Conclusion: Organizational Futures, Organizational Dilemmas

Abstract

In this final chapter I consider a number of central dilemmas in organizational futures which have arisen from the analysis presented so far. Essential to this is the theory of structuration which I presented at the start of the book and have used since. In particular, I wish to reiterate the importance of both a diachronic and a synchronic view of organizational life, but with a priority given to the diachronic. There is still a powerful tendency in the study of organizations to look at them as though one could take a snapshot of a particular moment. That snapshot then becomes the basis for analysing relationships between the parts that are pictured together: structure, culture, labour process, etc. are considered as a unity bound together, as it were, by the parameters of the snapshot. In this view the better the snapshot, the more sophisticated the camera, the more we can explain about the organization. The content of the explanation, however, is a construct of the method of explanation, and whilst it may provide a powerful story about the snapshot, it is a limited story.