Explorations in Organizations

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.

Table of Contents:
Contents @@toc4:Foreword xxx @toc1:I. Introduction 1 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:1 "Ideas as Art": An interview by Diane Coutu 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:2 Introduction to the Second Edition 000 @tocca:James G. March and Herbert A. Simon @toc1:II. Explorations in Theories of Organizational Action: An Introductory Essay 000 @tocca:Zur Shapira @toc2:3 An Epilogue 000 @tocca:Richard M. Cyert and James G. March @toc2:4 Learning and the Theory of the Firm 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc1:III. Explorations in the Role of Novelty in Organizational Adaptation: An Introductory Essay 000 @tocca:Daniel Levinthal @toc2:5 Understanding Organizational Adaptation 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:6 Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect 000 @tocca:Jerker Denrell and James G. March @toc2:7 Schumpeter, Winter, and the Sources of Novelty 000 @tocca:Markus Becker, Thorbjorn Knudsen, and James G. March @toc2:8 Rationality, Foolishness, and Adaptive Intelligence 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc1:IV. Explorations in Institutions and Logics of Appropriateness: An Introductory Essay 000 @tocca:Johan P. Olsen @toc2:9 The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life 000 @tocca:James G. March and Johan P. Olsen @toc2:10 The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders 000 @tocca:James G. March and Johan P. Olsen @toc2:11 A Learning Perspective on Some Dynamics of Institutional Integration 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc1:V. Explorations in the Modern History of Organization Studies: An Introductory Essay 000 @tocca:Mie Augier @toc2:12 Research on Organizations: Hopes for the Past and Lessons from the Future 000 @tocca: James G. March @toc2:13 Parochialism in the Evolution of a Research Community 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:14 Notes on the Evolution of a Research Community: Organization Studies in Anglophone North America, 1945<- >2000 000 @tocca:Mie Augier, James G. March, and Bilian Ni Sullivan @toc2:15 The Study of Organizations and Organizing Since 1945 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:16 Scholarship, Scholarly Institutions, and Scholarly Communities 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:17 The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education 000 @tocca:Mie Augier and James G. March @toc1:VI. Explorations in Organizations Through Literature: An Introductory Essay 000 @tocca:Ellen S. O'Connor @toc2:18 Litterature et leadership (French: Literature and Leadership) 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:19 Poetry and the Rhetoric of Management: "Easter 1916" 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc2:20 Ibsen, Ideals, and the Subornation of Lies 000 @tocca:James G. March @toc4:Contributors 000 Index 000 @fmct:FOREWORD @to1:I want to extend my thanks to the Stanford University Press (as represented in human form by Margo Beth Crouppen, Sarah Ives, and Jessica Walsh) for publishing this collection of articles, and to Mie Augier, Markus Becker, Diane Coutu, Richard Cyert, Jerker Denrell, Thorbjorn Knudsen, Johan P. Olsen, Herbert A. Simon, and Bilian Ni Sullivan for their collaboration on the articles and their willingness to have them appear here. I am also much in debt to Mie Augier, Daniel Levinthal, Ellen O'Connor, Johan P. Olsen, and Zur Shapira for writing introductory essays to the various sections of the book. Their essays provide a freshness of perspective and force of insight that grace the book. All of these colleagues demonstrate once again that scholarship is a collective, not an individual, activity. @tx:I also wish to thank the following publishers for granting permission to reprint pieces originally published by them: @fmli:Chapter 1: "Ideas as Art", from Harvard Business Review (with Diane Coutu), 84:10October (2006) 8289. Chapter 2: "Introduction to the Second Edition" (with Herbert A. Simon), from pp. 119 in James G. March and Herbert A. Simon, Organizations, 2nd edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1993. Chapter 3: "An Epilogue" (with Richard M. Cyert), from pp. 214246 in Richard M. Cyert and James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, 2nd edition. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1992. Chapter 4: "Learning and the Theory of the Firm", from Economia e Banca--Annali Scientific (Trento), 5 (1992) 15<- >35. Chapter 5: "Understanding Organizational Adaptation", from Society and Economy, 25 (2003) 110. Chapter 6: "Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect" (with Jerker Denrell), from Organization Science, 12 (2001) 523538. Chapter 7: "Schumpeter, Winter, and the Sources of Novelty" (with Markus Becker and Thorbjorn Knudsen), from Industrial and Corporate Change. 15 (2006) 353371. Chapter 8: "Rationality, Foolishness, and Adaptive Intelligence", from Strategic Management Journal. 27 (2006) 201214. Chapter 9: "The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life" (with Johan P. Olsen), from American Political Science Review, 78 (1984) 734749. Chapter 10: "The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders" (with johan P. Olsen), from International Organization, 52 (1998) 943969. Chapter 11: "A Learning Perspective on Some Dynamics of Institutional Integration", from pp. 129155 in Morten Egeberg and Per Laegreid, eds., Organizing Political Institutions: Essays for Johan P. Olsen. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, 1999. Chapter 12: "Research on Organizations: Hopes for the Past and Lessons from the Future", from Nordiske Organisasjonsstudier, 1 (1999) 6983. Chapter 13: "Parochialism in the Evolution of a Research Community", from Management and Organization Review, 1 (2004) 522 Chapter 14: "Notes on the Evolution of a Research Community: Organization Studies in Anglophone North America, 19452000" (with Mie Augier and Bilian Ni Sullivan), from Organization Science, 16 (2005) 8595. Chapter 15: "The Study of Organizations and Organizing Since 1945", from Organization Studies, 28 (2007) 919. Chapter 16: "Scholarship, Scholary Institutions, and Scholarly Communities", from Organization Science, 18 (2007) 537542. Chapter 17: "The Pursuit of Relevance in Management Education" (with Mie Augier), from California Management Review, 49 (2007) 129146. Chapter 18: "Litterature et leadership (French: Literature and Leadership)", from Revue Economique et Sociale (Lausanne), 59 (2001) 301308. Chapter 19: "Poetry and the Rhetoric of Management: Easter 1916", from Journal of Management Inquiry. 15 (2006) 70<- >72. Chapter 20: "Ibsen, Ideals, and the Subornation of Lies", from Organization Studies, 28 (2007) 12771285. @al:James G. March Stanford, California January, 2008

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.

Review :
"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." - Joel Baum, Canadian National Chair in Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto "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, Cornell University "In an age in which scholarship is increasingly commodified, Explorations in Organizations reminds us that it is possible to pursue ideas across what others see as boundaries. This volume presents several, well-defined windows onto the garden of organization theory that March has done a great deal to create, suggesting some directions for growth. As March notes in his introduction to the volume, the somewhat chaotic nature of the garden may be an important part of the vitality of the field." - Martha S. Feldman, Johnson Chair for Civic Governance and Public Management, University of California, Irvine "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 "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." - Robert Gibbons, Sloan School of Management and Department of Economics, MIT