Understanding the Basic Dynamics of Organizing

Organisation theory is a theoretical field of study distinct from more practical fields such as general management, organisational behaviour and human resource management. It is a basic science studying the ways human actors organise themselves into groups with various degrees of complexity. Organisation theory is not the study of organisations. Groups of actors referred to as 'organisations' in everyday parlance only constitute one part of the groups introduced in this text. Organisation theory is, therefore, a necessary tool not only for students of business administration, but also for those of a wide range of other academic fields, including sociology, cultural anthropology, public administration, education and philosophy.Peter Peverelli is associate professor at the Faculty of Economics & Business Administration at VU University Amsterdam. He studied Chinese Language & Culture at Leiden University. He received a PhD in Arts at Leiden University and a PhD in Business Administration at Erasmus University Rotterdam. He has spent most of his occupational life as a consultant, specializing in cooperations between Western and Chinese enterprises, and has been combining this with academic work since 2001. His leading publication is Chinese Corporate Identity (Routledge 2006).Karen Verduyn originally studied Business Administration at the Rotterdam School of Management. After having spent several years in the corporate world, she returned to academia to write her PhD thesis (Tales of Entrepreneurship, 2007). She remained with VU University and set up a master’s degree in Entrepreneurship. She is interested in understanding the complexities of entrepreneurial everyday life and her courses and publications revolve around this subject.