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The Bloodless Coup: The Infiltration of Organization Science by Uncertainty and Values

Walter R. Nord

University of South Florida

Recently, the organization sciences have been subjected to severe disputes about fundamental premises. To a degree, these battles appear to have involved disagreements about ontology and epistemology. This article analyzes two of these conflicts, the so-called Paradigm War in Britain and a related set of controversies in North America, using an agnostic interest-oriented framework. The analysis revealed a new perspective on the debates and the current direction of the field. Among other things, this new perspective suggested that previous interpretations of the debates have overstated the role of ontological and epistemological causes and understated the role of differences in interests. Moreover, recent development can be seen as accepting high degrees of metaphysical uncertainty and recognizing that interests or values have been and continue to be major factors in shaping what constitutes knowledge in the field.

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 32, No. 4, 407-427 (1996)
DOI: 10.1177/0021886396324005


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