A CALL TO ORGANIZATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP - THE ORGANIZATION DIMENSIONS OFGLOBAL CHANGE - NO LIMITS TO COOPERATION

The organization dimensions of global change represent a fresh arena o f organizational scholarship demanded by the global exigencies of our moment in history, a moment where, for the first time, the scale and c haracter of human action has measurable impacts on the natural environ ment, as well as societal transformations and our collective conscious ness. This article lays an intellectual foundation for such work, firs t by receiving three extant domains of global-change research in envir onmental change, social change, and the transformation of consciousnes s, then by articulating the call for the organizational sciences to ex tend existing knowledge and future research streams into these vital a reas. The authors stipulate that the scope of global challenges will d emand untold amounts of human cooperation, inquiry into the potential of which has only begun, especially at the global and interrorganizati onal levels. They offer the proposition that there are no necessary li mits to cooperation but suggest that the realization of this potential may require opening our epistemic stance to more expansive forms of k nowing than Western science has traditionally embraced. The authors co nclude by advancing a preliminary set of thematic topics, questions, a nd normative assertions that suggest fruitful avenues of research into the organization dimensions of global change, which themselves are se eds for a special Academy of Management Conference on ''The Organizati on Dimensions of Global Change: No Limits to Cooperation'' to be held in May 1995.