UNSPECIFIED (1992) WAYS OF SEEING - TOPOGRAPHIC AND NETWORK REPRESENTATIONS IN ORGANIZATION THEORY. SYSTEMS PRACTICE, 5 (4). pp. 441-456. ISSN 0894-9859

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Abstract

Organizations (and social systems more generally) have traditionally been represented topographically-as if they were landscapes. Such an image is limited. A network representation of organizations, redescribing the latter as locales over which constellations of relations are woven, is more appropriate to cope with transformation and change. Topographic representations, however, are not useless. To the extent that social life is carried out in institutions concerned with efficiency; and insofar as power, control, and accountability are inextricable features of social systems, network representations will be limited, and topographic representations will not vanish. Organizational representations tend to oscillate between conceiving organizations as objects vs. sets of relations. Neither of these images alone is sufficient to capture organizational functioning.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Journal or Publication Title:	SYSTEMS PRACTICE
Publisher:	PLENUM PUBL CORP
ISSN:	0894-9859
Date:	August 1992
Volume:	5
Number:	4
Number of Pages:	16
Page Range:	pp. 441-456
Publication Status:	Published
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/21835

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