Journal
ORGANIZATION STUDIES
Volume 35, Issue 12, Pages 1813-1843Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
DOI: 10.1177/0170840614538962
Keywords
ethnography; materiality; modularity; performativity; practices; routines; reliability
Categories
Funding
- ESRC [ES/E01948X/1] Funding Source: UKRI
- Economic and Social Research Council [ES/E01948X/1] Funding Source: researchfish
Ask authors/readers for more resources
We address the effect of organizational theories on the organization by focusing on how modularity, a widespread and influential organizational theory, performs a modular organization. While scholars have offered opposing arguments for the influence of this theoryi.e. that it either succeeds or fails to produce modular organizationswe show just how and how far modularity is enacted and shapes the organization, and how it may be shaped in turn. Drawing on recent advances in performativity theory we thus contribute to modularity by showing how the modular organization emerges over time as the outcome of performative struggles among competing and complementary theories and how these struggles contribute to modifying the theory and designing organizations. We also add to performativity by theorizing the competition between multiple theories, the emergence of unexpected consequences or errors, and their implications for organizational practices and boundaries.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available