Kevin T. Mahoney – författare

This volume of the Research in Organizational Sciences is entitled “Received Wisdom, Kernels of Truth, and Boundary Conditions in Organizational Studies”. Received wisdom is knowledge imparted to people by others and is based on authority and tenacity as sources of human knowledge. Authority refers to the acceptance of knowledge as truth because of the position and credibility of the knowledge source. Tenacity refers to the continued presentation of a particular bit of information by a source until this bit of information is accepted as true by receivers. The problem for organizational studies, however, is that this received wisdom often becomes unquestioned assumptions which guide interpretation of the world and decisions made about the world. Received wisdom, therefore, may lead to organizational practices which provide little or no benefit to the organization and, potentially, negative organizational effects, because this received wisdom is no longer valid. The 14 papers in this volume all, in some way, strive to question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior in some way. The chapters in this volume each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom has often led to confirmation bias in organizational science. The knowledge that some perceived truths are actually the products of received wisdom and do not stand up to close scrutiny shakes up things within research areas previously thought settled allowing new perspectives on organizational science to emerge.

This volume of the Research in Organizational Sciences is entitled “Received Wisdom, Kernels of Truth, and Boundary Conditions in Organizational Studies”. Received wisdom is knowledge imparted to people by others and is based on authority and tenacity as sources of human knowledge. Authority refers to the acceptance of knowledge as truth because of the position and credibility of the knowledge source. Tenacity refers to the continued presentation of a particular bit of information by a source until this bit of information is accepted as true by receivers. The problem for organizational studies, however, is that this received wisdom often becomes unquestioned assumptions which guide interpretation of the world and decisions made about the world. Received wisdom, therefore, may lead to organizational practices which provide little or no benefit to the organization and, potentially, negative organizational effects, because this received wisdom is no longer valid. The 14 papers in this volume all, in some way, strive to question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior in some way. The chapters in this volume each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom has often led to confirmation bias in organizational science. The knowledge that some perceived truths are actually the products of received wisdom and do not stand up to close scrutiny shakes up things within research areas previously thought settled allowing new perspectives on organizational science to emerge.

This Research in Organizational Sciences volume to explore and question the received wisdom of organizational sciences. The chapters in this volume (and the companion volume) seek to establish boundary conditions for important organizational constructs and processes. They illustrate the importance of context for interpreting the received wisdom of organizational science by showing when constructs must be adapted to changing circumstances.The volume begins with four chapters looking at the construct of leadership. Each of these addresses an important aspect of our understanding of leadership and its practice. The four chapters on leadership are followed by five chapters dealing with other organizational processes including motivation, organizational change, the role of diversity in organizations and organizational citizenship. The last three chapters deal with the issue of knowledge in large systems. Two chapters address how information may be transmitted across organizations and generations of workers. The final chapter deals with the use of information by organizational decision-makers.The 12 papers in this volume all, in some way question received wisdom and present alternatives which expand our understanding of organizational behavior. These chapters each strive to present new ways of understanding organizational constructs, and in so doing reveal how received wisdom does not always lead to best practice in research or application. It is our hope that these chapters illustrate how challenging received wisdom in organizational studies can provide new ways of thinking about organizational processes. These new ways of thinking in turn can provide better understanding of the processes necessary to increase organizational effectiveness.