Abstract
Several years ago, the Organizations, Occupations, and Work section of the American Sociological Association convened a panel of senior scholars to discuss the prospects forreclaiming organizational studies in sociology. Over the past several decades, sociologists have largely ceded the study of organizations and the generation of organizational theory to their colleagues in business schools. The transition began when business schools attracted wayward sociologists intent on focusing their attention to organizations, an area forsaken by many sociology departments. Elisabeth Clemens quipped that when she was hired, chairs of sociology departments did not know what organizational sociology was—they just knew they needed someone on staff who did it. Now business schools create homegrown organizational scholars who do much of the cutting-edge work in organizational theory and publish in journals dedicated to that end. The panelists agreed that sociologists should reclaim organizational theory. However, they were divided on how to bring back or bridge organizational and sociological theory.
Enter The Oxford Handbook of Sociology, Social Theory, and Organizational Studies: Contemporary Currents. This volume is the second in a set, the first of which is dedicated to classical theory, that seeks to reacquaint organizational and sociological theory. Sociologists will find much to appreciate in this volume, as it connects ideas with whichthey are familiar—for example, structuration—with objects of study that may have grown foreign to them—for example, organizational routines. This volume would be exceptionally useful to students in sociology programs, who generally do not set out to study organizations per se, but come to find that the problem with which they are grappling is organizational in nature or at the very least has an organizational component. This volume will expose such students to an array of theoretical approaches that they may have otherwise not considered. At the same time, students in management schools, who are exposed to recent theorizing about organizations, will find this volume useful for understanding the sociological roots of the ideas with which they engage. This will provide better insights into the mechanics of theorizing, which may help them use theory more creatively and synthetically as well as apply it to a broader spectrum of problems.
Paul Adler, Paul du Gay, Glenn Morgan, and Mike Reed direct their ambitious editorial efforts at reuniting and advancing the relationship between sociological theory and organizational studies. I would liken the volume to a buffet at a fancy fusion restaurant: it provides generous samples of sociological theory thoughtfully selected, prepared, and presented in ways germane to scholars of organizations.
The book is divided into three parts: European Influences, Anglo-American Influences, and a short section called Organizing Social Worlds. It is interesting to note that the chapters in the first section, which are dedicated to European theorists, generally demonstrate how such theories have been (and are) used in organizational studies. For example, I found the chapters on Habermas and Luhmann particularly enlightening in explaining how these scholars have tackled organizational theory directly as well as the influence of their ideas on subfields of organizational studies. The chapters on Latour, Callon, and French Neopragmatism are similar in this regard. In contrast, several of the chapters on American sociological theory advocate for the use of their respective theories in organizational studies rather than explain how they are currently used by organizational theorists. For example, the chapter on Goffman convincingly argues that, while not fundamentally a theory of organizations, the dramaturgical approach can generate fruitful avenues for research beyond the study of organizational culture. The chapter on Garfinkel takes the same strategy, even as it argues that the theorist’s earliest work was studying organizations and organizational behavior. That said, American scholars will surely benefit from the exposure to continental thought that this volume provides.
The authors of individual chapters do an excellent job of explaining the complex ideas of contemporary sociological theory and their application to the study of organizations in a way that balances depth and lucidity. The chapter on Bourdieu provides a solid, comprehensive review of the theorist’s massive oeuvre, though the several pages toward the end that outline how scholars of organizations use these ideas feels tacked on. Most of the chapters avoid getting bogged down in technicalities and jargon. I especially appreciated this about the chapter on rational choice and organizations, a style of theorizing that often relies on formal modeling rather than narrative explanation.
What would be useful in such a volume is a chapter in each section (or a section in each chapter) dedicated to syntheses. Contemporary sociological and organizational theory are synthetic projects, recombining strains of classical and contemporary thought into something new and more useful. Many of the chapters in this volume treat various strains of theory in their silos, which is useful for understanding, for instance, how Bhaskar and critical realism might generate new ways of thinking about the ontology of organization. But in many instances, such as the chapter on rational choice theories of organization, this approach is more constraining than generative. Granted, some theories do not combine well with others. I am not sure an imagined conversation between Hayek and Callon would generate many useful ideas. However, the chapters on critical management theory, feminist theories, and postcolonial theory have theoretical and methodological concerns in common. Similarly, how might scholars conceive of a conversation between social movement theories of organization and Rawlsian approaches to organizations? (Hint: this conversation is happening in the literature on hybrid organizations, like social enterprise.) Putting the various approaches in conversation with one another would be useful for readers and would help the volume accomplish its ambitious task.
Some chapters are purposefully synthetic. The chapter on the New New Economic Sociology reflects the diversity of approaches in an area of sociology that seems to undergo a transformation every ten years or so. Similarly, feminist theory is not homogenous, as the chapter dedicated to it deftly demonstrates by showing how feminist theory is not simply studies of women in organizations, but rather reflects a general approach to theory and methodology. I say “deftly” here because the chapter successfully explains and synthesizes a tremendous amount of material, including several literatures, into a very exoteric 40 pages.
Overall, the volume succeeds in reuniting organizational and sociological theory. At close to 800 pages divided into 30 chapters, it captures much of the breadth of contemporary sociological thought as it may be applied to studies of organizations. Each chapter also goes into sufficient depth to provide the reader a generous taste of each theory. The volume will certainly facilitate bringing organizational thinking back into sociology while reinvigorating sociological thinking in the study of organizations.