Game theory (Nowak & Sigmund, 2004) has attempted to substantiate the superiority of cooperation based on the belief that cooperation leads to the highest social good, even if it is coerced (Hardin, 1968). However, the lack of substantiating evidence in support of the social worth of cooperation is reviewed in Lawless and Grayson (2004).
Published in Chapter:
Theory Driven Organizational Metrics
W.F. Lawless (Paine College, USA), Joseph Wood (Fort Gordon, USA), and Hui-Lien Tung (Paine College, USA)
Copyright: © 2008
|Pages: 7
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-59904-889-5.ch165
Abstract
The inability to establish first principles has kept organizational theory from being successful. Moreover, due to snapshots in time and researcher biases, case studies are limited to hindsight, rather than serving as a proactive source of solutions to organizational problems. Yet case studies guided by theory have illuminated and tested the first principles that we have discovered. Unlike simple Newtonian mechanics, however, socialpsychological mechanics among organizational members are hidden behind and within explanations and discourse, eluding a science of fundamental interactions. When an interaction stops for measurement (e.g., case studies), significant information from the collapse of organizational interdependence is lost. The path forward is to predict the uncertainty left from the collapse of interdependent variables: planning and execution; or resources and time. In this article, we develop a new organization theory; in a related article (“Restructering a Military Medical Department Research Center” in this encyclopedia), we apply the theory to a case study of a military medical research center (MDRC) with access to advanced information systems (IS), yet struggling to determine the quality of its residents in training, and their scholarly productivity.