PublicOrgTheory

Mark de Rond, Cambridge professor and Fulbright Scholar, is guest-blogging this summer at one of my favorite blogs.  Here’s an excerpt from an insightful, efficient post on learning from one-time organizational events:

One of the curiosities of the organization sciences is the prevalence of formal modelling in a world dominated by singular events. After all, aren’t many (most) significant events in organizational life of the ‘one of a kind’ variety? If so, these events are, by definition, resistant to statistical or econometric analysis. Yet we wish to learn from them. Learning about unique events, in turn, often begins with a why-question. Why was Google prepared to pay so much to acquire YouTube? Why did Pfizer fail to secure continued protection of the patent for its blockbuster drug Viagra when challenged in court? Why did Honda succeed so spectacularly in the US motorcycle market?

Explaining why an event occurred typically involves constructing an account of the causes that led to it. These accounts, very roughly, are instances of what we refer to as causal explanations. As the examples suggest, why-questions about unique events and the causal explanations they elicit may reflect important practical concerns – be it for managers or those who study organisations. Where so, there will be premium on getting these explanations right.

It’s a treat to live in a time when this kind of scholarship is freely available to anyone with wi-fi and curiosity.