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Innovar

Print version ISSN 0121-5051

Innovar vol.28 no.67 Bogotá Jan./Mar. 2018

https://doi.org/10.15446/innovar.v28n67.68615 

Gestión y Organización

Organizational Studies in Latin America. A Literature Review (2000-2014)*

ESTUDIOS ORGANIZACIONALES EN AMÉRICA LATINA. UNA REVISIÓN DE LITERATURA (2000-2014)

ESTUDOS ORGANIZACIONAIS NA AMÉRICA LATINA: UMA REVISÃO DE LITERATURA (2000-2014)

LES ÉTUDES ORGANISATIONNELLES EN AMÉRIQUE LATINE. UNE REVUE DE LA LITTÉRATURE (2000-2014)

Diego René Gonzales-Miranda 1   ** 

Carmen Alejandra Ocampo-Salazar 2  

Mariano Gentilin 3  

1 Ph. D. en Administración y Ph. D. en Estudios Organizacionales Profesor de tiempo completo de la Universidad EAFIT Medellín, Colombia. Grupo de investigación "Administración y Organizaciones" dgonzal8@eafit.edu.co, Enlace ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1211-0656

2 Ph. D. en Administración Profesora de tiempo completo de la Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia. Grupo de investigación "Información y Gestión" cocampo2@eafit.edu.co, Enlace ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4417-2683

3 Ph. D. en Administración y Ph. D. en Estudios Organizacionales Profesor de tiempo completo de la Universidad EAFIT Medellín, Colombia. Grupo de investigación "Administración y Organizaciones" mgentilin@eafit.edu.co, Enlace ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9432-8450


ABSTRACT:

This paper analyzes the current state of organizational studies based on a review of the top 10 Latin American journals published during the last 15 years (2000-2014). The reviewed articles were published in journals included in Web of Science or Scopus databases. A total of 3,210 articles were classified according to the theoretical perspectives defined for this review study. Research included a study of networks for the analysis of co-authors and the institutional affiliation of authors. The results allow to assert there is a tendency in the study of organizations from a functional-positivist approach, while other options for addressing organizational phenomena from a more comprehensive and critical perspective begin to emerge. This work was limited to the defined selection, leaving aside other important and representative journals in the field of organizational studies. Discussion section presents a general picture of the reality of the organizational field in Latin American specialized-literature, which provides possibilities to identify, locate and build specific projects in this field for future research.

Clasificación JEL: M10, L20, L29.

KEYWORDS: Administrative theory; organizational theory; organizational studies; organizations; Latin America

RESUMEN:

En este artículo se analiza el estado actual del estudio de las organizaciones a partir de la revisión de 10 de las principales revistas latinoamericanas editadas durante los últimos 15 años (2000-2014). Los artículos estudiados corresponden a revistas indizadas en las bases de datos Web of Science/Scopus. En el marco de las perspectivas teóricas definidas para la revisión, se clasificaron 3.210 artículos. La indagación realizada incluye un estudio de redes para el análisis de las coautorías e instituciones de adscripción de los autores. Los resultados permiten afirmar que existe una tendencia a estudiar las organizaciones desde una aproximación funcional-positivista, al tiempo que comienzan a surgir otras opciones de abordaje de los fenómenos organizacionales desde una mirada más comprensiva y crítica. El trabajo estuvo limitado a la selección definida, dejando de lado otras revistas importantes y representativas. En la discusión se identifica un panorama de la realidad del campo organizacional en la literatura especializada en América Latina, con lo que a los futuros investigadores se les brinda posibilidades de conocer, ubicar y construir proyectos específicos en este campo.

Clasificación JEL: M10, L20, L29.

