The Oxford Handbook of Process Philosophy and Organization Studies

Jenny Helin has a post doctoral position at Uppsala University, Sweden. Her research interests lie at the intersection of process philosophy and dialogue. She explores collaborative research practices mainly in the field of family owned businesses.


Tor Hernes obtained his Ph.D from Lancaster University in 1995. He has previously worked as an engineer, UN specialist, researcher, freelance consultant, and held academic positions at Tromsø University and Norwegian Business School, Oslo, before joining Copenhagen Business School in 2008. His main theoretical project is to extend understanding about the role of temporality in process thinking.


Daniel Hjorth is Professor of Entrepreneurship and Organisation at the Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. He is Academic Director for the across CBS Entrepreneurship Business in Society Platform. His latest books include The Politics and Aesthetics of Entrepreneurship (2009), edited with Chris Steyaert, and the Handbook of Organisational Entrepreneurship (2012) .


Robin Holt is Professor at the University of Liverpool Management School. He is also Visiting Professor at the Copenhagen Business School. He has previously worked in departments of politics and philosophy, as well as business and management, at a number of UK universities such as Southampton, Bath, Manchester Met, and Leeds. He is editor of Organization Studies.

Process approaches to organization studies focus on flow, activities, and evolution, understanding organizations and organizing as processes in the making. They stand in contrast to positivist approaches that see organizations and phenomena as fixed, static, and measurable.

Process approaches draw on a range of ideas and philosophies. The Handbook examines 34 philosophers and social theorists, both those commonly linked to process thinking, such as Whitehead, Bergson and James, and those that are not as often addressed from a process perspective such as Dilthey and Tarde. Each chapter addresses the background and context of this thinker, their work (with a focus on the processual elements), and the potential contribution to organization and management research. For students and scholars in the field of Organization Studies this book is an entry point into the work of philosophical thinkers and social theorists for whom the world is far from being a solid place.

This Handbook presents key ideas of philosophers and social theorists whose ideas inform process approaches to organization studies. Each chapter addresses the background and context of this thinker, their work (with a focus on the processual elements), and the potential contribution to organization and management research.