Hayek and Organizational Studies

Friedrich von Hayek (1899–1992) is one of the most important intellectuals and social scientists of the twentieth century. His wide-ranging interests were organized around a few core insights, the most important of which is the role of evolved rules and institutions in coordinating dispersed and largely tacit knowledge. Hayek is less well known within organizational scholarship, perhaps because he had little interest in organizations per se. Hayek is usually seen within organizational scholarship as a narrow, technical economist. This chapter aims to change that perception by showing that there is much in Hayek’s work that is of interest to organizational scholarship. This is the case of Hayek’s emphasis on dispersed knowledge in social systems, his subjectivism, emphasis on evolved institutions, and his unique perspective on capital.