Organisation as Reflexive Structuration

Abstract Our "Beacons of Organizational Sociology" series makes available, through first-time translations, texts that have shaped debates in organizational sociology in non-English-speaking countries, or presents reflections on such debates by established scholars. The first text in this series is a shortened English translation of the German article “Organisation als reflexive Strukturation” by Günther Ortmann, Jörg Sydow, and Arnold Windeler, published in 1997 in the highly influential book “Theorien der Organisation. Die Rückkehr der Gesellschaft” [Theories of Organization. The Return of Society]. The article applies Giddens’ social theory to organizational research. In elaborating on “the principle of reflexive organization,” the text provides a social-theoretically informed concept of organization that is of continuing relevance for organization research today. The publication can be classified as one of the decisive writings by the authors contributing to establishing organizational research based on structuration theory in the German-speaking world, informing many studies, e.g., on new organizational forms, innovation, and inter-organizational relations. The concise overview of the various existing studies in organization research using a structuration perspective at that time in the original manuscript is not part of this translation.