Challenges for organizational theorists in the entropic era
Keywords:
Organizational theory, management, organizations, entropy, research, fourth industrial revolution, industry 4.0Abstract
The purpose of this research is to analyze the context in which the theories of organizations are progressing and to unveil the challenges for the scientific community today. For this purpose, the documentary research technique was used, corresponding to a narrative and reflexive bibliographic review. It was found that its progress is framed by the scarcity of novel ideas, consensus on what and how to research in the field, as well as institutional conditions, professional standards, construction of the identity of researchers and the prevalence of positivism in research. Thus, the challenges for the research community in this entropic period focus on the understanding of the transformations coming from the fourth industrial revolution, collaborative and transdisciplinary work, and the emphasis on the development of the social dimension of sustainability. Therefore, it is concluded that organizational theory needs to reconnect with critical social problems facing the world in order to contribute more to human welfare, through the questioning and rethinking of the methodologies used so far, and the values and rules that the academic community imprints on the production of knowledge.
References
Aguinis, H. & Solarino, A. (2019). Transparency and replicability in qualitative research: The case of interviews with elite informants. Strategic Management Journal. 40(8). 1291-1315. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3015
Alombert, A. (2023). Entropy. In: Wallenhorst, N., Wulf, C. (eds) Handbook of the Anthropocene. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-25910-4_62
Alvesson, M., & Sandberg, J. (2013). Has management studies lost its way? Ideas for more imaginative and innovative research. Journal of management studies, 50(1), 128-152. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01070.x
Belandria, A. (2020). Vinculación de formación gerencial avanzada con talento humano: desde una mirada transcompleja. Revista Gerentia, 3. 199-214. https://investigacionuft.net.ve/revista/index.php/Gerentia/article/view/189/173
Belandria, G. (2019). El concepto de trabajo y las TIC. Sapienza Organizacional, 6(12), 21–56. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/5530/553066097004/html/
Berkovich, I. & Grinshtain, Y. (2023) A Review of Rigor and Ethics in Qualitative Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership Research Articles Published in 1999-2018. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 22(3), 549-564, https://doi.org/10.1080/15700763.2021.1931349
Bigliardi, B., Bottani, E., Casella, G., Filippelli, S., Petroni, A., Pini, B., & Gianatti, E. (2023). Industry 4.0 and Covid-19: evidence from a case study. Procedia Computer Science. 217, 1803-1809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.12.380
Bispo, M. de S. (2022). In defense of theory and original theoretical contributions in Administration. Revista de Administração Contemporânea, 26(6), e220158. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-7849rac2022220158.en
Bocher, R. (2023). Causal Entropic Forces, Narratives and Self-organisation of Capital Markets. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 35(2), 172-190. https://doi.org/10.1177/02601079211039321
Cassell, C.; Symon, G.; Buehring, A. & Johnson, P. (2006). The role and status of qualitative methods in management research: an empirical account. Management Decision. 44, 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251740610650256
Coldwell, D. (2016). Entropic Citizenship Behavior and Sustainability in Urban Organizations: Towards a Theoretical Model. Entropy, 18(12), 453. https://doi.org/10.3390/e18120453
Coldwell, D. (2019). Negative influences of the 4th industrial revolution on the workplace: Towards a theoretical model of entropic citizen behavior in toxic organizations. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(15), 2670. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152670
Daitian, L.; Liang, Z.; Tell, F. & Xue, L. (2021). Sectoral systems of innovation in the era of the fourth industrial revolution: an introduction to the special section. Industrial and Corporate Change, 30 (1). 123–135. https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dtaa064
Davis, G. (2005). Alternative futures for organization theory. Inter disciplinary Committee on Organization Studies. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. http://www.si.umich. edu/ICOS/Presentations/20050909/
Davis, G. (2006). Mechanisms and the theory of organizations. J. Management Inquiry 15(2) 114-118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492605280238
Davis, G. (2010). Do Theories of Organizations Progress? Organizational Research Methods. 13(4) 690-709. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428110376995
DeGama, N., R.S.T.A., S. & Peticca-Harris, A. (2019). The good academic: re-imagining good research in organization and management studies. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management. 14(1). 2-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/QROM-03-2019-681
DeMarco, T. & Lister, T. (1999). Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, 2nd ed.; House Pub: Dorset, UK.
