Social Psychology of Organizations

After virtue, a study in moral theory

To raise the question of the nature of narrative is to invite reflection on the very nature of culture and, possibly, even on the nature of humanity itself. So natural is the impulse to narrate, so inevitable is the form of narrative for any report of the way things really happened, that narrativity could appear problematical only in a culture in which it was absent-absent or, as in some domains of contemporary Western intellectual and artistic culture, programmatically refused. As a panglobal fact of culture, narrative and narration are less problems than simply data. As the late (and already profoundly missed) Roland Barthes remarked, narrative "is simply there like life itself. . international, transhistorical, transcultural."' Far from being a problem, then, narrative might well be considered a solution to a problem of general human concern, namely, the problem of how to translate knowing into telling,2 the problem of fashioning human experience into a form assimilable to structures of meaning that are generally human rather than culture-specific. We may not be able fully to comprehend specific thought patterns of another culture, but we have relatively less difficulty understanding a story coming from another culture, however exotic that

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The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality

Knowledge and the Flow of Information.

We use content analysis to examine the content analysis literature in organization studies. Given the benefits of content analysis, it is no surprise that its use in organization studies has been growing in the course of the past 25 years (Erdener & Dunn, 1990; Jauch, Osborn, & Martin 1980). First, we review the principles and the advantages associated with the method. Then, we assess how the methodology has been applied in the literature in terms of research themes, data sources, and methodological refinements. Although content analysis has been applied to research topics across the subdomains of management research, research in strategy and managerial cognition have yielded particularly interesting results. We conclude with suggestions for enhancing the utility of content analytic methods in organization studies.

https://media.terry.uga.edu/socrates/publications/2011/07/A20Content20Analysis20of20the20Content20Analysis20Literature2028ORM20200729_1.pdf

A Content Analysis of the Content Analysis Literature in Organization Studies: Research Themes, Data Sources, and Methodological Refinements:

Complexity: the Science, its Vocabulary, and its Relation to Organizations

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Complexity Science: A 'Grey' Science for the 'Stuff in Between'.

This paper explores the implications of the incompressibility of complex systems for the analysis and modelling of such systems. In particular, a provisional epistemology will be developed that attempts to remain faithful to the limitations derived from this aspect of complexity science. We will argue that such an investigation of complex systems highlights the relevance of paradigmatic pluralism or eclecticism, analytical creativity and boundary critique, and therefore has some affinity to sceptical postmodernism. Complexity science, like postmodernism, provides a clear warning as to the dangers of uncritically adopting any 'black and white' theoretical position. It encourages the deferral of paradigm selection and a healthy scepticism.

https://philpapers.org/archive/KURCSA.pdf

Complexity Science: A "Gray" Science for the "Stuff in Between"

There is no denying that the world is a complex place. The challenge is what to do about it. Contrary to the popular notion that complexity either can be abolished or not, worse yet, be left to raise havoc in the boundaryless organization, authors Lissack and Roos argue persuasively for a new way of thinking and dealing with the realities of modern business.

The Next Common Sense: Mastering Corporate Complexity Through Coherence

(2002). Complexity, Emergence, Resilience, and Coherence: Gaining Perspective on Organizations and their Study. Emergence: Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 72-94.

Michael Lissack

Papers

Complexity: the Science, its Vocabulary, and its Relation to Organizations

Complexity Science: A 'Grey' Science for the 'Stuff in Between'.

Complexity Science: A "Gray" Science for the "Stuff in Between"

The Next Common Sense: Mastering Corporate Complexity Through Coherence

Complexity, Emergence, Resilience and Coherence - Gaining perspective on organizations and their study