Organization theory and new ways of working in science

Dramatic changes in the practice of science over the past half a century, including trends towards working in teams and on large projects, and geographically distributed and interdisciplinary collaboration, have created opportunities and challenges for scientists. We argue that these changes in science represent new organizational forms and ways of working that also create opportunities and challenges for organization theory. We describe how applying organization theory to science can push our knowledge of research organizations further and also raise questions for a range of organization theories, including coordination, social identity, the knowledge-based view, social networks, organizational learning, and absorptive capacity. We suggest that organization theory is critical for better understanding the sources of technological innovation, making effective policy around R&D investment, and developing successful managers in 21
^st
century research organizations.