Ecology and Society: a Lesson for Organization Theory, from the Logic of Economics

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 335-348
Author(s):  
James A. Robins
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Organizational Ecology ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
General Logic ◽  
Social Theories

Recent work on organizational ecology has helped to clarify the discussion of organiza tion-environment relations by providing a precise analytical distinction between the organization and its environment. However, the clarity of the distinction also exposes serious problems in the population perspective on organizations. The fact that ecology has been wedded to evolutionism cripples it in dealing with some of the central issues of organizational analysis. This paper looks at ways in which the precision of ecology may be combined with social and economic theories other than evolutionism to provide a powerful analysis of the organization in its social environment. Neoclassical economics serves as a model for the sort of theory that can be used to replace evolutionism. The paper concludes by examining the underlying axiomatic structure of neoclassical economics and outlining the general logic required to link ecological and social theories for the purposes of organizational analysis.

scholarly journals Time flies: time of day and social environment affect cuticular hydrocarbon sexual displays in Drosophila serrata

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1792) ◽  
pp. 20140821 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan N. Gershman ◽  
Ethan Toumishey ◽  
Howard D. Rundle
Keyword(s):  
Recent Work ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbons ◽  
Cuticular Hydrocarbon ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Temporal Patterning ◽  
Drosophila Serrata

Recent work on Drosophila cuticular hydrocarbons (CHCs) challenges a historical assumption that CHCs in flies are largely invariant. Here, we examine the effect of time of day and social environment on a suite of sexually selected CHCs in Drosophila serrata . We demonstrate that males become more attractive to females during the time of day that flies are most active and when most matings occur, but females become less attractive to males during the same time of day. These opposing temporal changes may reflect differences in selection among the sexes. To evaluate the effect of social environment on male CHC attractiveness, we manipulated male opportunity for mating: male flies were housed either alone, with five females, with five males or with five males and five females. We found that males had the most attractive CHCs when with females, and less attractive CHCs when with competitor males. Social environment mediated how male CHC attractiveness cycled: males housed with females and/or other males showed temporal changes in CHC attractiveness, whereas males housed alone did not. In total, our results demonstrate temporal patterning of male CHCs that is dependent on social environment, and suggest that such changes may be beneficial to males.

Two Faces of Organizational Irony: Endemic and Pragmatic

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (11) ◽  
pp. 1427-1447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Hoyle ◽  
Mike Wallace
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Major Change ◽  
Theory Building ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Verbal Irony ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Future Theory ◽  
Change Efforts

This paper puts forward a perspective on organizational irony framed in terms of two reciprocal faces, as a contribution to the developing interest in irony as a tool for organizational analysis. Endemic irony explores theoretical approaches implying that irony is a characteristic of all organizations, extended by contingent manifestations in contemporary organizations. Pragmatic irony conceptualizes how organization members engage in ironic strategies and deploy verbal irony as modes of coping — with both endemic discrepancies between intention and outcome, and contingent contradictions generated through major change efforts. This perspective is offered as a heuristic for exploring organizations whose members are inherently confronted by irony. First, those philosophical, literary and organization theory approaches to irony are reviewed which relate most closely to organizational irony. Second, the endemic nature of organizational irony is elaborated. Third, distinctive manifestations of irony in contemporary organizations that extend endemic irony are discussed. Fourth, instances of pragmatic irony in contemporary organizations, conceived as the reciprocal of endemic irony, are explored. Finally, the value of an ironic perspective as a means of understanding organizations is asserted and suggestions offered for future theory-building and research.

