De Gruyter Studies in Organizational and Management History
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Edited by:
Sonia Coman
De Gruyter Studies in Organizational and Management History is a new book series that aims to make significant and timely contributions to the fields of organizational and management history. This series was developed in response to a need for a dedicated platform to shape a more unified field across organizational and management history. This platform will stimulate cross-disciplinary dialogue and enable new directions of research and conceptualization to crystallize and come to fruition. The primary audience for this series is academic researchers and students in organizational and management history from a wide range of disciplines, including business, organizational studies, sociology, history, art history, gender studies, and political science.
The goal of this series is to feature new and promising studies in ways that encourage authors to reflect critically on their positioning within the field. We welcome studies that sit squarely in management history as well as studies that expand our understanding of organizational history and identity. We particularly encourage submissions that result from interdisciplinary collaborations and that utilize innovative methodological tools. We are committed to representing diverse voices, making available the important scholarship coming out of underrepresented academic centers, and being a home for the global community of scholars in organizational and management history.
We are seeking innovative and thought-provoking proposals for topics including but not limited to the following:
- New theory and applications in historical organizational studies
- Storytelling and legitimization in organizational history
- Institutional knowledge in management history
- Corporate collections and organizational identity
- Rhetorical history and forgetting
Editorial Contact
If you are interested in submitting a proposal or have any questions, please contact the Series Co-Editors:
Dr. Sonia Coman, Director of Digital Engagement, Washington National Cathedral, Washington, DC, USA; Consultant and Contributor, Smarthistory; Visual Content Strategy Consultant, The World Innovation Network
Prof. Andrea Casey, George Washington University, Washington DC, USA
Reviews
"Coman and Casey’s book is exciting because it rigorously blends organisation studies with historical scholarship. The book series promises to build the field of organisational history. The De Gruyter Studies in Organisation and Management History series is a space to watch."
Gabrielle Durepos, Business History, May 2023, https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2023.2207932
Supplementary Materials
Topics
This book provides a valuable review of the disciplines of organizational and management history, illuminating the interconnectedness of these disciplines, identifying gaps in the literature, and sketching a model for a unified field of research and study.
This co-authored study is a long-awaited theoretical re-evaluation of organizational and management history. The authors explore the disciplinary advantages of a joint approach to these related fields, noting opportunities for future scholarship, from the wider range of industries and case types to the richer theoretical toolbox. Within this framework, the book investigates interdisciplinary methodologies and surveys and analyzes the most promising of the newest theoretical lenses and empirical approaches in the field. The authors address complex issues from a metacritical perspective, from the emergent theorization of time in the context of organizational identity to the conundrum of case selection for empirical studies. Clear and thorough, the volume creates a compelling theoretical framework for future studies. New Directions in Organizational and Management History inaugurates, and sets the stage for, the new series De Gruyter Studies in Organizational and Management History.
The book provides insights on managing legacy and change in organizations from some of the pioneering researchers in the field. It explores how past legacies both enable and restrict opportunities for organizational renewal, social change, and new forms of organizing. On the one hand, tangible and intangible legacies can be a source of authentication, legitimation, and strategy restoration; on the other hand, past legacies can restrict our imagination by enforcing path dependency.
Managing legacy is a vital process for both old and new organizations. Older organizations often find that their legacy is at odds with present realities or future directions. In contrast, newly formed organizations often feel they have a deficit in legacy compared with long-established organizations and seek to boost credibility by engaging in activities that can be retrospectively claimed as their legacy. In either case, when aspects of an organization’s raison d’être change, the organizational identity is threatened, and legacy can become an obstacle or an opportunity.
By bringing together varied perspectives on legacy, including heritage, collective memory, rhetorical history, storytelling, and imprinting theory, this volume contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay of legacies and imagined futures as it pertains to organizational identity and change.
