Why managers need an evolutionary theory of organizations

Most observers have agreed that the theory of human behavior derived from the assumption of selfish rationality is inadequate to describe human behavior and human organizations (Rousseau et al., 1998). The issue is what other approach to theory building will provide an adequate theoretical toolkit for human behavior. We argue in this essay that evolutionary theory is the proper foundation for the human sciences, particularly a theory that includes an account of cultural evolution. This theory shows how the limited but real altruistic tendencies of humans arose by tribal-scale group selection on cultural norms followed by coevolutionary responses on the part of our genes. Our tribal social instincts in turn act as a moral hidden hand that makes human organizations possible. We introduce this theory and describe some implications of it for strategy and organization. In effect, managers want to control the cultural evolution of organizations so as to make them perform better. Understanding the tribal roots of our social instincts and the dynamic properties of cultural evolution should lead to a better understanding of the potentials of humans to create functional organizations and to a better understanding of how organizations can become dysfunctional and fail. We hope to strike up a dialog with SO!’s readers about the applications of cultural evolutionary theory.