This Research Topic explores how continuity and disruption is problematized, analyzed, and theorized in times of digitalization considering the historicity of interdisciplinary organizational research. The history of organization theory lines up chapter after chapter, using different terms and models to increase theoretical resolution and provide new clarifications to organize, lead, and manage perpetual change. A variety of management concepts claim to be able to design organizational structures and do so better than in the past. The understanding of leadership also changes over time, and with it the understanding of how influence on others and the relationships associated with it are realized. This refers to leadership in for-profit such as non-profit organizations or educational leadership. Briefly, the history of organization, management and leadership follows a line of continuity in that it changes incessantly. This Research Topic addresses the question of how this normality of organizing change can be understood considering current societal challenges. Different types of organizations can be of research interest in order to answer this question. We are especially, but not exclusively interested in organizational and managerial takes on Digitalization.
Digitalization and the spread of artificial intelligence provide new technical possibilities with a widespread impact on organizing and organizations (Kette/Tacke 2021). The fact that algorithms increasingly define scopes of action and decision-making (Wendt 2021) highlights the significance of formal organization (du Gay 2020) once again. Digital structures and the use of artificial intelligence point to the fact that the perceptual capacity of human subjects as well as their creative abilities are increasingly substitutable by technology (Manhart/Wendt 2021). Maybe to the point where the human monopoly on creativity and learning is threatened (Truschkat/Bormann 2023). At the same time, the implementation of digital technology leads to new ways of interaction among employees in organizations (Bormann/Truschkat 2022). Digitalization in organizations therefore generates both an empirical need for research into the emergence of cultures of digitality (Stalder 2016) and a theoretical need for clarification regarding the validity of established terms and concepts to map these changes analytically.
Not only the digital transformation of and in organizations raises questions about the validity of existing approaches to organizational theory and issues of practical form. Thus, "fluid," "virtual," "temporary," and "unconventional" forms of organization (Besio/Tacke 2023) challenge interdisciplinary organizational research to revisit the validity and scope of its terms, methods, and concepts. The fact that new organizational forms are accompanied by changed modes of governance evokes further questions, for example, which logic of diffusion is dominant in new concepts of management and leadership (Bromley/Meyer 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic showed that organizational transformations are more autologous than they are consequences of specific economic policies or programmatics. Examples of this include forms of home office or implementation of digital infrastructure. Adaptations are far more quickly realized on the employee side than on the organizational structure side (Plotnikof et al. 2020). The individual demand for democratization and participation in organizations is made urgent again by such processes of distributing responsibility (Battilana et al. 2022). But participation in turn depends on regulatory procedures and thus on formal organization to enforce individual participation claims in a binding form (Wendt/Manhart 2022).
This tension between general requirements and individual demands in the context of digitalization is also central for other social and organizational demands on structural changes on organizing and organizations. Sustainability, for instance, refers on a democratic and sustainable future which does not necessarily coincide with the inherent logic of organizational structures whose path dependencies (Arthur 1994; Schreyögg/Sydow 2010) perpetuate the past as future. For the transformation of society towards more sustainability, it plays a central role that attribution of organizational responsibility can also lead to organizations avoiding this responsibility (Brunsson et al. 2022). The organizational double challenge of digitalization and sustainability also indicates that their relationship is not free of contradictions (Lenz/Henkel 2023). Organizations can be digital but not sustainable just as sustainable but not digital. The function, role, and logic of organizations regarding the challenges of sustainability transformation point to a need for theoretical and empirical research and thus to the question of the inertia and tempo of change demands.
