Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and EcologiesBuilding theories of organizations is challenging: theories are partial and "folk" categories are fuzzy. The commonly used tools--first-order logic and its foundational set theory--are ill-suited for handling these complications. Here, three leading authorities rethink organization theory. Logics of Organization Theory sets forth and applies a new language for theory building based on a nonmonotonic logic and fuzzy set theory. In doing so, not only does it mark a major advance in organizational theory, but it also draws lessons for theory building elsewhere in the social sciences. |
Contents
Language Matters | 1 |
AUDIENCES PRODUCERS AND CODES | 27 |
Types and Categories | 59 |
Forms and Populations | 78 |
Identity and Audience | 100 |
Integrating Theories of Age Dependence | 150 |
ECOLOGICAL NICHES | 169 |
Niches and Competitors | 191 |
Resource Partitioning | 209 |
Opacity and Asperity | 256 |
Niche Expansion | 271 |
Conclusions | 286 |