A Theory of Organizing

Barbara Czarniawska, renowned theorist and author, illustrates how organization theory has changed over the past decade, shifting focus from structures to processes, from organizations to organizing.

In this book, she offers a processual view of organizing as it has emerged, and develops a theory based on multiple field studies and recent theoretical insights. The author argues that the constructionist perspective, inherent in much of current social science reasoning, helped organization theorists to realize that everything flows, even if change itself can become stable. Referring to a variety of field studies conducted in several countries and cultures, she demonstrates that the global economy and its ally, information technology, have paved the way for organizing across corporate and national borders. Mergers and acquisitions are now mundane events, and markets have become more virtual than ever, even as ideas travel across the world, and are translated into local practices.

Provocative in its questioning of established truths in the field of organizational studies, this book will challenge and stimulate organizational theoreticians and organizational practitioners. It will also prove lively reading for academics from a range of backgrounds, including sociology, business administration, and the political sciences.