Quantum mechanics

Organizational theory

Social psychology

Event (particle physics)

Organizational behavior

Economics

Computer science

Business

Physics

Process management

Psychology

Management

Sociology

Knowledge management

Academy of Management Review

Organizations are dynamic, hierarchically structured entities. Such dynamism is reflected in the emergence of significant events at every organizational level. Despite this fact, there has been relatively little discussion about how events become meaningful and come to impact organizations across space and time. We address this gap by developing event system theory, which suggests that events become salient when they are novel, disruptive, and critical (reflecting an event’s strength). Importantly, events can originate at any hierarchical level and their effects can remain within that level or travel up or down throughout the organization, changing or creating new behaviors, features, and events. This impact can extend over time as events vary in duration and timing or as event strength evolves. Event system theory provides a needed shift in focus for organizational theory and research by developing specific propositions articulating the interplay among event strength and the spatial and temporal processe...

Event System Theory: An Event-Oriented Approach to the Organizational Sciences