Modernism, Post Modernism and Organizational Analysis 3: The Contribution of Jacques Derrida

1989 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Cooper
Keyword(s):  
Jacques Derrida ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Formal Organization ◽  
Post Modernism ◽  
Critical Understanding ◽  
Essential Function ◽  
The Stability

This paper, the third in a series on the relevance of the modernist-post modernist debate to organizational analysis (Cooper and Burrell 1988, Burrell 1988), examines the work of Jacques Derrida. Specifically, Derrida's work is viewed as a contribution to the analysis of process (as opposed to structure) in social systems. In this context, three interrelated themes of his work - deconstruction, writing, 'difference' — are described in some detail and their implications explored for social and organizational analysis. Derrida's account of the logic of writing shows it to be fundamental to the division of labour and therefore to significant dimensions (complexity, formalization) of formal organization. Since 'organization theuries' are themselves products of writing and the division of labour, their essential function is to explain and justify the structures they represent, they are therefore more concerned with maintaining their own consistency and the stability of the organized world they describe rather than critical understanding. This point is illustrated by a detailed deconstruction of two major approaches to the study of bureaucracy (the 'formalist' and 'expertise' models) in organization theory. Finally, it is suggested that the affinity between the logic of writing and the division of labour underlies Michel Foucault's concept of knowledge-power and the development of areas of professionalized knowledge such as accountancy.

scholarly journals Efektywność – rozważania nad istotą i typologią

2013 ◽  
pp. 13-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grażyna Kozuń-Cieślak
Keyword(s):  
Conceptual Framework ◽  
Economic Activity ◽  
Evolutionary Economics ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Dynamic Efficiency ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Static Efficiency ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Analytical Approaches

In today’s world the term efficiency gained a status of an imperative at all levels of economic activity (micro, mezo, macro) as well as in all sectors of the economy (private, public, non-profit). The prevalence of “efficiency” in scientific discussions discloses existence of a number of approaches to the understanding of this concept as well as existence of conceptual differences regarding the essence of efficiency, resulting from different ideological foundations of relevant economic theories. This study distinguishes between two analytical approaches: 1) static efficiency – conceptually inscribed in the paradigm of neoclassical economics, 2) dynamic efficiency – developed on the grounds of heterodox evolutionary economics. Within these two theoretical approaches various types of efficiency have been identified and characterized. This resulted in a typology that established a conceptual framework for clarifying different meanings of the term “efficiency”.

Urban Burial Reform in William Wordsworth’s “Village Churchyard”

2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (3) ◽  
pp. 279-304
Author(s):  
Katherine E. Blake
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Cultural Practices ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Poor Law ◽  
Economic Theories ◽  
Rural Sites ◽  
The Relationship

Katherine E. Blake “Urban Burial Reform in William Wordsworth’s ‘Village Churchyard’” (pp. 279–304) This essay looks at the relationship between space and class in nineteenth-century English burials in order to shed new light on William Wordsworth’s Essays upon Epitaphs (1810, 1876) and “The Brothers” (1800). While Wordsworth’s work dwells on pastoral images of burial, I argue that his representations in fact align more closely with the cultural practices and values underpinning urban burial conventions. Through his representation of burial space, Wordsworth’s work plays out urban concerns about burial in the countryside. Ultimately, this essay argues that the exportation of urban concerns to imaginary rural sites accounts for the utility of Wordsworth’s work to mid-nineteenth-century burial reformers, and particularly to Edwin Chadwick, a utilitarian known for his work on the 1832 Poor Law and sanitary guidelines for burial. By reevaluating what prior studies have said about Chadwick’s reforms in light of recent work on his economic theories, I argue that Chadwick’s citation of Wordsworth’s first “Essay upon Epitaphs” transforms the latter’s pastoral vision into an endorsement of a national cemetery. I explore the extent to which Wordsworth’s early-nineteenth-century ideas are and are not compatible with Chadwick’s mid-century reforms.

