Seeing Through Organization

Abstract

This article reframes the relationship between people and organization to reveal the constitutive quality of social relations. Although agreeing with Karl Weick that organization emerges in interaction, the author theoretically integrates the work of Mary Parker Follett and Bowenian family systems theorists to go beyond Weick's focus on behaviors, examining instead the interpersonal dynamics thatfuel behavior According to this theoretical orientation, people exist in relationship to one another and are made different by their interdependence. The quality of their interaction thus determines the consciousness they bring to the organizing process, and with it, the nature of organization itself