PALABRAS CLAVE: teoría administrativa; teoría de la organización; estudios organizacionales; organizaciones; Latinoamérica

RESUMO:

Neste artigo, analisa-se o estado atual do estudo das organizações, a partir da revisão de dez das principais revistas latino-americanas editadas durante os últimos 15 anos (2000-2014). Os artigos que foram examinados correspondem a revistas indexadas às bases de dados Web of Science e Scopus. No âmbito das perspectivas teóricas definidas para a revisão, classificaram-se 3.210 artigos. O questionamento realizado inclui um estudo de redes para a análise das coautorias e instituições de vinculação dos autores. Os resultados permitem afirmar que existe uma tendência a estudar as organizações sob uma aproximação funcional-positivista, enquanto começam a surgir outras opções de abordagem dos fenômenos organizacionais a partir de um olhar mais compreensivo e crítico. O trabalho esteve limitado à seleção definida, deixando de lado outras revistas, também importantes e representativas. Na exposição, identifica-se um panorama da realidade do campo organizacional na literatura especializada na América Latina, com o qual são oferecidas, aos futuros pesquisadores, possibilidades de conhecer, posicionar e construir projetos específicos nesse campo.

Clasificación JEL: M10, L20, L29

PALAVRAS-CHAVE: América Latina; estudos organizacionais; organizações; teoria administrativa; teoria organizacional

RÉSUMÉ:

Cet article analyse l'état actuel de l'étude des organisations, à partir de la révision de dix des principales revues latino-américaines publiées au cours des quinze dernières années (2000-2014). Les articles examinés correspondent à des revues indexées sur les bases de données Web of Science / Scopus. Dans le cadre des perspectives théoriques définies pour la révision, on a classé 3 210 articles. La recherche effectuée comprend une étude de réseaux pour l'analyse des co-auteurs et des institutions d'inscription des auteurs. Les résultats permettent d'affirmer qu'il existe une tendance à étudier les organisations à partir d'une approche fonctionnelle-positiviste, alors que d'autres options commencent à émerger pour aborder les phénomènes organisationnels d'une perspective plus globale et plus critique. Le travail s'est limité à la sélection définie, en laissant de côté d'autres revues importantes et représentatives. L'exposition identifie un aperçu de la réalité du domaine organisationnel dans la littérature spécialisée en Amérique latine, qui offre aux futurs chercheurs la possibilité de connaître, localiser et construire des projets spécifiques dans ce domaine.

Clasificación JEL: M10, L20, L29.

MOTS-CLÉ: théorie administrative; théorie de l'organisation; études orga-nisationnelles; organisations; Amérique latine

Introduction

Currently, scientific production is one of the most important tools in the development of a society within the perspective of finding answers to problems identified as essential for good cohabitation. Journal papers are crucial for communication at this level. Thanks to them, results are delivered to the public rapidly and reach a broader number of people due to the easiness of their diffusion in periodical publications (Viana de Souza, Corréa da Silva & Oliveira Araújo, 2013). In such a context, the current research emphasizes the analysis of several studies published in one area, in an attempt to identify their features and to specify the profile of a given academic production (Costa & Boente, 2012).

The organizational field both globally and in Latin America has been mediated by different theoretical perspectives, among which the following can be identified: a functional one, aimed at administrative problem resolution; a functional/positivist, focused on conceptualizing organizations as productive objects; and a critical perspective from the Social Sciences, leading to the understanding of organizational reality.

Keeping this heterogeneity in mind, and with the conviction that scientific judgments do not result from one single research, as they should consider the accumulation of knowledge from previous studies, a revision of Latin American literature in the administrative and organizational fields was made from the review of the top 10 Latin American journals published during the last fifteen years (2000-2014).

In order to meet this purpose, a selection of journals indexed by ISI and Scopus databases within the specified period was made. In total, 3,210 papers written by 5,336 authors, members of 1,096 institutions from 78 countries were considered. For this, the journals, authors and institutions they are members of were examined. Such approaches have been used in previous studies as variables to identify the differences between trends in different fields of knowledge (Claver, Gonzales & Llopis, 2000; Lan & Anders, 2000; Lowery & Evans, 2004).

The revision was carried out in order to answer the following questions: What are the main themes studied by researchers in the organizational field? Who are the main authors and where do they publish the results of their studies? Which is the predominant theoretical perspective in the administrative and organizational fields in Latin America?

