Reconciliation of the Dichotomized Foundations in Organizational Studies : A Philosophical Insight

In organizational studies, economic and behavioral foundations, two fundamentally different perspectives, co-exist. Economic foundation is based upon the assumption of economicman, rationality, optimization, and certain environment. In contrast, behavioral foundation is based upon the assumption of organizational man, bounded rationality, satisfaction, and uncertain environment. Each foundation has relative strengths and weaknesses, therefore, relying solely on one approach fundamentally has limitations to fully capture the reality-in-business. Therefore, this paper suggests that scholars and practitioners need to consider the reconciliation of these two contrasting perspectives because the reconciliation would be helpful to address concern for “crisis of contemporary social science” –the separation of theory and society. In order to encourage this reconciliation, we provided several suggestions based on insights from Flyvbjerg, Delanty, and Bernstein. They include (a) getting close to business practice, (b) acknowledging the importance of cases and contexts, and (c) fostering dialogue between foundations. Since relying on “either-only” approach has limitation to fully capture the complex reality, we hope that this study encourages and promotes the social interaction in order to reach better intellectual standing of organizational studies.