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The Nature of Organizational Mechanisms

Kalle Pajunen University of Tampere, Finland, kalle.pajunen{at}gmail.com

One of the basic objectives in organization research is to examine how some organizational occurrence or outcome comes about or, even more fundamentally, to explain how things work. I argue that we can shed more light on these issues by examining the mechanisms driving the organizational processes. In this article I attempt to elucidate the nature of organizational mechanisms, thereby providing a coherent explanatory foundation for process research and processual research strategies. In order to illustrate the nature of mechanisms and explanations by mechanisms, a case study of the organizational decline and failure process of the Finnish conglomerate Tampella is reported.

Key Words: mechanisms • explanation • organizations • processes • organizational decline

Organization Studies, Vol. 29, No. 11, 1449-1468 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840607096384


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