Continuity and Change in Theories of Organizational Action

Abstract

The research has been supported by the Spencer Foundation and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Address comments to the author at the Scandinavian Consortium for Organizational Research, 509 Ceras, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5015 (e-mail: march@leland.stanford.edu). Most theories of adaptation assume that effective learning requires a balance between exploration and exploitation but that such a balance is continually threatened by tendencies for both exploration and exploitation to be self-reinforcing. I tell a morality tale within such a frame about the past forty years in the study of organizations. The tale emphasizes the struggle of students of organizational action to maintain a rough balance between openness and discipline, thus proclaiming both the possibility of a balanced virtue and its rewards-a truly romantic story.'