The Research Topic aims to gather contributions that theoretically and empirically explore current transformation processes of and in organizations in times of Digitalization. Thereby the intersection of Digitalization and other transformation challenges of organizations, such as Sustainability, Gender Equality or Diversity, can also enrich the debate theoretically and empirically. We especially call for contributions that critically examine the relationship between continuity and disruption in times of Digitalization and the related question of the historicity of interdisciplinary organizational research. Contributions from organizational education or organizational sociology are as welcome as from related disciplines.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Theory and empirics of digital organization;
- Dissemination and applications of artificial intelligence in organizations;
- Subject and identity development in the context of organizational transformation in times of digitalization;
- Theory and empirics of new forms of organization in times of digitalization;
- Relationship between digitalization and other transformation challenges in organizations.
References
Arthur, W. B. (1994). Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Michigan.
Battilana, J., Yen, J., Ferreras, I., & Ramarajan, L. (2022). Democratizing Work: Redistributing power in organizations for a democratic and sustainable future. Organization Theory, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221084714
Besio, C., & Tacke, V. (2023). Old and New Organizational Forms in a Complex Society: A Systems-Theoretical Perspective. Critical Sociology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205231189472
Bormann, I., Truschkat, I. (2022). Soziale Innovationen und Vertrauen am Beispiel von Digitalisierung im Bildungsbereich. In: Schüll, E., Berner, H., Kolbinger, M.L., Pausch, M. (eds) Soziale Innovation im Kontext. Zukunft und Forschung. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37221-7_4
Bromley, P., & Meyer, J. W. (2021). Hyper-Management: Neoliberal Expansions of Purpose and Leadership. Organization Theory, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211020327
Brunsson, N., Gustafsson Nordin, I., & Tamm Hallström, K. (2022). ‘Un-responsible’ Organization: How More Organization Produces Less Responsibility. Organization Theory, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221131582
du Gay, P. (2020). Disappearing ‘formal organization’: How organization studies dissolved its ‘core object’, and what follows from this. Current Sociology, 68(4), 459–479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120907644
Kette, S., Tacke (2021). «Editorial: Die Organisation im Zoo der Digitalisierungsforschung». Soziale Systeme. In: Zeitschrift für soziologische Theorie, 26 (1/2): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1515/sosys-2021-0001
Lenz, S., Henkel, A. (2023). Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit. In: Sonnberger, M., Bleicher, A., Groß, M. (eds) Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37222-4_11-1
Manhart, S., Wendt, T. (2021). Soziale Systeme? Systemtheorie digitaler Organisation. In: Soziale Systeme. Zeitschrift für soziologische Theorie, 26 (1/2), 21-53.
Plotnikof, M., Bramming, P., Branicki, L., Højgaard Christiansen, L. J., Henley, K., Kivinen, N., Resende de Lima, J. P., Kostera, M., Mandalaki, E., O'Shea, S., Ozkazanc-Pan, B., Pullen, A., Stewart, J., Ybema, S., & van Amsterdam, N. (2020). Catching a glimpse: Corona-life and its micro-politics in academia. Gender, Work and Organization, 27(5), 804-826. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12481
Schreyögg, G., Sydow, J. (2010). The hidden dynamics of path dependence. Institutions and organizations. Basingstoke [u.a.] : Palgrave Macmillan.
Stalder, F. (2016). Kultur der Digitalität. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Truschkat, I., Bormann, I. (2023). Mensch-Technik-Beziehung. Sozial-emotionale Robotik als relationaler Erfahrungsraum. In: Digitale Erfahrungswelten im Diskurs: Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Erfahrung und Digitalität. Hagen: Hagen University Press, S. 163–186. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:708-dh13122
Wendt, T. (2021). Organized Futures. On the Ambiguity of the Digital Absorption of Uncertainty. In: Frontiers in Education 6:554336. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.554336
Wendt, T., Manhart, S. (2022). Organization and Participation. Aspects of a Dialectical Relationship. In: Spannring, R., Smidt, W., Unterrainer, C. (Eds.): Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy? Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles. Cham: Springer Nature, S. 233-252.
