Working Paper Series Organizational rationality beyond the mechanistic framework

In this paper it is argued that the mechanistic framework allows only a very limited understanding of organizational rationality and that the concept of organizational rationality needs serious reconsideration, based on the assumption that theoretical understanding and articulation are the corner-stones of rationality. After a brief discussion about the fundamental importance of rationality for modern society, the attention turns to the mechanistic view on rationality. Its basic assumptions and some of the critique against them are presented. Then, the idea of rationality as theoretical understanding , inspired by Charles Taylor, is discussed and three major arguments for why organization theorists should be interested in this idea are presented.