Evolving Reactions: 60 Years with March and Simon's ‘Organizations’

• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Author: Karl E. Weick
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12289
• Date: 01 December 2019

Evolving Reactions: 60 Years with March and Simon’s

‘Organizations’

Karl E. Weick

University of Michigan

In their book titled ‘Organizations’. March and Simon (1958) aspired to ‘replace fancy

with fact in understanding the human mind and human behaviour in an organizational

setting’ (p. 210). The question of the continuing influence of that book 60 years later

becomes more interesting when we ponder two contrasting viewpoints. Thoenig (1998)

suggested that ‘Science as an institutionalized activity usually helps the past to survive

and hinders the potential for the future to become visible and legitimate’ (p. 311). Does

the recognition of a book that is 60 years old somehow hinder equivalent development

of understanding in the next 60 years? Probably not. This holds true if we follow Davis’s

(2010) suggestion that progress in organizational theory means ‘making comprehensible

the developmental pathways of organizations and organizing ex post... (In other words)

rendering the ecosystem comprehensible’. The goal is not so much precision in predic-

tions as it is ‘insights into particular processes at particular times’ (p. 707). M&S consoli-

dated insights and predictions that continue to help rather than hinder the ongoing

development of understanding. This becomes evident as we move from the book’s mod-

est early reception in the late 50s to the ways in which it ‘became’ more insightful as fan-

cies flourished and then folded over the last 60 years. M&S remained a durable set of

foundations.

My experience with ‘Organizations’ started when I first studied it as a Psychology

graduate student, 6 months after the book was published (February 1959). I restudied

the book in the context of its deserved recognition 60 years later (June 2017). I liked the

book more in 2017 than I did in 1959. I briefly describe both sets of reactions.

ZEITGEIST OF THE 1950s

The context in which ‘Organizations’ first appeared was one of diffuse social science

that was being consolidated and gaining momentum (e.g., Koch, 1959). For example,

Address for reprints: Karl E. Weick, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, 701 Tappan Street,

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1234, USA (karlw@umich.edu).

V

C2017 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies

doi: 10.1111/joms.12289

56:8 December 2019