UNSPECIFIED (2002) Essai: The ghost in the organism. ORGANIZATION STUDIES, 23 (5). pp. 817-839. ISSN 0170-8406

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Abstract

The emergence of the idea that organizations are like organisms is generally seen as having saved organization studies (OS) from its mechanistic precepts. We argue that it has not. Rather, the mechanistic underpinnings of organization merely found a new medium of expression in the organism metaphor. This is largely due to the particular legacy that first informed so-called organic thinking about organizations in the 20th century. This essai investigates the history of the words organization and organism and asks how it became possible for one to be used as a metaphor for the other. Then it examines the way that the organism was brought into the fold of organization so as to reinforce the Modernist and mechanistic underpinnings of the field. We conclude that if the mechanistic ghost in the organism is to be exorcised,,OS needs to recognize and rethink these underlying premises. Towards this end, we offer two alternative ways of thinking organization via the organism: one pre-Modern and one post-Modern.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Journal or Publication Title:	ORGANIZATION STUDIES
Publisher:	SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD
ISSN:	0170-8406
Date:	2002
Volume:	23
Number:	5
Number of Pages:	23
Page Range:	pp. 817-839
Publication Status:	Published
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/10035

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