Theorizing with Microhistory

Andrew B. Hargadon, R. Daniel Wadhwani

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    Abstract

    Management and organization studies have long been interested in the social contexts and enduring consequences of individual and collective action. Yet empirically observing both the situated nature of actions and their ultimate consequences remains challenging. In this paper, we describe microhistory as a complementary approach to grounded and longitudinal studies that reconciles situated action in time with its broader consequences over time. Microhistorical research involves the reflexive use of dual temporal frames: a microtemporal frame suited for an empirically grounded study of individuals in time and a macrotemporal frame accounting for processes of continuity and change in social structures over time. We describe the epistemology, method, and form inherent in theorizing with microhistory and consider its potential for management researchers. Microhistory's approach, we recognize, is well-suited to several phenomena that remain elusive to contemporaneous and longitudinal studies. For example, exceptional normal actions, unintended consequences, non-linear and emergent processes, contingent process, and unobserved or inconceivable processes. Finally, we consider how microhistory's reflexive temporality offers management scholars opportunities to situate ourselves and our own theorizing in time and to account for their evolving consequences over time.
    OriginalsprogEngelsk
    TidsskriftAcademy of Management Review
    Vol/bind48
    Udgave nummer4
    Sider (fra-til)681-696
    Antal sider16
    ISSN0363-7425
    DOI
    StatusUdgivet - okt. 2023

    Bibliografisk note

    Published online: 14 June 2022.

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