ABSTRACT
This chapter proposes two classes of levels: inclusional and causal. It describes the three inclusional types of levels and six causal types of levels. The inclusional types include: structural inclusion, levels of task aggregation, and levels of interdependence. The causal types include: simple functions, level of derivation, task process level, implicit/explicit level of phenomena, process frameworks, and causal "drill-downs." The chapter shows that organizational phenomena are multilevel, multi-issue, and processual in nature. Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, there has been a growing awareness in the organization sciences that organizational phenomena are multilevel and multi-issue. Single variable, single level, and static models lack the requisite variety to match this reality. Many organizational scholars are turning towards multilevel research and are beginning to think more processually. This work has evolved into growing literature on multilevel phenomena and the research issues of conducting multilevel research.
