Bücher der Reihe Elements in Organization Theory

Paradoxes, contrary propositions that are not contestable separately but that are inconsistent when conjoined, constitute a pervasive feature of contemporary organizational life. When contradictory elements are constituted as equally important in day-to-day work, organizational actors frequently experience acute tensions in engaging with these contradictions. This Element discusses the presence of paradoxes in the life of organizations, introduces the reader to the notion of paradox in theory and practice, and distinguishes paradox and adjacent conceptualizations such as trade-off, dilemma, dialectics, ambiguity, etc. This Element also covers what triggers paradoxes and how they come into being whereby the Element distinguishes latent and salient paradoxes and how salient paradoxes are managed. This Element discusses key methodological challenges and possibilities of studying, teaching, and applying paradoxes and concludes by considering some future research questions left unexplored in the field.

This Element situates the corporation - its culture, governance, responsibility, and accountability - within a broader discourse of duty. In doing so, it addresses the problem of virtue and corporations for society and the corporation's problem in aligning its governance to changing community expectations of obligation.

Emotions are central to social life and thus they should be central to organization theory. However, emotions have been treated implicitly rather than theorized directly in much of organization theory, and in some literatures, have been ignored altogether. This Element focuses on emotions as intersubjective, collective and relational, and reviews structuralist, people-centered and strategic approaches to emotions in different research streams to provide one of the first broad examinations of emotions in organization theory. Charlene Zietsma, Maxim Voronov, Madeline Toubiana and Anna Roberts provide suggestions for future research within each literature and look across the literatures to identify theoretical and methodological considerations.

This Element describes child sexual abuse and the formal organizations in which it can occur, reviews extant perspectives on child abuse, and explains how an organization theory approach can advance understanding of this phenomenon. It then elaborates the main paths through which organizational structures can influence child sexual abuse in organizations and analyze how these structures operate through these paths to impact the perpetration, detection, and response to abuse. The analysis is illustrated throughout with reports of child sexual abuse published in a variety of sources. The Element concludes with a brief discussion of the policy implications of this analysis.

The stakeholder perspective is an alternative way of understanding how companies and people create value and trade with each other. This Element discusses the foundation and implementation of stakeholder management as well as the advantages of this approach. It presents a number of tools that managers can use to implement stakeholder thinking.

Provides an overview of cultural entrepreneurship scholarship and lays the foundation for a broader and more integrative research agenda. Develops novel theoretical arguments and discusses the implications for mainstream entrepreneurship research.

Applies organization theory to the challenge of the Anthropocene era, a period of human impact on climate change, chemical waste, habitat destruction, and despeciation. Uses institutional theory to help analysts understand the framing of scientific facts, the counter-mobilization of skeptics, and the creation of archetypes as new social orders.

This Element is for all those interested in the development of organization theory and its relevance to today. It is particularly aimed at graduate students and advanced undergraduates but it is relevant to all of those who wish to understand the trajectory of this important subject.