Eriksson-Zetterquist, U. (2019). The (Re?) Emergence of New Ideas in the Field of Organizational Studies. Zilber, T.B., Amis, J.M. and Mair, J. (Ed.) The Production of Managerial Knowledge and Organizational Theory: New Approaches to Writing, Producing and Consuming Theory (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 59), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley. 123-139. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20190000059007
Fligstein, N. (2021). Organizations: Theoretical Debates and the Scope of Organizational Theory. En: Abrutyn, S., Lizardo, O. (eds) Handbook of Classical Sociological Theory. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78205-4_22
Ghobakhloo, M. (2020). Industry 4.0, digitization, and opportunities for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production. 252, 119869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119869
Grodal, S., Anteby, M. & Holm, A. L. (2021). Achieving Rigor in Qualitative Analysis: The Role of Active Categorization in Theory Building. Academy of Management Review. 46(3). https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0482
Jankowska, B., Mińska-Struzik, E., Bartosik-Purgat, M., Götz, M. & Olejnik, I. (2023) Industry 4.0 technologies adoption: barriers and their impact on Polish companies’ innovation performance, European Planning Studies, 31 (5), 1029-1049, https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2022.2068347
Jarzabkowski, P., Langley, A., & Nigam, A. (2021). Navigating the tensions of quality in qualitative research. Organizational Research Methods, 19(1), 262-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428120948600
Joullié, J. & Gould, A. (2022). Having Nothing to Say But Saying It Anyway: Language and Practical Relevance in Management Research. Academy of Management Learning & Education. 21(2). https://doi.org/10.5465/amle.2017.0207
Khoshsepehr, Z.; Alimohammadlou, M.; Mohammadi, A.; Kordshouli, H. (2023). The fourth industrial revolution: mapping the future. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management. 37(5-6). 512-537. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMTM.2023.133689
Kroth, L. (2023). Entropy and Entropic Differences in the Work of Michel Serres. Theory, Culture & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764231187593
Lau, V. P., & Shaffer, M. A. (2023). A typological theory of domestic employees’ acculturation stress and adaptation in the context of globalization. Academy of Management Review, 48(1), 57–77. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2019.0408
Lanka, E., Lanka, S., Rostron, A. & Singh, P. (2021). Why We Need Qualitative Research in Management Studies. Rev. Adm. Contemp. 25(2). 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-7849rac2021200297.en
Locke, K., Feldman, M., & Golden-Biddle, K. (2022). Coding Practices and Iterativity: Beyond Templates for Analyzing Qualitative Data. Organizational Research Methods, 25(2), 262-284. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428120948600
Lozada, N., Arias, J., & Perdomo, G. (2015). La teoría organizacional en los contextos socioeconómico y epistemológico: hacia la construcción de una disciplina compleja y equilibrada. Universidad & Empresa, 17(28), 13-36. https://doi.org/10.12804/rev.univ.empresa.28.2015.01
Martínez, R., Palma, A. & Velásquez, A. (2020). Revolución tecnológica e inclusión social. Reflexiones sobre desafíos y oportunidades para la política social en América Latina. CEPAL –Serie Políticas Sociales N° 233. 87 p. ISSN: 1680-8983. https://hdl.handle.net/11362/45901
Maynard, A. (2015). Navigating the fourth industrial revolution. Nature nanotechnology, 10(12), 1005-1006. https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.286
Páramo, D., Sierra, S. C., & Matos, L. M. (2022). Métodos de investigación cualitativa: Fundamentos y aplicaciones. Entre Textos, 4(1), 53–55.
Morin, E., & Le Moigne, J. (2006). Inteligencia de la complejidad: epistemología y pragmática. París: Ediciones de l’Aube. https://ilusionismosocial.org/pluginfile.php/1221/mod_resource/content/1/Inteligencia-de-La-Complejidad.pdf
Nuvolari, A. (2019). Understanding successive industrial revolutions: A “development block” approach. Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. 32. 33-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2018.11.002
Oberoi, R., Mswaka, W., Leandro, F. J., Snowden, M., & Halsall, J. P. (2023). Reimagining Social Innovation and Social Enterprise for Industrial Revolution 4.0: Case Study of China and UK. In I. Management Association (Ed.), Research Anthology on Approaches to Social and Sustainable Entrepreneurship (pp. 492-508). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-7593-5.ch026
Peter, O., Pradhan, A. & Mbohwa, C. (2023). Industrial internet of things (IIoT): opportunities, challenges, and requirements in manufacturing businesses in emerging economies. Procedia Computer Science. 217, 856-865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2022.12.282
Pizzi, S., Caputo, A., Corvino A. & Venturelli, A. (2020). Management research and the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs): A bibliometric investigation and systematic review. Journal of Cleaner Production. 276, 124033. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124033
Raja, A. & Muthuswamy, P. (2023). Industry 5.0 or industry 4.0S? Introduction to industry 4.0 and a peek into the prospective industry 5.0 technologies. Int J Interact Des Manuf. 17, 947–979 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12008-023-01217-8
Rivas, L. (2009). Evolución de la teoría de la organización. Universidad & Empresa. 17, 11-32. https://www.redalyc.org/pdf/1872/187214467001.pdf
Sánchez, M. (2017). Aportes teóricos a la gestión organizacional: la evolución en la visión de la organización. Ciencias Administrativas, 5. https://doi.org/10.24215/23143738e013
Spender, J. (2007). Management as regulated profession: an essay. Journal of Management Inquiry, 16, 32–42. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492606297542
Walsh, J., Meyer, A., & Schoonhoven, C. (2006). A future for organization theory: Living in and living with changing organizations. Organization Science, 17(5), 657-671. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1060.0215
Williams, B. (2016). Defining Organizational Entropy. Available online: http://merchantstand.com/2010/01/ defining-organizational-entropy/13
Zemigala, M. (2019). Tendencies in research on sustainable development in management sciences. Journal of Cleaner Production. 218, 796-809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.009
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish in this journal agree to the following terms:
a. Authors give their rights to the article in a non-exclusive way for the magazine to be published for the first time by the journal as well as licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of authorship of work and initial publication in this magazine.
b. Authors can establish separate additional agreements for non-exclusive distribution of the version of the work published in the journal (for example, to an institutional repository or to publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
c. Authors are allowed and encouraged to disseminate their work electronically (e.g., in institutional repositories or your own website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as a citation more early and most of published work (See the Effect of Open Access) (in English).
