Enabling and Constraining Properties of Organizational Boundaries

Tor Hernes

Chapter 2 in Managing Boundaries in Organizations: Multiple Perspectives, 2003, pp 35-54 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract In mainstream organization theory the idea of the organization as essentially a boundary maintaining system is widely entertained. The idea stems largely from Parsonian influence in sociology and has influenced many works in various branches of organization studies. Implicit in the idea lies another idea; that of organizations as essentially systems that function in an exchange relationship with the environment, but where the environment is the acting factor and the organization the responding one (Burrell and Morgan 1979, 64). On the whole, the picture is drawn of organizations as relatively passive entities that are shaped in terms of form and activities by expectations in the environment. In this exchange relationship the boundary essentially becomes a device of internal ordering and external protection. Students of organization have in this way provided a somewhat inward looking view of organizations, and the idea of the organizational boundary as an ordering entity of human actions and interactions is what directs our view inwards. The contrary view that organizations act outwards is a perspective rarely taken in social science (although taken frequently in economics). We know relatively little, for example, of the characteristics of organizations that make them more apt at influencing processes in the external environment.

Keywords: Organizational Actor; Conceptual Impetus; Physical Boundary; Boundary Characteristic; Surveillance Syndrome (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-51255-9_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9780230512559

DOI: 10.1057/9780230512559_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().