Organizational Social Relations and Social Embedding: A Pluralistic Review

Area of Science:

• Organizational Studies
• Sociology
• Management Science

Background:

• Extensive literature exists on social relationships in organizations, but lacks systematic organization.
• Multiple disciplines and theoretical lenses contribute diverse assumptions and priorities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically organize the literature on processes and mechanisms shaping social relationships in and around organizations.
• To identify dominant perspectives and their characteristics within this literature.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of 372 studies from the literature on organizational social relationships.
• Identification and categorization of assumptions, priorities, and relational issues.
• Thematic analysis to surface dominant theoretical perspectives.

Main Results:

• Three dominant perspectives were identified: economic, organizational, and interactionist.
• Each perspective exhibits distinct ontologies of social relations, actors, processes, and embedding.
• A wide spectrum of relational issues and causal patterns emerged across disciplines.

Conclusions:

• The identified perspectives offer a richer characterization of social relations in organizational contexts.
• Opportunities for further research exist within each perspective.
• Recognizing the pluralistic nature of social relations can inform targeted relational paradigms for different organizational contexts and problems.