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Featured Faculty Books: Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies
Glenn Carroll, Laurence W. Lane Professor of Organizations, Graduate School of Business; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences
Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies
by Michael T. Hannan, László Pólos and Glenn R. Carroll, Princeton University Press, 2007
Building theories of organizations is challenging: theories are partial and "folk" categories are fuzzy. The commonly used tools--first-order logic and its foundational set theory--are ill-suited for handling these complications. Here, three leading authorities rethink organization theory. Logics of Organization Theory sets forth and applies a new language for theory building based on a nonmonotonic logic and fuzzy set theory. In doing so, not only does it mark a major advance in organizational theory, but it also draws lessons for theory building elsewhere in the social sciences.
Organizational research typically analyzes organizations in categories such as "bank," "hospital," or "university." These categories have been treated as crisp analytical constructs designed by researchers. But sociologists increasingly view categories as constructed by audiences. This book builds on cognitive psychology and anthropology to develop an audience-based theory of organizational categories. It applies this framework and the new language of theory building to organizational ecology. It reconstructs and integrates four central theory fragments, and in so doing reveals unexpected connections and new insights.
About Glenn Caroll
Glenn Caroll's research interests include organizational theory, strategic management, and industrial evolution. He has pioneered ecological approaches to organizational analysis, as well as their application to strategy. Carroll helped develop the study of population dynamics among organizations, examining how the demographics of firms affect corporate change. His recent research investigates how organizational identities develop and impact society. Another program examines how the diversity of organizations in a community affects socio-political outcomes. Carroll has also studied the ways internal organizational demography shapes organizational cultures. more ...
