Organization Theory

Organization studies is a scholarly field that emerged around the study of, and thinking about, organizational decision-making and behaviour. Although the study of organizations had roots in different disciplines, the field itself took off in the 1950s and 1960s with foundational works such as March and Simon (1958) and Cyert and March (1963). Since its beginning, the field has come a long way and has evolved into a ‘semi-discipline’ of its own (in the words of March, one of the founders), with subfields such as organizational learning, ecology, risk taking, search, design and adaptation. It also has been a key foundation for the creation of the field of strategic management (cf. Rumelt et al., Strategic Management Journal 12: 5–29, 1991), as well as other developments.