From Nuts and Bolts to Toolkits: On Theorizing with Mechanisms

This essay examines a mechanisms-based approach to theory building in organization studies and identified conditions under which such an approach is likely to be fruitful. Mechanisms-based theorizing is a promising path to reviving organization theory but has the potential pitfalls of overly reductionist models of organizations and the complete abandonment of grand theorizing. These undesirable side-effects can be reduced when researchers act as playful pragmatists and treat mechanisms as toolkits for working on theoretical puzzles. The article describes some tactics for accomplishing this goal.