most vibrant areas in sociological research. Scholars from many subfields, (medical sociology, political sociology, social movements, education) have felt compelled to study organizational theory because of the obviously important role that complex organizations play in their empirical research. But scholars who do not do organizational theory are often struck at how arcane the debates are within organizational theory. They also think most of organizational theory is about firms and thus, the theory does not seem to have much application to other kinds of social arenas.”
Source: Organizations: Theoretical Debates and the Scope of Organizational Theory, 2001, p. 1
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Neil Fligstein 40
American sociologist 1951Related quotes
“Today perhaps the most popular organizational theory is institutional theory.”
Richard M. Burton, Bo Eriksen, Dorthe Døjbak Håkonsson (2006). Organization Design: The Evolving State-of-the-Art. p. 28
Source: Organizations: Theoretical Debates and the Scope of Organizational Theory, 2001, p. 1
Source: Organizations and organization theory, 1982, p. 209
Source: The Social Psychology of Organizations (1966), p. 34
Kenneth D. Mackenzie (2011). The Organizational Hologram. p. 11
Lex Donaldson, "The normal science of structural contingency theory." Studying Organizations: Theory and Method. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage (1999): 51-70.
Context: Within organization studies, contingency theory has provided a coherent paradigm for the analysis of the structure of organizations. The paradigm has constituted a framework in which research progressed leading to the construction of a scientific body of knowledge... Contingency theory states that there is no single organizational structure that is highly effective for all organizations. It sees the structure that is optimal as varying according to certain factors such as organizational strategy or size. Thus the optimal structure is contingent upon these factors which are termed the contingency factors. For example, a small-sized organization, one that has few employees, is optimally structured by a centralized structure in which decision-making authority is concentrated at the top of the hierarchy, whereas a large organization, one that has many employees, is optimally structured by a decentralized structure in which decision-making authority is dispersed down to lower levels of the hierarchy.
Jerry I. Porras and Peter J. Robertson (1992). "Organisational development: Theory, practice and research", in: M. Dunnette, L. Hough (Eds), Consulting Psychologist Press, Palo Alto, p. 723
Eric Trist, "A concept of organizational ecology." Australian journal of management 2.2 (1977): 161-175. p. 161; abstract
“Organizational theory is based on a culture's answers to questions about the self.”
Danah Zohar (1997), Using the New Science to Rethink How We Structure and Lead Organizations. p. 96; cited in: Kathleen Manning (2013), Organizational Theory in Higher Education. p. 182.