PARADIGMA DA COMPLEXIDADE E TEORIA DAS ORGANIZAÇÕES: UMA REFLEXÃO EPISTEMOLÓGICA

• Main Authors: Maurício Serva, Graziela Dias Alperstedt, Taisa Dias
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Fundação Getulio Vargas 2010-07-01
• Series: RAE: Revista de Administração de Empresas
• Subjects: Paradigm; complexity theory; organizational theory; epistemology; administration research
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0034-75902010000300004&lng=en&nrm=iso

This essay is the product of a reflection on the epistemology of complexity and its importance to the epistemology of businessadministration and organizational theory. It is proposed to assist in the understanding of its emergence, by indicating its potential contribution tothe advance of the epistemology of management and organizational theory. To do so, it first addresses the emergence of a specific epistemology ofadministration and the need to take a new look at it. Then, it summarizes epistemology and the complexity paradigm, and subsequently moveson to discuss the relationship and potential contributions of this knowledge to the advance of epistemological reflection in administration and inimproving organizational theories. Finally, it highlights some of the issues that arise from this reflection, by considering the possibility of adoptingthe epistemology of complexity for carrying out organizational studies from a critical perspective.