Logics of Organization Theory

by Hannan, Michael T.

• ISBN13: 9780691134505
• ISBN10: 0691134502
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-07-02
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

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 Theorysets 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.

Author Biography

Michael T. Hannan is the Stratacom Professor of Management in the Graduate School of Business and professor of sociology at Stanford University. Laszlo Polos is professor of organization theory at the Durham Business School in the United Kingdom. Glenn R. Carroll is the Laurence W. Lane Professor of Organizations in the Graduate School of Business and (by courtesy) professor of sociology at Stanford.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Language Matters	p. 1
Languages for Theory Building	p. 1
Using Dynamic Logic	p. 5
Partial Memberships: Fuzziness	p. 12
Organizational Ecology	p. 18
Unification Projects	p. 21
Audiences, Producers, and Codes	p. 27
Clusters and Labels	p. 29
Seeds for Categories and Forms	p. 32
Domains	p. 34
Similarity	p. 37
Similarity Clusters	p. 41
Labels	p. 47
Extensional Consensus	p. 52
Complex Labels	p. 56
Types and Categories	p. 59
Schemata	p. 60
Types	p. 65
Intensional Semantic Consensus	p. 67
Categories	p. 69
Intrinsic Appeal and Category Valence	p. 71
Forms and Populations	p. 78
Test Codes and Defaults	p. 79
Taken-for-Grantedness	p. 82
Legitimation and Forms	p. 84
Populations	p. 85
Density Dependence Revisited	p. 89
Delegitimation	p. 96
Identity and Audience	p. 100
Identity As Default	p. 101
Multiple Category Memberships	p. 107
Code Clash	p. 109
Identities and Populations	p. 110
Structure of the Audience	p. 111
Nonmonotonic Reasoning: Age Dependence	p. 121
A Nonmonotonic Logic	p. 123
Beyond First-Order Logic	p. 124
Generalizations	p. 127
Nonmonotonic Reasoning	p. 130
A Precis of the Formal Approach	p. 133
Chaining Probabilistic Arguments	p. 142
Closest-Possible-Worlds Construction	p. 143
Falsification	p. 145
Integrating Theories of Age Dependence	p. 150
Capability and Endowment	p. 152
First Unification Attempt	p. 157
Obsolescence	p. 161
Second Unification Attempt	p. 163
Ecological Niches	p. 169
Niches and Audiences	p. 171
Tastes, Positions, and Offerings	p. 174
Category Niche	p. 177
Organizational Niche	p. 178
Fundamental Niche	p. 183
Implications of Category Membership	p. 186
Metric Audience Space	p. 187
Niches and Competitors	p. 191
Fitness	p. 191
Realized Niche	p. 193
Niche Overlap	p. 194
Niche Width Revisited	p. 198
Convexity of the Niche	p. 203
Environmental Change	p. 206
Resource Partitioning	p. 209
Scale Advantage	p. 210
Market Center	p. 214
Market Segments and Crowding	p. 215
Dynamics of Partitioning	p. 220
Implications of Category Membership	p. 226
Organizational Change	p. 229
Cascading Change	p. 231
Identity and Inertia	p. 232
Organizational Architecture	p. 235
Cascades	p. 236
Architecture and Cascades	p. 239
Intricacy and Viscosity	p. 246
Missed Opportunities	p. 248
Change and Mortality	p. 253
Opacity and Asperity	p. 256
Limited Foresight: Opacity	p. 256
Cultural Opposition: Asperity	p. 261
Opacity, Asperity, and Reorganization	p. 265
Change and Mortality	p. 268
Niche Expansion	p. 271
Expanded Engagement	p. 271
Architectural and Cultural Context	p. 276
Age and Asperity	p. 278
Distant Expansion	p. 279
Expansion and Convexity	p. 281
Conclusions	p. 286
Theoretical Unification	p. 287
Common Conceptual Core	p. 289
Inconsistencies Resolved	p. 291
Theoretical Progress	p. 293
Empirical Implications	p. 298
Glossary of Theoretical Terms	p. 305
Glossary of Symbols	p. 313
Some Elementary First-Order Logic	p. 321
Notation for Monotonic Functions	p. 331
The Modal Language of Codes	p. 334
Bibliography	p. 339
Index	p. 355
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