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Welcome to the Institute of Organization Science!
 

Since 1973, organizational research has had a longstanding tradition at the JKU. Internationally oriented research and education continue to shape the institute to the present day.

 

As part of the field of social and behavioral sciences, the Institute of Organization Science is committed to research and education focusing on ‘the organization’. This means we not only understand organizational sciences as a key area in managerial responsibility, the organization itself is also a central institution within a modern society, significantly influencing the way people live and work, particularly in a work environment.

Our research and courses focus on three key issues in today's world:

Organizing for Creativity and Innovation sheds light on the potential opportunities, requirements and constraints involved when creating something new in - more or less - organized contexts.

Organizing for Digital Transformation and Platformization examines organizational requirements and the consequences resulting from economic and social upheavals triggered by digital technologies (mobile internet, AI and sensor robotics, etc.).

Organizing for Sustainabilty and Social Change addresses issues relating to long-term viability, the quality of life and equality in the face of global and geopolitical challenges.

Since its inception, the institute has successfully collaborated with leading international universities around the world, including universities in Germany, Denmark, Italy, Great Britain, the USA, and in Canada, thereby contributing consistently to the JKU's internationalization efforts in research and academic education.

We invite you to explore our homepage to not only learn more about our academic degree programs - particularly the LIO Master's degree program and the Global Business Master's degree programs - but also our research programs.

Institute for Organization Science

Address

Johannes Kepler University Linz
Altenberger Straße 69
4040 Linz

Location

House of Schools 1, 2nd Floor, Room 02.18

Secretary: Office Hours

Monday to Thursday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

News & Events

News 12.11.2024

David Marsden Best Paper Prize

We are excited to announce that Sara Maric, Elke Schüßler and Laura Thäter have been awarded the David Marsden Best Paper Prize for their recent work on digital platform labour titled “Neither employment, nor self-employment”. The award-winning paper, originally submitted with empirical findings from a research project conducted by Sara Maric and Elke Schüßler and funded by the Arbeiterkammer Wien, explores the functionality of platform-mediated work systems. The paper was recently published in the British Journal of Industrial Relation and is a theoretical exploration of digital platform work, building upon the empirical foundations laid in the earlier version.

Link: https://sase.org/news/david-marsden-network-g-best-paper-award/

News 12.11.2024

New Publication in the British Journal of Industrial Relations

We congratulate Sara Maric, Elke Schüßler and Laura Thäter on their recent publication in the British Journal of Industrial Relation titled “Neither Employment nor Self-Employment: Avenues Towards Functional Platform-Mediated Work Systems". Building on David Marsden’s theory of employment systems, this paper offers an employment relations perspective on platform labour. Together with Elke Schuessler and Laura Thäter, we synthesize and connect insights from existing research, going beyond the prevailing debates on worker classification. Instead, we propose an integrative framework for analyzing elements that influence platform work conditions, including transparency, control, and the potential for collective bargaining. Understanding these elements can support practitioners in trade unions and other labour organizations both, in providing the necessary assistance to platform workers, as well as shaping policy changes towards more fairness and protection for worker rights in a growing digital labour market.
 
It is available open access: https://lnkd.in/dGVDyctJ

News 25.07.2024

Process Organization Studies (PROS) 2024 in Cyprus

From June 24 to 27, 2024 the renowned Conference on Organizational Process Research took place in Cyprus, bringing together leading process-oriented scholars from around the world. The conference, known as the "Process Organization Studies" (PROS), is dedicated to exploring organizations through the lens of process metaphysics - a worldview that sees processes rather than substances as the fundamental forms of organizing.

This year, Benjamin Schiemer presented a remarkable contribution related to a paper recently published in the journal “Organization Science”. The paper sheds light on temporal structuring in the music studio and examines how certain materially induced waiting periods influence the creative process. Schiemer's work impressively demonstrates how phases of creative production are affected by the dynamics and interruptions in the studio and how waiting can act as a catalytic factor.

The PROS conference is known for its innovative approach and its focus on the process perspective, which is based on a relational ontology, a performative epistemology, and a dynamic praxeology. It places special emphasis on becoming, change, and flow, and examines various forms of agency. The process perspective prioritizes process over outcome, activity over product, change over stability, and openness over determination. This perspective challenges us to acknowledge the complexity of the world rather than oversimplifying it.

Participation at the PROS conference provided a unique opportunity for exchange and discussion of the latest research findings and methodologies in process research.

PROS 2024
News 16.07.2024

40th EGOS Colloquium 2024 in Milan

With two of its three research focuses — Organizing for Digital Transformation and Platformization, as well as Organizing for Creativity and Innovation — the Institute for Organization was represented at this year's EGOS Colloquium, the largest European conference for organizational research.

The EGOS Colloquium provided inspiring and constructively challenging discussions, enabling us to reflect on ongoing research, question viewpoints, and open up to new ideas. Moreover, excellence was not only the scientific guiding theme this year but also the maxim of the social program: the visit to the Pirelli HangarBicocca, a leading institution for contemporary art, and the privilege of the EGOS dinner overshadowed by Anselm Kiefer's The Seven Heavenly Palaces could not have been more impressive. We thank the substream conveners, conference organizers, and all discussion partners!

To our individual conference contributions:

Sara Maric spoke on “Remixing logics, shaking up society: Analyzing platformization from a cultural institutionalist perspective,” a research work conducted together with Elke Schüßler (Leuphana University, Lüneburg) and Leonhard Dobusch (University of Innsbruck), analyzing the current impacts of platformization from a cultural-institutionalist perspective.

Robert M. Bauer presented “Revisiting exchange: Digital platforms as infrastructures for reciprocal, non-reciprocal and unilateral exchange,” an approach developed jointly with Elke Schüßler (Leuphana University, Lüneburg), which enables the analysis of the integral interplay of different forms of exchange — more or less reciprocal, more or less consensual, and more or less discrete (i.e., distinguishable and attributable) — in the digital economy.

Benjamin Schiemer spoke about methodological insights from creativity research. “Qualitative Researcher-role-in-the-making: The Value of Enduring Liminality” — developed together with Sunny Mosangzi Xu — highlights the value of extended liminality (i.e., remaining in transitions) for qualitative empirical research.