Using paradox to build management and organization theories

Article Abstract:

Most contemporary theory construction methodologies attempt to build internally consistent theories of limited scope. Relatively little attention has been paid to the opportunities offered by tensions, oppositions, and contradictions among explanations of the same phenomenon. This essay attempts to spell out a set of theory-building strategies to help researchers take advantage of theoretical tensions. Such tensions can be regarded as paradoxes of social theory, and four different models of working with paradoxes can be distinguished: (1) accept the paradox and use it constructively; (2) clarify levels of analysis; (3) temporally separate the two levels; and (4) introduce new terms to resolve the paradox. These four modes of paradox resolution are illustrated by application to the action::structure paradox in organizational theory. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

---

Organizational theories: some criteria for evaluation

Article Abstract:

A set of ground rules and vocabulary to facilitate focused discussion about the structure of organization and management theories are proposed. The many previous efforts at defining and evaluating theory help establish criteria for theory construction and evaluation. In the establishment of these criteria, description is distinguished from theory, and a matrix of criteria for evaluating the variables, constructs, and relationships that together compose a theory is developed. The proposed matrix may be useful both for defining the necessary components of good theory and for evaluating and/or comparing the quality of alternative theories. Finally, a discussion of the way theories fit together to give a somewhat broader picture of empirical reality reveals the lines of tension between the two main criteria for evaluating theory. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

---

Concept fallibility in organizational science

Article Abstract:

This paper extends existing social and behavioral science knowledge by placing explicit emphasis on concept-formation issues as they pertain to organizational science. Moreover, the paper (a) introduces in a detailed manner the notions of concept traveling and concept stretching, (b) provides a clear treatment of various conceptual abstraction levels, (c) articulates and offers the negation approach, and (d) shows how to attain the abstraction level via the use of the negation approach to concept formation. (Reprinted by permission of the publisher.)

Concepts

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Strategy and organization. Strategy and organisation
• Abstracts: Hiring women managers in Japan: an alternative for foreign employers. Investing in retrenchment: avoiding the hidden costs
• Abstracts: Hospital survival in a managed care environment. Foreign trade zones
• Abstracts: Responding to the challenge of HDTV. Managing trade by rules and outcomes. Old economic logic in the new economy
• Abstracts: Predicting participation and production outcomes through a two-dimensional model of organizational commitment

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.