The Concept of Meta‐Organization: Issues for Management Studies
本文阐释了元组织这一概念的新颖性，指出其源于可持续发展、人权等全球议题带来的组织间集体行动，并探讨了研究元组织的方法论困难，为管理研究提出了未来议程。
In a seminal paper, Ahrne and Brunsson coined the word ‘meta‐organization’. More than a label, this word describes a challenging and stimulating concept that can be valuable for management studies when approached with different units of analysis and research methodologies. ‘Meta‐organization’ refers to a central phenomenon in the contemporary world, namely the increasing importance of collective action at the level of organizations, ensuing from major issues related to sustainable development, human rights and corporate responsibility. The concept calls for new forms of theorizing of global collective action. The diversity and heterogeneity of meta‐organizations raise methodological issues that require original approaches. In this paper, we show the novelty of the concept of meta‐organization; we then address the methodological difficulties and propose a research agenda on meta‐organizations for management studies.