1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810010803321

Autore

Hannan Michael T

Titolo

Logics of organization theory : audiences, codes, and ecologies / / Michael T. Hannan, László Pólos, Glenn R. Carroll

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, N.J., : Princeton University Press, 2007

ISBN

1-283-37992-9

9786613379924

1-4008-4301-4

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (381 p.)

Classificazione

85.08

Altri autori (Persone)

PólosLászló

CarrollGlenn

Disciplina

302.3/501

Soggetti

Organizational sociology - Methodology

Nonmonotonic reasoning

Categories (Philosophy)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [339]-354) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter 1. Language Matters -- PART 1. AUDIENCES, PRODUCERS, AND CODES -- Chapter 2. Clusters and Labels -- Chapter 3. Types and Categories -- Chapter 4. Forms and Populations -- Chapter 5. Identity and Audience -- PART 2. NONMONOTONIC REASONING: AGE DEPENDENCE -- Chapter 6. A Nonmonotonic Logic -- Chapter 7. Integrating Theories of Age Dependence -- PART 3. ECOLOGICAL NICHES -- Chapter 8. Niches and Audiences -- Chapter 9. Niches and Competitors -- Chapter 10. Resource Partitioning -- PART 4. ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE -- Chapter 11. Cascading Change -- Chapter 12. Opacity and Asperity -- Chapter 13. Niche Expansion -- Chapter 14. Conclusions -- Appendix A. Glossary of Theoretical Terms -- Appendix B. Glossary of Symbols -- Appendix C. Some Elementary First-Order Logic -- Appendix D. Notation for Monotonic Functions -- Appendix E. The Modal Language of Codes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

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.