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The Mutual Constitution of Persons and Organizations: An Ontological Perspective on Organizational Change

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  • Alexandra Michel

    (Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104)

Abstract

I introduce an ontological perspective, which examines the mutual constitution of persons and organizations, to explain continuous versus episodic organizational change. Informed by a cognitive tradition, prior research on organizational change examines individuals’ epistemology , such as knowledge and skills, and their interaction with organizations. From this perspective, organizations change either continuously or episodically because of the conscious cognitive concepts that decision makers use. Informed by a sociocultural tradition, I examine employees’ ontology and the mutual constitution of person and context within organizations. I use the habitus concept to describe how organizational practices structure and are structured by employees’ taken-for-granted experience of reality’s basic dimensions. Based on a two-year ethnography, I investigate how two Wall Street banks’ distinct work practices caused bankers to experience persons, time, causality, and language (“ontology”) in contrasting ways, reproducing the practices that had generated the ontology. The banks changed either continuously or episodically because bankers’ differential ontologies caused them to utilize resources in different, taken-for-granted ways, thus weaving more or less adaptable organizational fabrics.

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  • Alexandra Michel, 2014. "The Mutual Constitution of Persons and Organizations: An Ontological Perspective on Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(4), pages 1082-1110, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:25:y:2014:i:4:p:1082-1110
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2013.0887
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Fleur Deken & Paul R. Carlile & Hans Berends & Kristina Lauche, 2016. "Generating Novelty Through Interdependent Routines: A Process Model of Routine Work," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 659-677, June.
    2. Martha S. Feldman & Brian T. Pentland & Luciana D’Adderio & Nathalie Lazaric, 2016. "Beyond Routines as Things: Introduction to the Special Issue on Routine Dynamics," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 505-513, June.
    3. Scott Sonenshein, 2016. "Routines and Creativity: From Dualism to Duality," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(3), pages 739-758, June.
    4. Julia Balogun & Jean M. Bartunek & Boram Do, 2015. "Senior Managers’ Sensemaking and Responses to Strategic Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(4), pages 960-979, August.

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