Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

The Multifunctional Organization: Two cases for a critical update for research programs in management and organization

Roth, Steffen

ESC Rennes School of Business

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Abstract

Organization and functional differentiation are considered key principles of modern societies. Yet, within organizational studies little research has been conducted on the interplay of function systems, organizations, and society. The few existing studies suppose trends to more functional polyphony. The cases presented in this article, however, support the idea that organizational multifunctionality is the standard case rather than a special case of organization. It is furthermore shown that organizations can change their function system preference and that the translation between function systems can be an organization’s main function. A Google Ngram view on functional differentiation finally furthers the idea that changes of function system preferences are not only a matter of individual organizations, but also a matter of entire societies.

Metadata

Journal Tamara: Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry 
Volume 12 
Issue 3 
Issue date 2014 
Type Article 
Language en
Pagination 37-54
ISSN 1532-5555