Zilber, T.B., Amis, J.M., and Mair, J. (2019). 'Dismantling the master's house using the master's tools: On the sociology of organisational knowledge'. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, (Vol. 59) pp.1–19.
In this introduction, we outline some critical reflections on the sociology of knowledge within management and organisation theory. Based on a review of various works that form a sociology of organisational knowledge, we identify three approaches that have become particularly prominent ways by which scholars explore how knowledge about organisations and management is produced.
First, reflective and opinion essays that organisation studies scholars offer on the basis of what can be learned from personal experience. Second, descriptive craft guides that are based on more-or-less comprehensive surveys on doing research. Third, papers based on systematic research that are built upon rigorous collection and analysis of data about the production of knowledge.
While in our studies of organising we prioritise the third approach, that is, knowledge produced based on systematic empirical research, in examining our own work we tend to privilege the other two types: reflective articles and surveys. In what follows we highlight this gap, offer some explanations thereof, and call for a better appreciation of all three ways to offer rich understanding of organisations, work, and management, as well as a fruitful sociology of knowledge in our field.
Amis, J.M., Munir, K.A., Lawrence, T.B., Hirsch, P. and McGahan, A. (2018). 'Ineqality, institutions and organisations'. Organization Studies, 39(0): 1131–1152.
The organisations and institutions we interact with in our everyday lives are heavily implicated in the rising levels of global inequality. We develop understanding of the ways in which a preference in social structures for the free market over other forms of economic organisation has made inequality almost inevitable. This has been accompanied by organisational practices such as hiring, promotion, and reward allocation that maintain and enhance societal inequalities. The mutually constitutive relationship between organisations and institutions in the reproduction of inequality are exposed throughout.
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