A CRITICAL REVIEW OF JEFFREY PFEFFER’S THESIS ON PERSPECTIVES ON ACTION, LEVELS OF ANALYSIS AND THEORIES OF ORGANISATION
ASAWO, Soye Peniel
Management Department, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University,
Port Harcourt
and
LEBURA, Sorbarikor
Management Department, Faculty of Management Sciences, Rivers State University,
Port Harcourt
ABSTRACT
Two of the important issues that dominate contemporary organisation theory discourse have to do with how the organisation is conceived and how theorists view the issues associated with theory and its generation in organisational studies. In this paper we review and albeit critique the two major perspectives in organisational theorizing viz. perspectives on action and levels/units of analysis, including an examination of the assumptions about methodology which lie behind the researcher’s conception of valid theory. The paper examines the place of the theoretic and contextual issues in organisational studies. Our analysis of these issues leads to the conclusion that the extent to which these two approaches (perspectives of action and levels/units of analysis) are appropriately and complementarily applied will account for the richness in organisation research outcomes.
Keywords: Perspective on Action, Level of Analysis, Theory, Behaviour