Ontology in Organization and Management Studies: A Critical Realist Perspective
从批判实在论视角揭示后现代主义社会建构本体论的模糊与错误，提出批判实在论作为更有效的替代方案，并用劳动过程理论论证其不受常见后现代批评影响。
Organization studies has recently been captured by a cultural, linguistic, poststructural or postmodern turn, the impetus for which has come from the ontological turn from a (naive) realist ontology to a socially constructed ontology. Much of the current ontological discussion is, however, characterized by ambiguity, which makes it difficult to get to the bottom of ontological claims and, of course, to locate the source of any ontological errors. This paper uses a critical realist perspective to highlight the ambiguity and error encouraged by postmodernism’s commitment to a socially constructed ontology. Critical realism’s ontology is offered as a more fruitful alternative. Labour process theory, specifically agency and structure, is used to demonstrate (i) that critical realism is not damaged by many common postmodern criticisms of agency and structure, and (ii) that, once interpreted through the prism of critical realism, there is no need to abandon this powerful analytical device.