IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/bushst/v66y2024i7p1689-1711.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The origins of organisation: A trans-methodological approach to the historical analysis of preindustrial organisations

Author

Listed:
  • Ioanna Iordanou

Abstract

Conventional wisdom dictates that the advent of large organisations engaging innovative managerial practices is a natural by-product of the rationality and technological advancements ensuing from the Industrial Revolution. Accordingly, except for a few studies on medieval and early modern institutions such as armies, feudal estates and governments, preindustrial organisations remain largely unexplored by historians. Arguing for a trans-methodological approach that combines the narrative construction of theoretical constructs with a comprehensive description of events within the historical context in which they evolved, I present a microhistorical case study of the ducal chancery of Renaissance Venice as an exemplar of organisation. Placing particular emphasis on the instrumentality of historical context for the study of preindustrial organisations, I foster a fresh debate on what constitutes ‘organisation’ as a unit of historical analysis, arguing that the phenomenon of organisation was conceived and given meaning in the early modern era.

Suggested Citation

  • Ioanna Iordanou, 2024. "The origins of organisation: A trans-methodological approach to the historical analysis of preindustrial organisations," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 66(7), pages 1689-1711, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:66:y:2024:i:7:p:1689-1711
    DOI: 10.1080/00076791.2023.2181957
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00076791.2023.2181957
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00076791.2023.2181957?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:bushst:v:66:y:2024:i:7:p:1689-1711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/FBSH20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.