The DOI matches its Crossref record; 7 of the 7 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Perspective—Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor
Abstract
Organization theory is a theory without a protagonist. Organizations are typically portrayed in organizational scholarship as aggregations of individuals, as instantiations of the environment, as nodes in a social network, as members of a population, or as a bundle of organizing processes. This paper hopes to highlight the need for understanding, explicating, and researching the enduring, noun-like qualities of the organization. We situate the organization in a broader social landscape by examining what is unique about the organization as a social actor. We propose two assumptions that underlie our conceptualization of organizations as social actors: external attribution and intentionality. We then highlight important questions and implications forming the core of a distinctively organizational analytical perspective.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage
Barney, J. (1991) · Journal of Management · doi:10.1177/014920639101700108 · Cited by 48,334
Social Structure and Organizations
Stinchcombe, A. L. (2004) · Advances in Strategic Management · doi:10.1016/s0742-3322(00)17019-6 · Cited by 4,347
Differentiation and Integration in Complex Organizations
Lawrence, P. R., & Lorsch, J. W. (1967) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2391211 · Cited by 3,937
Explaining Development and Change in Organizations
van de Ven, A. H., & Poole, M. S. (1995) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1995.9508080329 · Cited by 3,762
Path dependence in historical sociology
Mahoney, J. (2000) · Theory and Society · doi:10.1023/a:1007113830879 · Cited by 3,469
Levels issues in theory development, data collection and analysis
Klein, K. J., Dansereau, F., & Hall, R. J. (1994) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258703 · Cited by 1,607
A Behavioral Theory of the Firm—40 Years and Counting: Introduction and Impact
Argote, L., & Greve, H. R. (2007) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.1070.0280 · Cited by 606
Cited by
Institutional Complexity and Organizational Responses
Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R., & Lounsbury, M. (2011) · Academy of Management Annals · doi:10.5465/19416520.2011.590299 · Cited by 3,519
The Microfoundations Movement in Strategy and Organization Theory
Felin, T., Foss, N. J., & Ployhart, R. E. (2015) · Academy of Management Annals · doi:10.5465/19416520.2015.1007651 · Cited by 1,253
Self-citationKeeping up Appearances: Reputational Threat and Impression Management after Social Movement Boycotts
McDonnell, M.-H., & King, B. (2013) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0001839213500032 · Cited by 618
Self-citationStrategic Silence: Withholding Certification Status as a Hypocrisy Avoidance Tactic
Carlos, W. C., & Lewis, B. W. (2018) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.1177/0001839217695089 · Cited by 393
Building a family firm image: How family firms capitalize on their family ties
Zellweger, T. M., Kellermanns, F. W., Eddleston, K. A., & Memili, E. (2012) · Journal of Family Business Strategy · doi:10.1016/j.jfbs.2012.10.001 · Cited by 288
Metadata
- Authors
- King, B. G., Felin, T., & Whetten, D. A.
- Venue
- Organization Science
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 290-305
- ISSN
- 1047-7039 (ISSN-L)
- 1526-5455
- OpenAlex
- W2157421159
- Cited by
- 428
- References
- 7
- FWCI
- 34.18
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Perspective—Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1287/orsc.1090.0443
- The paper
- King, B. G., Felin, T., & Whetten, D. A. (2010). Perspective—Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor. Organization Science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0443
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.