In this paper we investigate the tension that exists in many large organizations between the need for division of work among architects and the requirement of developing an integrated set of architectural principles and models spanning all aspects of the organization. Two types of division of work are presented that set different requirements on knowledge integration. Drawing from insights of t...

This paper first develops the methodology of participatory action research as a research process originating from community-defined needs, involving community members in conducting the research, and leading to community-based action Within this research model, we discuss the difficulty of integrating the roles of activist and researcher Secondly, the paper describes the outcomes of the coordina...

In this paper I am concerned with contemporary industrial societies’ ability to extend themselves into the far future by economic, scientific and political means on the one hand and their inability to know the potential, diverse and multiple outcomes of this produced futurity on the other. I focus on this discrepancy between the future extension of action and knowledge in order to consider how ...

IN 1964 w BOYD RAYWARD explored “the possible applications of organization theory to the study of libraries.”’ During the intervening twenty years there has been no general review of organization theory and its application to research in librarianship. The purpose of this article is to provide such a review. It begins with a very brief overview of the development of organization theory, and the...

Although most political sociologists and political scientists nowadays either consider themselves or are deemed “institutionalists,” key differences remain among major schools of institutionalism (see reviews in Pierson and Skocpol 2002; Amenta 2005). In this chapter, we review sociological institutionalism, historical institutionalism, and political institutionalism. We discuss their similarit...

This is an essay in postclassical theory and modelling, and more specifically an attempt to think about organisation and management. Our focus is on cognition and communication, not on objectivity or causality. We look for operations based on distinctions and their contexts, not for identities, forces, causes and effects (see Korzybski 1933; Bateson 1972; von Foerster 2003; Luhmann 1984; Baecke...

Industrial relations (IR) is often accused of being atheoretical. Yet there has been a tradition of tacit theorizing that links IR to an important strand of social science theory, institutional analysis. There are further connections to the philosophy of science laid out in critical realism (CR). This paper argues that these connections need to be made more explicit and that a programme of IR r...