BREAKING THE PARADIGM MENTALITY

This paper reflects critically upon the core argument of Burrell and M organ's highly influential Sociological Paradigms and Organizational A nalysis and evaluates responses to it. Although Burrell and Morgan wer e explicitly concerned to open up a wider field of vision to students of organization, their book simultaneously declared a new dogma: the m utual exclusivity of paradigms. The specific target of the paper is Bu rrell and Morgan's sharp division of 'subjectivist' and 'objectivist' forms of analysis. To challenge this dogma, attention is given to Kuhn 's understanding that there is continuity as well as incommensurabilit y in the process of theory development. In contrast to the 'pluralist strategy' favoured by Reed (1985) and the defence of paradigm incommen surability recently made by Jackson and Carter (1991), the paper follo ws Kuhn in commending a process of reflection committed to the identif ication and remedying of anomalies within existing theories. This argu ment is illustrated by examining the process of theoretical developmen t within one branch of organizational analysis: labour process theory, where anomalies within the orthodox formulation of the dynamics of so cial reproduction have been identified by Burawoy and others.