This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (5) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Schatzki, T. R. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

On Organizations as they Happen

University of Kentucky, USA

The essay examines what organizations are as they happen. It first argues that the happening of an organization has two basic components: the performance of its constituent actions and practices and the occurrence of events whereby its material arrangements causally support these activities. Equating the idea of something as it happens with that of something in real time, the essay then examines two kinds of real time in which organizations occur. The first is the unfoldings of the performances and events that are the happening of the organization. The second is the co-occurrences of the teleological past, present, and future in organizational actions. As it happens, however, an organization is more than what there is to it in real time. It also embraces the persisting structures of its practices and its enduring material arrangements, both of which, among other things, institute possible real times for the organization. The essay argues that the perpetuation of practice structure should be understood as organizational memory.

Key Words: organizations as events • organizations in real time • objective real time • activity real time • social memory • organization memory • persistence of organization structure

Organization Studies, Vol. 27, No. 12, 1863-1873 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840606071942


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. Ewenstein and J. Whyte Knowledge Practices in Design: The Role of Visual Representations as `Epistemic Objects' Organization Studies, January 1, 2009; 30(1): 07 - 30. [Abstract] [PDF]

				H. Tsoukas Thank You and Goodbye! Reflections of a Departing Editor-in-Chief Organization Studies, August 1, 2008; 29(8-9): 1085 - 1107. [PDF]