ABSTRACT
In recent years the literature of organization theory has been replete with assessments of its paradigmatic status. We have seen numerous works analyzing the study of organizations by reference to alternatives to the dominant ‘systems’ paradigm. The identification of new paradigms candidates has, for many, signalled a state of crisis–the orthodoxy being undermined by communities who claim to solve ‘puzzles’ (Kuhn 1970) which the systems approach is incapable of addressing (mainly concerning change and conflict). These developments, in what may be termed the ‘sociology of organization theory’, have been predicated on Thomas Kuhn’s history of science, with elements from the Structure of Scientific Revolutions (SSR) thesis being used to justify descriptions of community structure. Here, Kuhn’s seminal concept of paradigm has been the medium for depicting the developmental progress of organization theory as ‘poly-paradigmatic’ (Lammers 1974).
