Meta-organization

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Meta-organization is defined as an organization with other organizations as its members. This concept was developed in 2005 by Göran Ahrne and Nils Brunsson.[1] They further elaborated and underpinned the concept theoretically in 2008[2] by focusing on explaining what difference it makes to have organizations as members instead of individuals.

In the years since, the concept has become a bridging concept,[3] engaging those who study international organizations, associations, cooperatives, alliances, partnerships, and other inter-organizational collaborations in which organizations are the members of another organization. The concept has thereby helped to connect, consolidate and develop new insights from different fields about meta-organizations. The concept has attracted contributions from organization studies,[4] sociology,[5][6][7][8] management studies[9][10][11] public administration[12][13] political science (in particular international relations),[14][15] social movement studies,[16] but also getting engagement from communications studies,[17] education studies[18][19] and supply chain management[20] among others.

Meta-organization studies focus broadly on questions related to how meta-organizations organize and function and what the consequences are thereof, more specifically, how, when and in which ways meta-organizations impact their members, non-members or society at large. More generally, it asks what kind of dynamic “having organizations as members” creates and what that means for how these organizations behave.

Those interested in the concept of meta-organization and developing theory explaining them have been gathering at the European Group of Organization Studies - EGOS colloquium, currently as a standing working group (https://www.egos.org/SWGs/SWG-01) and regularly engage at the International Sociology Association (ISA) conferences (particularly as part of RO17 – Sociology of Organizations). In addition, workshops and other gatherings are organized gathering those interested into one place. Updates on activities and publications are given on the LinkedIn group page (https://www.linkedin.com/groups/9391069/).

References

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  1. ^ Ahrne, Göran; Brunsson, Nils (2005). "Organizations and meta-organizations". Scandinavian Journal of Management. 4 (21): 429–449. doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2005.09.005.
  2. ^ Ahrne, Göran; Brunsson, Nils (2008). Meta-organizations. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar. ISBN 978-91-47-70200-8.
  3. ^ Berkowitz, Héloïse; Bor, Sanne; Brunsson, Nils (2026). A world of meta-organizations. Edward Elgar.
  4. ^ Bor, Sanne; Cropper, Steve (2023). "Extending Meta-Organization Theory: A resource-flow perspective". Organization Studies. 44 (12): 1939–1960. doi:10.1177/01708406231185932.
  5. ^ Brankovic, Jelena (2018). "How Do Meta-organizations Affect Extra-organizational Boundaries? The Case of University Associations". Research in the Sociology of Organizations. 57: 259–281. doi:10.1108/S0733-558X20180000057010. ISBN 978-1-78743-829-3.
  6. ^ Vähä-Savo, Valtteri; Syväterä, Jukka; Tervonen-Gonçalves, Leena (2019). "The authority of meta-organisations: Making the international association of National Public Health Institutes attractive to prospective members". European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology. 6 (4): 474–502. doi:10.1080/23254823.2019.1612262.
  7. ^ Berkowitz, Héloïse; Grothe-Hammer, Michael (2022). "From a Clash of Social Orders to a Loss of Decidability in Meta-organizations Tackling Grand Challenges: The Case of Japan Leaving the International Whaling Commission". Research in the Sociology of Organizations: 115–138. doi:10.1108/S0733-558X20220000079010. ISBN 978-1-83909-829-1.
  8. ^ Berkowitz, Heloise; Bor, Sanne (2024). "Meta-organizations for Sustainability Transformations: Navigating Tensions Between Imperatives of Transition and Meta-organizationality". Journal of Organizational Sociology. 2 (1): 29–58. doi:10.1515/joso-2023-0001. hdl:10230/60983.
  9. ^ Berkowitz, Héloïse; Dumez, Hervé (2016). "The Concept of Meta-Organization: Issues for Management Studies". European Management Review. 13 (2): 149–156. doi:10.1111/emre.12076.
  10. ^ Berkowitz, Héloïse; Bor, Sanne (2018). "Why Meta-Organizations Matter: A Response to Lawton et al. and Spillman". Journal of Management Inquiry. 27 (2): 204–211. doi:10.1177/1056492617712895.
  11. ^ Zyzak, Barbara; Farsund, Arild Aurvåg (2025). "Coordination of complex systems: the case of public policy meta-organisations". European Management Journal. Online first. doi:10.1016/j.emj.2025.02.004.
  12. ^ Cropper, Steve; Bor, Sanne (2018). "(Un)bounding the Meta-Organization: Co-Evolution and Compositional Dynamics of a Health Partnership". Administrative Sciences. 8 (3): 1–19. doi:10.3390/admsci8030042. hdl:10419/239858.
  13. ^ Zyzak, Barbara; Jacobsen, Dag Ingvar (2020). "External managerial networking in meta-organizations. Evidence from regional councils in Norway". Public Management Review. 22 (9): 1347–1367. doi:10.1080/14719037.2019.1632922.
  14. ^ Ahrne, Göran; Brunsson, Nils; Kerwer, Dieter (2016). "The Paradox of Organizing States: A Meta-Organization Perspective on International Organizations" (PDF). Journal of International Organizations Studies. 7 (1).
  15. ^ Pendlebury, Jarrod; Stott, Neil; Tracey, Paul (2025). "The peacekeeper's challenge: innovation in meta-organisations". Peacebuilding: 1–15. doi:10.1080/21647259.2025.2501873.
  16. ^ Karlberg, Eva; Jacobsson, Kerstin (2015). "A Meta-organizational Perspective on the Europeanization of Civil Society: The Case of the Swedish Women's Lobby". VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. 26 (4): 1438–1459. doi:10.1007/s11266-014-9463-0.
  17. ^ Frandsen, Finn; Johansen, Winni (2018). "Voices in Conflict? The Crisis Communication of Meta-Organizations". Management Communication Quarterly. 32 (1): 90–120. doi:10.1177/0893318917705734.
  18. ^ Vukasovic, Martina; Stensaker, Bjørn (2018). "University alliances in the Europe of knowledge: Positions, agendas and practices in policy processes". European Educational Research Journal. 17 (3): 349–364. doi:10.1177/1474904117724572. hdl:10852/62236.
  19. ^ Zapp, Mike; Jungblut, Jens; Ramirez, Francisco O. (2021). "Legitimacy, stratification, and internationalization in global higher education: the case of the International Association of Universities". Tertiary Education and Management. 27 (1): 1–15. doi:10.1007/s11233-020-09062-0. hdl:10852/85604.
  20. ^ Carmagnac, Liliane; Carbone, Valentina (2019). "Making supply networks more sustainable 'together': the role of meta-organisations". Supply Chain Forum: An International Journal. 20 (1): 56–67. doi:10.1080/16258312.2018.1554163.
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