PFEFFER BARRIERS TO THE ADVANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL SCIENCE - A REJOINDER

Pfeffer's (1993) discussion of the causes and consequences of paradigm development led him to the conclusion that organizational scholars sh ould place control over publication into the hands of a comparatively small elite group who would force a consensus by excluding views that diverge from alpha dominant paradigm. In his view, this action would l ead to a number of positive benefits for organizational scholars and o rganizational studies in general. We argue from a different set of ass umptions than those of Pfeffer. In our view, knowledge is socially con structed, and, thus, scholars are unable to make unambiguous claims on some absolute truth. Given this assumption, the enforced consensus an d dominant paradigm called for by Pfeffer would lead to a stagnation i n knowledge evolution. Further, we argue that the concept of consensus and its role in the evolution of knowledge has been overstated. In co ntrast to Pfeffer, we conclude that a high degree of consensus, howeve r achieved, would suggest that the evolution of knowledge has been slo wed, not facilitated.