Thinking Differently About Thinking Theoretically: Developing a Design-Centered Approach to Organizational Theorizing

We propose a novel, multi-faceted approach to organization theory building that is more likely to engender theories that are relevant to the work that managers and organizations do—one predicated on principles associated with design. Invoking and synthesizing a set of core design principles and applying them to the process of theory building generates an approach that not only provides organizational scholars a way of thinking differently about thinking theoretically, but also helps answer the call for increasing the relevance of our theories as a way of making contributions that are more practical, more prescient and greater in scope. The resulting model of “design theorizing” has several significant implications for addressing how organizational scholars approach current and future issues likely to affect the theory and practice of managing.