This Research Topic explores how continuity and disruption is problematized, analyzed, and theorized in times of digitalization considering the historicity of interdisciplinary organizational research. The history of organization theory lines up chapter after chapter, using different terms and models to increase theoretical resolution and provide new clarifications to organize, lead, and manage perpetual change. A variety of management concepts claim to be able to design organizational structures and do so better than in the past. The understanding of leadership also changes over time, and with it the understanding of how influence on others and the relationships associated with it are realized. This refers to leadership in for-profit such as non-profit organizations or educational leadership. Briefly, the history of organization, management and leadership follows a line of continuity in that it changes incessantly. This Research Topic addresses the question of how this normality of organizing change can be understood considering current societal challenges. Different types of organizations can be of research interest in order to answer this question. We are especially, but not exclusively interested in organizational and managerial takes on Digitalization.
Digitalization and the spread of artificial intelligence provide new technical possibilities with a widespread impact on organizing and organizations (Kette/Tacke 2021). The fact that algorithms increasingly define scopes of action and decision-making (Wendt 2021) highlights the significance of formal organization (du Gay 2020) once again. Digital structures and the use of artificial intelligence point to the fact that the perceptual capacity of human subjects as well as their creative abilities are increasingly substitutable by technology (Manhart/Wendt 2021). Maybe to the point where the human monopoly on creativity and learning is threatened (Truschkat/Bormann 2023). At the same time, the implementation of digital technology leads to new ways of interaction among employees in organizations (Bormann/Truschkat 2022). Digitalization in organizations therefore generates both an empirical need for research into the emergence of cultures of digitality (Stalder 2016) and a theoretical need for clarification regarding the validity of established terms and concepts to map these changes analytically.
Not only the digital transformation of and in organizations raises questions about the validity of existing approaches to organizational theory and issues of practical form. Thus, "fluid," "virtual," "temporary," and "unconventional" forms of organization (Besio/Tacke 2023) challenge interdisciplinary organizational research to revisit the validity and scope of its terms, methods, and concepts. The fact that new organizational forms are accompanied by changed modes of governance evokes further questions, for example, which logic of diffusion is dominant in new concepts of management and leadership (Bromley/Meyer 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic showed that organizational transformations are more autologous than they are consequences of specific economic policies or programmatics. Examples of this include forms of home office or implementation of digital infrastructure. Adaptations are far more quickly realized on the employee side than on the organizational structure side (Plotnikof et al. 2020). The individual demand for democratization and participation in organizations is made urgent again by such processes of distributing responsibility (Battilana et al. 2022). But participation in turn depends on regulatory procedures and thus on formal organization to enforce individual participation claims in a binding form (Wendt/Manhart 2022).
This tension between general requirements and individual demands in the context of digitalization is also central for other social and organizational demands on structural changes on organizing and organizations. Sustainability, for instance, refers on a democratic and sustainable future which does not necessarily coincide with the inherent logic of organizational structures whose path dependencies (Arthur 1994; Schreyögg/Sydow 2010) perpetuate the past as future. For the transformation of society towards more sustainability, it plays a central role that attribution of organizational responsibility can also lead to organizations avoiding this responsibility (Brunsson et al. 2022). The organizational double challenge of digitalization and sustainability also indicates that their relationship is not free of contradictions (Lenz/Henkel 2023). Organizations can be digital but not sustainable just as sustainable but not digital. The function, role, and logic of organizations regarding the challenges of sustainability transformation point to a need for theoretical and empirical research and thus to the question of the inertia and tempo of change demands.
The Research Topic aims to gather contributions that theoretically and empirically explore current transformation processes of and in organizations in times of Digitalization. Thereby the intersection of Digitalization and other transformation challenges of organizations, such as Sustainability, Gender Equality or Diversity, can also enrich the debate theoretically and empirically. We especially call for contributions that critically examine the relationship between continuity and disruption in times of Digitalization and the related question of the historicity of interdisciplinary organizational research. Contributions from organizational education or organizational sociology are as welcome as from related disciplines.