A Critical Framework for Organizational Analysis

1985 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 117-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Work Organization ◽  
Capitalist Society ◽  
Industrial Society ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
Advanced Industrial Society ◽  
Basic Features ◽  
Made In

Some elements of a critical organization theory are outlined, and some basic features of theory in the Frankfurt tradition, in particular Marcuse's view on technological rationality, are discussed. This concept is central to the effort made in the paper to formulate a framework for critical analysis of industrial and other business organizations in late capitalist society. In this framework, an emancipatory rather than a technical-instrumental interest of knowledge is of fundamental importance. Six basic theses are elaborated concerning the relation between man, work, organization and ideology in advanced industrial society.

scholarly journals The Problem of Contract Enforcement in Economic Organization Theory

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels G. Noorderhaven
Keyword(s):  
Agency Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Utility Maximization ◽  
Contract Enforcement ◽  
Economic Organization ◽  
Individual Utility ◽  
Directed Attention ◽  
Economic Theories

Recently, economists have directed attention to the phenomenon of organization. An important difference between the newly developed economic theories of organization, such as for example agency theory, and sociological theories of organization is the fact that economists explicitly employ an individual utility maximization assumption. In this paper, it is reasoned that this assumption, if used as in agency theory, entails logical inconsistencies if we try to explain the existence of the kind of agreements that purportedly form the basis of organiza tions. However, if the condition of uncertainty — to which agency theorists merely pay lip—service — is taken seriously, the observed inconsistencies can be reconciled. A classificatory scheme of four 'sources of obligation' is proposed for the analysis of the basis of agreements. Taking all four sources into consideration in the analysis of organizational agreements can help to avoid one-sided attention to, for example, formal, legally enforceable agreements. The findings of empirical research suggest that two basic dimensions lie at the root of the proposed classifi catory scheme. Further research is needed to check this supposition and its implications.

The neoclassical and Marxian theories of technology: a comparison and critical assessment

1997 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Smith
Keyword(s):  
Technical Change ◽  
Critical Assessment ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Marxian Economics ◽  
Social Theories

AbstractNeoclassical economics remains the leading theoretical alternative to Marxian economics. In this article I shall contrast the accounts of technical change in capitalism proposed by both theories. I shall introduce five criteria relevant to a comparison of competing social theories, and argue that the Marxian perspective on technical change in capitalism is superior on all five counts.

Institutional Logics and Technology Development: Evidence from the Wind and Solar Energy Industries

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 649-670 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suzanne G. Tilleman ◽  
Michael V. Russo ◽  
Andrew J. Nelson
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Organization Theory ◽  
Technology Development ◽  
Institutional Logics ◽  
Environmental Conservation ◽  
Geographic Patterns ◽  
Organizational Activity ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship between regionally tied institutional logics and the location of organizations is an important issue in organization theory. Recent work highlights how supportive regional logics can give rise to products or organizations that resonate with these logics and how the geographic patterns that underlie industries may be understood by examining such relationships. This literature has not, however, offered deep attention to the ways in which features of technology—specifically, its inherent uncertainty—may interact with such dynamics. In this paper, we tackle the challenge. Our work examines how the level of support for an environmental-conservation logic within a region is associated with the number of wind and solar equipment manufacturers in that region in the years 1978–2006. By simultaneously exploring the effects of this logic on two similar technologies, our work not only reinforces how logics may interact with organizational activity but also shows how the magnitude and mechanisms of this effect depend on the technology in question. We build on these findings to discuss the importance of examining technologies in detail, including their dimensions of uncertainty, the role of timing in examining the effect of regionally tied logics, and the links between public policy and logics.

Modernism, Postmodernism and Organizational Analysis 4: The Contribution of Jürgen Habermas

1994 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gibson Burrell
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Organizational Analysis ◽  
Jürgen Habermas ◽  
Organization Studies ◽  
Jurgen Habermas ◽  
Recent Developments

This article is the fourth in a series published by this journal on the relevance to organization studies of the postmodernism-modernism debate. It begins with a brief preface in which some recent developments in the field are placed in context and then goes on to analyze the work of Jürgen Habermas. As a 'critical modern ist' his ideas have a saliency for all those interested in defending organization theory from the charge that our discipline offers no means of preventing our involvement in the next Holocaust. If Habermas is the 'last modernist' then it may be that he represents one last chance for the discipline ... as we currently understand it.

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