Re-asserting paradigm plurality : pragmatism and co-production in management and organisation studies

Abstract

Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) paradigm model has made an enduring impact on management and organisation studies (MOS). Indeed, in a review of its influence and on-going relevance for MOS scholars, Hassard and Cox (2013) reply in the affirmative, extending ‘the Burrell and Morgan framework to account for a third-order paradigm based on post-structuralism and postmodernism’. In particular, Hassard and Cox (2013) acknowledge the ‘paradigm soup’ (Buchanan & Bryman, 2009, p. 4) that has been cooked up within organization theory, and seek to provide a classificatory framework for the contemporary multiplicity of competing paradigms within MOS. Hassard and Cox (2013) is a noteworthy contribution that continues to sustain academic debate about paradigms in general, and Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) seminal paradigm framework in particular.