Possible topics might include, but are not limited to:
- Theory and empirics of digital organization;
- Dissemination and applications of artificial intelligence in organizations;
- Subject and identity development in the context of organizational transformation in times of digitalization;
- Theory and empirics of new forms of organization in times of digitalization;
- Relationship between digitalization and other transformation challenges in organizations.
References
Arthur, W. B. (1994). Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Michigan.
Battilana, J., Yen, J., Ferreras, I., & Ramarajan, L. (2022). Democratizing Work: Redistributing power in organizations for a democratic and sustainable future. Organization Theory, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221084714
Besio, C., & Tacke, V. (2023). Old and New Organizational Forms in a Complex Society: A Systems-Theoretical Perspective. Critical Sociology, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205231189472
Bormann, I., Truschkat, I. (2022). Soziale Innovationen und Vertrauen am Beispiel von Digitalisierung im Bildungsbereich. In: Schüll, E., Berner, H., Kolbinger, M.L., Pausch, M. (eds) Soziale Innovation im Kontext. Zukunft und Forschung. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37221-7_4
Bromley, P., & Meyer, J. W. (2021). Hyper-Management: Neoliberal Expansions of Purpose and Leadership. Organization Theory, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211020327
Brunsson, N., Gustafsson Nordin, I., & Tamm Hallström, K. (2022). ‘Un-responsible’ Organization: How More Organization Produces Less Responsibility. Organization Theory, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877221131582
du Gay, P. (2020). Disappearing ‘formal organization’: How organization studies dissolved its ‘core object’, and what follows from this. Current Sociology, 68(4), 459–479. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392120907644
Kette, S., Tacke (2021). «Editorial: Die Organisation im Zoo der Digitalisierungsforschung». Soziale Systeme. In: Zeitschrift für soziologische Theorie, 26 (1/2): 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1515/sosys-2021-0001
Lenz, S., Henkel, A. (2023). Digitalisierung und Nachhaltigkeit. In: Sonnberger, M., Bleicher, A., Groß, M. (eds) Handbuch Umweltsoziologie. Springer VS, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-37222-4_11-1
Manhart, S., Wendt, T. (2021). Soziale Systeme? Systemtheorie digitaler Organisation. In: Soziale Systeme. Zeitschrift für soziologische Theorie, 26 (1/2), 21-53.
Plotnikof, M., Bramming, P., Branicki, L., Højgaard Christiansen, L. J., Henley, K., Kivinen, N., Resende de Lima, J. P., Kostera, M., Mandalaki, E., O'Shea, S., Ozkazanc-Pan, B., Pullen, A., Stewart, J., Ybema, S., & van Amsterdam, N. (2020). Catching a glimpse: Corona-life and its micro-politics in academia. Gender, Work and Organization, 27(5), 804-826. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12481
Schreyögg, G., Sydow, J. (2010). The hidden dynamics of path dependence. Institutions and organizations. Basingstoke [u.a.] : Palgrave Macmillan.
Stalder, F. (2016). Kultur der Digitalität. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Truschkat, I., Bormann, I. (2023). Mensch-Technik-Beziehung. Sozial-emotionale Robotik als relationaler Erfahrungsraum. In: Digitale Erfahrungswelten im Diskurs: Interdisziplinäre Beiträge zum Verhältnis von Erfahrung und Digitalität. Hagen: Hagen University Press, S. 163–186. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:708-dh13122
Wendt, T. (2021). Organized Futures. On the Ambiguity of the Digital Absorption of Uncertainty. In: Frontiers in Education 6:554336. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2021.554336
Wendt, T., Manhart, S. (2022). Organization and Participation. Aspects of a Dialectical Relationship. In: Spannring, R., Smidt, W., Unterrainer, C. (Eds.): Institutions and Organizations as Learning Environments for Participation and Democracy? Opportunities, Challenges, Obstacles. Cham: Springer Nature, S. 233-252.