Beyond Structures the Contribution of the Classics of Process Philosophy to Organization Studies

Abstract

The concerning about organizational structure is still present in Organization Studies (OS) because, over time, the most widely used approach to understand organizations has been through the notion of structure. And, for quite some time, organization and structure are studied as synonyms. In this essay, we propose to discuss with a historical analysis how understanding a new ontology and epistemology of the act of organizing from a processual approach can bring on new lenses to consider the subject and his action, seeking alternatives to move beyond the structures. We present and discuss the possibilities which come from the ideas of process philosophy in Henri Bergson, the rhizome of Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, the open field of Robert Cooper, and the sensemaking of Karl Weick. We believe that adopting a processual perspective in OS is a way of trying to comprehend man in action and not only represent his reality through a frame.