Organizations and Social Systems: Organization Theory's Neglected Mandate

This essay has benefited from careful reading and comments by several of our colleagues. We want to express our appreciation to Dan Brass, Mark Mizruchi, Keith Murnighan, Christine Oliver, Linda Pike, Bob Sutton, and Pamela Tolbert. We argue that the initial three-part mandate for organization theory contained study of (1) internal organization structure and process; (2) relations between organizations and environmental actors; and (3) the impact of organizations on the broad social systems in which they were embedded. Though the influence of organizations in society has increased over time, the social system component of the field's mandate has faded from the research agenda. This paper proposes that the diminution of this social systems perspective occurred because the increasing complexity of social relations made determination of an appropriate unit of analysis more difficult. In addition, the business school environment in which organization research was accomplished discouraged examination of broad social questions, promoted a particular approach to science, and created specific career incentives. Recapturing a research interest in organizations' effects on society requires recognizing organizational impacts on social issues and accepting a broader range of methodologies. Ideas require greater opportunity for development, and quantity of publications deserves less emphasis. Journals that risk publishing the unconventional paper and providing incentives for tackling larger questions might reestablish the breadth of focus with which organizational theory was initially concerned.*