Essays on ‘disorganization’ in contemporary organizations.

Abstract

Twentieth century management thought consisted of assuming ‘order’ as a necessary condition for increasing employee productivity. However, from mid- century a number of studies started to indicate that assuming ‘order’ as a necessary condition for productivity is misguided. More recent studies have shown that ‘order’ may be largely detrimental to productivity. These findings have prompted researchers to look deeper into organizational ‘order’ and ‘disorder’. In this work the term disorder now has been replaced with the broader concept of ‘disorganization’. In its various incarnations (i.e. chaos, disorder, mess, entropy), disorganization has been explored in many biological, cultural, social, legal, physical, information and political systems. Disorganization is universally encountered within all organizations but has received relatively little attention from academics and practitioners in the management field. This is due to ambiguities in the concept, strongly held management beliefs (i.e. assuming order is good), and a general negative perception of disorganization. These issues have led to major shortcomings and confusion among academics in advancing research directed towards understanding disorganization. This research attempts to address these issues in depth and explores the usefulness of disorganization in contemporary organizations. The research herein is a systematic study of disorganization in order to achieve three specific objectives: a) Provide a theoretical clarification of disorganization and its benefits, b) Develop an understanding of the causes, characteristics, and effects of disorganization, c) Understand the implications of disorganization for academic research and management practice. In order to achieve these objectives novel techniques for theory building and experimental simulation design have been utilized. The research relies on agent-based simulations and conventional data analysis techniques. This work explores disorganization operating within organizations and how it affects its individuals and teams and falls under organizational behavior and presents three primary contributions in terms of theory, method and empirical evidence.