Meta-Organizations: A Clarification and a Way Forward

Héloïse  Berkowitz; Nils  Brunsson; Michael  Grothe-Hammer; Mikaela  Sundberg; Bertrand  Valiorgue

doi:10.37725/mgmt.v25.8728

Héloïse Berkowitz CNRS, Lest, Aix Marseille University, Aix en Provence, France
Nils Brunsson Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; and Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Michael Grothe-Hammer Department of Sociology and Political Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Mikaela Sundberg Department of Sociology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; and Stockholm Centre for Organizational Research (Score), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Bertrand Valiorgue emlyon business school, Écully, France

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.v25.8728

Keywords: Meta-organization, Meta-organizing, Partial organization, Organization theory

Abstract

In this introduction, we reemphasize some key parts of meta-organization theory and their implications for understanding meta-organizations and meta-organizing processes. We clarify what meta-organizations are and what they are not and then analyze their key purposes and activities. We then present the papers of the special issue and discuss venues for future research. Although many key contributions have been made to meta-organization theory and research, there are many more things to investigate before we know as much about meta-organizations as we know about individual-based organizations.

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