Rethinking Historical Methods in Organization Studies: Organizational Source Criticism

Abstract

How do we know what we know about an organization’s history? What methodologies do historians use? I explain and adapt the historical method of source criticism for organizational scholars through the new technique of organizational source criticism. Source criticism is how historians do research in archives. The role of source criticism is to identify, analyse and use bias in historical sources to write reliable historical narratives. Organization source criticism emphasizes the plurality of organizational sources. I capture this plurality through the organizational source criticism matrix, which categorizes organizational archival sources into four types based on their category and modality. Category differentiates between narrative and documentary sources, and modality distinguishes reportative from performative sources. The matrix proposes four distinct forms of source criticism for each type of organizational source and exemplifies these through two academic articles from management and organizational history. The paper encourages researchers to adopt organizational source criticism to create robust organizational historical narratives. It also emphasizes the importance of context, triangulation and colligation in organizational historical research. Organizational source criticism is a new historical methodology adapted to researching sources in organizational archives that aims at establishing the veracity and meaning of organizational archival sources. It will benefit organizational scholars who intend to conduct historical organizational archival research.