TSElosophers meeting on 21 March 2025
Participants: Albrecht Becker, Samu Kantola, Kari Lukka, Ari Nieminen, Mia Salo, Milla Unkila
Reading
Suddaby, R. (2024) What theory is, what theory was: Whence and whither theory. Organization Theory, 5:4.
Suggested supplementary reading: Abend, G. (2008) The meaning of ‘theory’. Organization Theory, 26:2.
Summary
Suddaby (2024) is a response to and critique of both Abend (2008) and Abend (2023) simultaneously. He claims that Abend is against conceptual clarity, arguing for its importance in many ways. Suddaby also claims that Abend misuses pragmatism in the (alleged) dismissal by the latter of theory and theorizing. Further, Suddaby claims that Abend is ahistorical and has an outdated understanding of what ‘theory’ means in organization studies today. It is easy to buy Suddaby’s key arguments: We need conceptual clarity in research; pragmatism is not an atheoretical stream of thought; and epistemology has certainly become more accommodative since the days of ancient Greeks. However, it is surprisingly unclear how Suddaby so aggressively claims Abend’s thinking would be different in these regards. Finally, and very importantly, Suddaby (2024) completely bypasses even mentioning the key worry of Abend (2008): There are several meanings of ‘theory’ in organization studies, hampering scholarly communication. Hence, Abend argues, something should be done about it, i.e., we need conceptual clarity.
Discussion
This discussion of TSElosophers was generally deeply confused: Some members had read or at least glanced at one of the targets of Suddaby’s critique, the paper by Abend from 2008. Unfortunately, nobody had accessed the other target, Abend’s book from 2023. The group anticipated that as Suddaby was explicitly targeting both these texts of Abend as a bundle, it should be sufficient to be familiar with what Abend argued in 2008. This assumption was likely, at least partially, erroneous, as is explained below.
Considering just Suddaby (2024) and Abend (2008), there is good reason to be confused: Suddaby’s critique seems to be largely missing the target, not least as a reader could well conclude that he and Abend, for the most part, agree. Suddaby’s critique claiming that Abend is dismissing conceptual clarity seems completely unwarranted as the main worry of Abend (2008) is precisely the lack of conceptual clarity in organization studies! Also, Suddaby’s claims that Abend (2008) has misunderstood the view of pragmatism regarding theory or being generally ahistorical seem strange. TSElosophers generally wondered why Suddaby was so critical of Abend in the first place.
When this blog post was drafted, none of the TSElosophers had still got access to Abend’s book (2023). However, one TSElosopher, during our meeting, found the response text by Abend, published in 2024. Reading Abend (2024) made it clear that there must be quite a difference between Abend (2008) and Abend (2023). Abend (2024) likely stresses much more than Abend (2008) the extremely inclusive democratic process as a solution to the current conceptual ambiguity. TSElosophers generally shared Abend’s worry, but given the general confused sentiment at the meeting, we never got far in discussing the solution that Abend put forth. A notable cause of the confusion was that Suddaby (2024) bundled the two texts of Abend (2008) and (2023) as the target of his critique, while this choice likely does not hold water.
One learning point from this session is that TSElosophers should pay more attention to the scope of the debates chosen to be discussed at their meetings. This time, the scope was too narrow, which made the discussion situation complex and unhelpful. That said, in the words of one TSElosopher, the meeting was anyhow nice to have, given how seldom we have chances to lead such open discussions as are typical of the TSElosophers’ meetings.
Abend, G. (2023) Words and distinctions for the common good. Princeton University Press
Abend, G. (2024) Democratizing social scientists’ words and distinctions: Where and why moral reasons are decisive. Organization Theory, 5:4.