Are organizations emergent?
A fairly ordinary idea is argued here: that organizations have properties that are *emergent* from the behaviors and intentions of the actors who constitute the organization, and that these emergent properties sometimes exercise independent causal influence over the workings of the institution over time and across personnel change. This provides examples of meso-meso and meso-micro causal influence.
Understanding Society · Are organizations emergent?Do organizations have properties that are in some recognizable way independent from the behaviors and intentions of the individuals who inhabit them? In A New Social Ontology of Government I emphas…