Explorations in Organizations

by James G. March

Overview

Explorations in Organizations presents readers with contemporary issues in the study of organizations, and introduces the paths down which tomorrow's organizational scholarship might travel. A collection of recent papers by or co-authored by the eminent James G. March, the book consists of five sections: exploring theories of organizational action; novelty in organizational adaptation; institutions and the logic of appropriateness; the history of organization studies; and uses of literature in the study of organizations.

Each section begins with a new essay by a scholar whose work has focused on the theme explored in that part of the book. These introductory essays not only introduce and tie together the papers that follow, but also serve to add additional voices to the volume in order to deepen the discussion within it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780804758970
Publisher:	Stanford University Press
Publication date:	07/21/2008
Pages:	480
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James G. March is Professor Emeritus at Stanford University. He holds appointments in the Schools of Business and Education, and in the Departments of Political Science and Sociology.

Table of Contents

Foreword     ix
Introduction   James G. March     1
Ideas as Art: A Conversation with James G. March   Diane Coutu     11
Explorations in Theories of Organizational Action: An Introductory Essay   Zur Shapira     23
Introduction to the Second Edition   James G. March   Herbert A. Simon     34
An Epilogue   Richard M. Cyert   James G. March     52
Learning and the Theory of the Firm   James G. March     79
Explorations in the Role of Novelty in Organizational Adaptation: An Introductory Essay   Daniel Levinthal     97
Understanding Organizational Adaptation   James G. March     106
Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect   Jerker Denrell   James G. March     116
Schumpeter, Winter, and the Sources of Novelty   Markus C. Becker   Thorbjorn Knudsen   James G. March     147
Rationality, Foolishness, and Adaptive Intelligence   James G. March     167
Explorations in Institutions and Logics of Appropriateness: an Introductory Essay   Johan P. Olsen     191
The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life   James G. March   Johan P. Olsen     203
The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders   James G. March   Johan P. Olsen     234
A Learning Perspective on the Network Dynamics of Institutional Integration   James G. March     273
Explorations in the Modern History of Organization Studies: An Introductory Essay   Mie Augier     297
Research on Organizations: Hopes for the Past and Lessons from the Future   James G. March     310
Parochialism in the Evolution of a Research Community: The Case of Organization Studies   James G. March     325
Notes on the Evolution of a Research Community: Organization Studies in Anglophone North America, 1945-2000   Mie Augier   James G. March   Bilian Ni Sullivan     345
The Study of Organizations and Organizing since 1945   James G. March     367
Scholarship, Scholarly Institutions, and Scholarly Communities   James G. March     380
The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education   Mie Augier   James G. March     393
Explorations in Organizations Through Literature: An Introductory Essay   Ellen S. O'Connor     413
Literature and Leadership (French: Litterature et leadership)   James G. March     434
Poetry and the Rhetoric of Management: Easter 1916   James G. March     441
Ibsen, Ideals, and the Subornation of Lies   James G. March     445
Contributors     455
Index     457

Editorial Reviews

"Jim March is one of our time's leading social scientists and every new article and book from his pen is a treat for the reader. This new book, his third collection of essays, is no exception. There is a vigor and creativity to the arguments that makes these two dozen new articles irresistibly fun and interesting. Read, enjoy—and feel inspired!"

Cornell University - Richard Swedberg

"With a little help from his friends, James G. March reprises in this collection his earliest and latest explorations of organizations.Well-known themes of organizational action, institutional logics, and the role of novelty are contemplated and extended; less familiar themes of organizations in literature and the history of organization studies are introduced and given shape. Explorations of each theme bring to life March's pioneering view of organizations as complex, rule-based, imperfectly adaptive, interpretive systems—a view as vital and vibrant in organization studies today as when it helped found the field a half century ago."

University of Toronto - Joel Baum

"This volume of papers by Jim March makes clear that there is no scholar who is more effective at inspiring at the same time that he informs. Over the years, March has cultivated a vision of organizational life that has not only illuminated realities that went unnoticed by so many, but he has also sparked the imagination and, therefore, the research of countless scholars. Accordingly, this book serves as a reminder as to why we should be so grateful to Jim March for his many gifts to the field of organizational scholarship."—Joel Podolny, Dean and William S. Beinecke Professor, Yale School of Management

From the Publisher

"In this third collection of papers (which, together, span five decades!), Jim March continues to inspire—not just with his ideas, but also by being "unremittingly exuberant about the pursuit of [them]." In all three collections, economists may find greatest connection to the idea of an "organization as a decision-making process" proposed by Cyert and March (1963). In each successive decade, March and co-authors have elaborated on this theme; more recently, so have organizational economists. But, whereas Coase (1972) described his 1937 article as "much cited and little used," the reverse might be said of March's work: in organizational economics, we use his ideas every day, often without recalling their inception."

MIT - Robert Gibbons

"Jim March is one of our time's leading social scientists and every new article and book from his pen is a treat for the reader. This new book, his third collection of essays, is no exception. There is a vigor and creativity to the arguments that makes these two dozen new articles irresistibly fun and interesting. Read, enjoy—and feel inspired!"

Richard Swedberg