The Ontological and Epistemological turn in Organization Studies

TORRES, JUAN EMILIO Y MORENOLOPEZ, ALEJANDRA

International Journal of Decision Making

Inderscience Publishers

Lugar: Genova; Año: 2019

1462-4621

change in the way of thinking about organizations has given rise to a plethora of theoretical debates seeking to explore the duality in the understanding of organizations as entities or as the continuous flux of organizational life, and has produced changes in the dominant ontological and epistemological assumptions of organization studies. To shed a light on this field of studies, this narrative literature review examines these changes, from the acceptance of an organization as an entity to that of a flexible, constantly changing organization, and from simplifying to complexifying theories. Finally, it aims to contribute to enriching the theoretical development by recognizing the importance of the underlying complexity in human action and of the situational and the unique that emerge within organizational phenomena.Key wordsOrganization Studies ? Ontological turn ? Epistemological turn ? Complexity- Literature review