ABSTRACT
In the 1960s, reflection upon the metatheoretical assumptions underpinning organization studies was virtually absent. So, too, were alternatives to orthodox, functionalist organization theory. Today, following the publication of Burrell and Morgan’s Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis (1979), an appreciation of the relationship between accounts of organization and the framing of these accounts within paradigmatic frameworks has become a commonplace within the discipline. The intellectual imperialism of the functionalist orthodoxy has been challenged by perspectives that are attentive to the significance of organizational actors’ definitions of the situation and the class-invested basis of organizational structures.
