Enacting the Logic of Possibility in Organizations and Management1

Abstract

Abstract Public management sits at the intersection of social science studies and management practice. Social science studies are largely based on a logic of probability. Management practice, however, requires both a logic of probability and a logic of possibility. As a way of increasing the relevance of social science research to management practice, we explore ways of developing scholarship based on a logic of possibility. We discuss three approaches that provide ways of theorizing possibility: process theorizing, pragmatism, and practice theory. We identify concepts within each approach that can be used to reorient scholarship to a logic of possibility. We review an area of study, the field of routine dynamics, where these three approaches have been formative as a way of illustrating what can be achieved through adopting a logic of possibility.

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