130: Structure of Scientific Revolutions -- Thomas Kuhn (Summary of Episode)

This month, we are presenting recordings of two events from the Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2025. The first event was Multimodal Impact: Translating Academic Knowledge via Contextual, Collaborative, and Collectivist Modes. This symposium brings together five presenters to explore diverse modes of translating academic expertise into practice. As management researchers increasingly strive to achieve societal impact, this event sought to understand how different communication modes can bridge the persistent research-practice divide.

In Part 2 of our episode on Kanter’s Commitment and Community, we examine in depth her conclusions about the distinction between “retreat” and “service” communities and why the former tends to fail while the latter shows greater chances of long-term success. However, we also debate on the meaning of “success” as being more nuanced that merely duration of the commune over time. We then discuss the implications for this study for the present day when Internet-based social movements of all forms and perspectives can be formed readily – but how and why do they last?

This month we return to the works of Rosabeth Moss Kanter, whose works on tokenism we explored way back in Episode 17. This time, we will discuss one of her better known books Commitment and Community: Commune and Utopias in Sociological Perspective that examines the origins and life cycle of numerous communes that sprang up in the US from the mid-19th century to the 1960s. Written based on her dissertation study at a time when hippie communes were popular, she wondered what drove people to start or join these communes and what factors enabled the communes’ survival. This week’s Part 1 is about her conceptual framework and study, and next week’s Part 2 will focus on the conclusions and implications for social movements today.

Coming soon! In our next episode, we will discuss Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s famous book Commitment and Community that examines the origins and life cycle of numerous communes that sprang up in the US from the mid-19th century to the 1960s. What drove people to start or join these communes? And then, what factors allowed some to survive for decades or longer while others broke up within months? The answers have added greatly to our understandings of individual commitment to an organization and an organization’s commitment to its members.

In Part 2 of the episode on Kuhn’s Structure of Scientific Revolutions, we bring the concepts to the present day. His essay uses examples mostly from the natural sciences, so we ponder over how well his concepts apply to the social sciences. Also, in Kuhn’s time, science was generally seen to be a good thing and scientific progress translated into benefits for society writ large. Sixty-plus years later, science and scientists are not necessarily as highly regarded. What might that mean for the future of science?

For our 10th anniversary episode, we selected a modern classic that greatly informs science and research across many disciplines, including organization studies. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book often assigned to rising graduate students as a primer for entering the sciences. A culmination of Kuhn’s earlier works on the philosophy and history of science, Scientific Revolutions challenges the notion that science progresses along a predictable or linear path and instead progresses through significant episodes of disruptive change. Filled with useful and accessible historical examples, Kuhn is a great resource for understanding how science and scientific communities function.

Coming soon! For our 10th anniversary episode, we selected a modern classic that greatly informs science and research across many disciplines, including organization studies. Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a book often assigned to rising graduate students as a primer for entering the sciences.

10 years ago today, on October 13th, 2015, four rising scholars – Dmitrijs, Pedro, Miranda, and Ralph – launched the Talking About Organization Podcast with an episode on Frederic Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management. In this special, current-day cast members reflect on what we have done and what we would like to continue doing in the program. To learn more about this program and its mission, please go to our website at www.talkingaboutorganizations.com

In Part 2 of the episode on the Private SNAFU video series, we recount the various trials and tribulations of developing training modules for organizational use. What kinds of media and approaches would be most effective and most efficient, given the increasing breadth and complexity of workplace rules and policies that need to be socialized among the workforce?

Private SNAFU was a series of black-and-white animated shorts of three to five minutes in length recounting various misadventures of the title character as he goes to war. The purpose of the training videos was to socialize and reinforce the importance of adherence existing US Army policies and procedures and helping to introduce soldiers to potential hazards and challenges that they would face in combat. Produced by Warner Bros. using a Looney Tunes animation style, the shorts used comedy to get the points across that failing to adhere to the rules would compromise the mission and likely get oneself killed or seriously injured. We examine these videos through an organizational socialization lens – how to impart the needed rules and regulations to a large number of homesick and nervous soldiers and make the messages stick?