Marginalization and Recovery

The Emergence of Aristotelian Themes in Organization Studies

Bibliographic Data

ID8048917
AuthorsHaridimos Tsoukas (University of Cyprus), Cumming (0000-0001-5298-2075, Victoria University of Wellington), Stephen Cummings (0000-0001-6243-8786, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand and Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, U.K.)
Year1997
Volume18
Issue4
Pages655-683
Publication date1997-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0170-8406 • E-ISSN: 1741-3044
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/017084069701800405
OpenAlexW2162104903
LanguageEN
Citations received20
References cited67

The past decade has witnessed a number of interesting shifts in the way people think about organizations. One of the most curious is the way in which much of the 'new thinking' is antithetical to mechanistic and rationalistic theories that have historically dominated organization and management studies. This paper investigates this shift, and argues that this new antithetical thinking can be interpreted as the re-surfacing, or recovery, of certain strands of Aristotelian philosophy, strands that were marginalized with the rise of scientific rational ism in the 17th century, before management and organization studies, as we tend to conceive of them, began. The discussion presented here demonstrates the traditional dominance of a disciplinary, mechanistic self-image in manage ment studies, whereby the field drew its boundaries in such a way as to exclude anything 'other' than this. We argue that reconnecting organizational and man agement research with systems of thought other than those traditionally associ ated with the 'discipline', and adopting a 'kaleidoscopic' view of history, can enable researchers to think differently about key issues and inform future development. Key aspects of Aristotle's thinking are considered as a case in point

Discipline · Dominance (genetics · Foundation (evidence · Organization studies · Organizational theory · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Management and Organizational Studies · Management Theory and Practice

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub