For Positivist Organization Theory

Lex Donaldson is Professor of Organizational Design at the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales. His publications include American Anti-Management Theories of Organization: A Critique of Paradigm Proliferation (1995) and In Defence of Organization Theory: A Reply to the Critics (1985).

`Organizations need to develop learning strategies to survive and develop in increasingly uncertain and changing markets. In this book, researchers from both Europe and the United States explore theories of strategic management and organzational behaviour to establish a link between learning processes and competitive advantage, within a variety of organizational settings. The book is organized in three main parts: learning processes and competitive advantages; organizational learning and strategic capability; and strategic change and organizational learning. Charts and tables clarify the theories and an excellent bibliography completes the work′ - International Review of Administrative Sciences

• Positivist Organization TheoryFor DeterminismAgainst Strategic ChoiceFor DeterminismSubjective Factors in Strategic ChoiceFor FunctionalismAgainst Politics and `Parkinson′s Law′For FunctionalismThe Validity of Blau′s TheoryFor CartesianismAgainst Organization Types and Quantum JumpsFor Generalization in Positivist Organization TheoryFor Generalization of Organizational SizeConclusions