Organizational Research

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the study of organizations as complex and dynamic social systems. We start our discussion of quantitative organizational research by outlining what organizations are and why we need to study them. We dive into doing research in organizations with specific focus on using theory to guide research methods and three critical organizational dimensions that should inform research design choices: units and levels of analysis, structures and hierarchies, and time and change. We then present and analyze the potential and limitations of descriptive, correlational, and experimental designs in organizational research, using contemporary examples of research to ground our analysis..