The Theory and Philosophy of Organizations by John Hassard Denis Pym

Author:John Hassard, Denis Pym [John Hassard, Denis Pym]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138155954
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2016-12-02T00:00:00+00:00

The perspective set forth here provides a challenging, possibly pessimistic, interpretation of the adaptive potential of many Western corporations. The challenge is to recognize that the existing Western blending of corporate chronologies gives insufficient attention to heterogeneous time reckoning systems, because of the belief that all activity should be planned around the calendar and the clock.

Recent reviews of time and organization studies have rightly sought to heighten the consciousness of researchers and theorists about the temporal dimension, but they have largely failed to situate the current attention given to the role of hours in work and the employment contract within an appropriate theory and philosophy of times in the plural. Consequently, these reviews have failed to recognize the complexity of the overall pressures on orthodox corporate chronological codes which are arising from the pace, flexibility and innovativeness of international competition. Therefore, the paper starts by presenting a theory and philosophy of multiple chronological codes (see page 141). The theory should replace existing conceptions in the organization sciences. The main perspectives in the organization sciences are dominated by time-free theorizing and by cross-sectional designs in which there is time-loss. Temporal conflation is endemic and requires both identification and replacement.

The frame of reference of multiple chronological codes is then applied to an exploration of the thesis that the capacity to adapt by enterprises is strongly impacted by the socially constructed enactment of the market context by corporate élites and by the gradual entrainment to the rhythms and processes of the markets in which the firm has chosen to operate (see page 157). There are crucial differences in the paces of the domestic markets between Britain, the USA and Japan in their speed of saturation, especially with respect to consumer products of cars, white goods, cameras, PCs and similar.

The orthodox theory of organization transitions is examined with reference to the notion of a repertoire of chronological codes (see page 159). Transitions should be distinguished from recursiveness and momentum. Previous work has assumed that transitions are more or less homogeneous across multiple dimensions. However, current research and theory suggests that different aspects (e.g. technologies and buildings) are transformed at different paces. Moreover, and equally important, the focus should be upon the chronological codes possessed by those corporations which enter and prosper during phases of discontinuities in sectors. The approach to the analysis of the multiple paces of transition by the Annales School is examined to provide a frame of reference for examining re-adaptation.

Robust corporations (see page 162) are likely to be characterized by possessing complex, multilayered repertoires of chronological codes which enable the parallel working of many different types of activity, each of which has to be resourced, synchronized and scheduled within a market framework inside which strategic time reckoning is by reference to chronological codes whose prime features are heterogeneous rather than homogeneous. Enabling the use of such complex codes will require a development of language games which are specific to one corporation and its strategic choices. The complexity of these new languages cannot be reduced to the eight traits of successful corporate cultures.

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