Identity thinking is the dominant mode of thinking in the management and social sciences. This paper contends that identity thinking is a mode of reasoning that contains certain inherent biases that inevitably lead to a partisan construal of the management research agenda. The prejudicial tendencies of identity thinking are prevalent in Chandler's and Williamson's theories of the origins and evolution of the modern corporation. We use the theories both to highlight the operation of identity thinking, and to introduce an alternative: Adorno's negative dialectics.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adorno, T. (1973). Negative dialectics. (B. Ashton, Trans.). New York: Seabury Press.
2.
Buck-Morss, S. (1977). The origin of negative dialectics: Theodor W Adorno, Walter Benjamin and the Frankfurt school. Hassocks, Sussex: Harvester.
3.
Chandler, A.D., Jr. (1962). Strategy and structure: Chapters in the history of the industrial enterprise. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
4.
Chandler, A.D., Jr. (1981). Historical determinants of managerial hierarchies: A response to Perrow. In A. Van de Ven & W Joyce (Eds.), Perspectives on organization design (pp. 391-402, 405-406). New York: Wiley.
5.
Chandler, A.D., Jr. (1982). Evolution of the large industrial corporation: An evolution of the transaction-cost approach. In J. Atack (Ed.), Business and economic history (pp. 116-134). Urbana Champaign, IL: Bureau of Economic and Business Research, College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois.
6.
Coase, R. (1960). The problem of social cost. Journal of Law and Economics, 1-44.
7.
Coase, R. (1937). The nature of the firm. Economica, 4, 386-340.
8.
Du Boff, R.B., & Herman, E.S. (1980). Alfred Chandler's new business history: A review. Politics and Society, 10, 87-110.
9.
Giddens, A. (1979). Central problems in social theory: Action, structure and contradictions in social analysis. Berkeley: University of California Press.
10.
Harcourt, G.C. (1969). Some Cambridge controversies in the theory of capital. Journal of Economic Literature, 7, 369-405.
11.
Harcourt, G.C., & Laing, WE (1971). Capital and growth. Harmonsworth, England: Penguin.
12.
Held, D. (1980). Introduction to critical theory: Horkheimer to Habermas. London: Heinemann.
13.
Lehman, C. & Tinker, T. (in press). The 'real' cultural significance of accounts. Accounting, Organizations and Society.
14.
Ouchi, WG. (1979). Review of 0. Williamson. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 540-544.
Perrow, C. (1981). Markets, Hierarchies and Hegemony. In A. Van de Ven & W Joyce (Eds.), Perspectives on organization design and behavior (pp. 371-386). New York: Wiley.
17.
Perrow, C. (1986). Economic Theories of Organization. Theory and Society, 15, 11-45.
18.
Rose, G. (1978). The melancholy science: An introduction to the thought of Theodor Adorno. New York: Columbia University Press.
19.
Sraffa, P. (1960). The production of commodities by means of commodities. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
20.
Tinker, A.M. (1980). Towards a Political Economy of Accounting: An Empirical Illustration of the Cambridge Controversies. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 5, 147-160.
21.
Tinker, A.M. (1984). Theories of the state and the state of accounting: economic reductionism and political voluntarism in accounting regulation theory, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, 3, 55-74.
22.
Tinker, A.M., Merino, B.D., & Neimark, M.D. (1982). The normative origins of positive theories. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 7, 167-200.
23.
Tinker, T. (in press). Panglossian Accounting Theories: The Science of Apologizing in Style. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12, 71-88.
24.
Tinker, T. & Neimark, M. (1987). The role of annual reports in gender and class contradictions at General Motors: 1917-1976. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 12, 71-88.
25.
Williamson, O.E. (1975). Markets and hierarchies: Analysis and antitrust implications. New York: The Free Press.
26.
Williamson, O.E. (1976). The economics of internal organization: Exit and voice in relation to markets and hierarchies. American Economics Review, 66, 369-377.
27.
Williamson, O.E. (1979). Transaction Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractual Relations. Journal of Law and Economics, 22, 233-261.
28.
Williamson, O.E. (1980). The Organization of Work: A Comparative Institutional Assessment. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 1, 5-38.
29.
Williamson, O.E. (1981). The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes. Journal of Economic Literature, 19, 1537-1568.
30.
Williamson, O.E. (1982). Microanalytic business history. In J. Atack (Ed.), Business and economic history (pp. 106-115). Urbana-Champaign, IL: Bureau of Economic Research, College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois.
31.
Williamson, O.E., & Ouchi, WG. (1981). The markets and hierarchies and visible hand perspective. In A. Van de Ven and W Joyce (Eds.), Perspectives on organization design and behavior (pp. 347-370, 387-390). New York: Wiley.
