Complexity paradigm and theory of organizations: an epistemological reflection

Abstract

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