Origins of Organizing

Despite of the accumulating body of research on the birth of organizations and organizing, there have been astonishingly few contributions that challenge the established consensus of the social and philosophical programs marking the origin of organizational theory and praxis. This book explores the previously unrecognized or marginalized origins of organizing and organization theory by engaging with a variety of historical epochs and theoretical streams, ranging from the ancient civilizations to modern movements in philosophy and social sciences. The origins of organizing are conventionally seen as emerging from the historiographical works of Western social scientists in the early 20th century. Here, the authors’ shed new light on the aperture in current literature by exploring previously unrecognized or marginalized global origins in both modern and ancient history. This innovative collection of original research-based work covers a variety of historical epochs and theoretical streams from modern movements in philosophy and the social sciences to evaluate organization by 16th Century Jesuits and Quakers, the Roman Empire and ancient Chinese philosophy. The authors creatively and insightfully engage with the historiography and philosophy of organizing, presenting alternative suggestions to the dominant Western-focused development of organizational theory and practice. A complementary text for graduate students in the fields of organization theory, management history and critical management studies, Origins of Organizing is significant in expanding the field of organizational theory to incorporate key examples that move away from mainstream and traditional perspectives