The results of this work suggest a reflection about the importance of a functional and pragmatic view that characterizes the study of organizations in Latin America on acknowledging the importance and the implications of publishing in co-authorship, and on identifying the main themes shared by authors in each of the theoretical perspectives as well as the collaboration network between authors and institutions in the publishing of papers.

The document is divided into four sections. In the first one, three conceptual perspectives and a cross-thematic axis are explained, from which the papers in the selected journals were classified. In the second, the methodological aspects related to data collection and analysis are presented. In the third section, the results of the revision are described and analyzed. Finally, in the fourth section, some brief considerations concerning the reality of the organizational field in the Latin American context are proposed, and the findings, limitations and pending themes for future studies are discussed.

Theoretical Perspectives and Cross-thematic Axis

The conceptual axes used for classifying the papers under analysis arise from a theoretical review of the existing frameworks for the study of organizations: Administrative Theory (AT), Organization Theory (ОТ), Organization Studies (OS) and Research and Education in Administration and Organizations (R&E). The latter brings together papers that take into consideration research and education as well as teaching tools and models. Notice that the foundations of this theoretical framework are shared with papers by: Ocampo-Salazar, Gentilin and Gonzales-Miranda (2016) and Gentilin, Gonzales-Miranda and Ocampo-Salazar (2016).

The study of organizations has been characterized by a technical-instrumental and prescriptive-oriented approach, relegating organizational problems to factors that must be solved under the criteria of efficiency and productivity. Consequently, an organizational isomorphism has been historically developed around the single axis of the company's efficiency, where: "The enterprise becomes the organizational benchmark, and its language, methods, tools and techniques increasingly contaminate the organizational world" (Vieira & Da Silva, 2011, p. 457).

As an objection to the idea above, Ailon (2006, p. 885) states that "the last two decades have been marked by a growing number of critical voices that directly affect the foundations of the mainstream of organizational and management thinking", which is expressed in the questioning of canonical texts regarding their underlying assumptions and normative commitments. This is due to the organizational complexity and to the fact that the study of organizations is going through a period of multiple approaches that favor the analysis of various phenomena from various perspectives (Vieira & Rivera, 2012).

This diversity of approaches to the study of organizations is reflected in the four proposed axes, which are subject to debates and controversies. Some authors, for instance, differentiate the first three (Bédard, 2003; Gonzales-Miranda, 2014; Gonzales-Miranda & Gentilin, 2012; Montaño-Hirose, 2004; Ramírez-Martínez, Vargas & De la Rosa, 2011); others, instead, include at, ot and os under the umbrella term of organization studies (Sanabria, Saavedra & Smida, 2013); others consider at and ot (Vieira & da Silva, 2011), and ot and os (Hatch, 1997; Tsoukas & Knudsen, 2005; Westwood & Clegg, 2003) in a similar way; while other authors make a radical distinction between at and ot (Scott, 2003).

The conceptual classification used for this work is not intended to delve into this debate, still unfinished, but to propose theoretical foundations that enable distinguishing one axis from the other in order to classify the papers.

Administrative Theory

Administration is first seen as a social practice -empirical in nature- (Chanlat, 2004; Déry, 2004), without its own discourse (Jurado, 2015). Administration involves an administrative knowledge; not a practice in itself, but an administrative knowledge in the organizational practice, disassociating it from the category of Science (De Mattos, 2009). Over time, and thanks to the systematization of the works of some classic authors such as Taylor and Fayol, a discursive practice (Jurado, 2015) arose. This can be understood as a knowledge or at in the field.

Administration has been the subject of various controversies regarding its scientific status (Bédard, 2003, 2004; Marín-Idárraga, 2012; Muñoz, 2011; Podestá & Jurado, 2003), its definition and limits (Aktouf, 1998; Dávila, 2001), and its object of study (Hernández, Saavedra & Sanabria, 2007; López, 1999). Without delving into these debates, criticism is mainly based on pragmatism, which reaffirms its functional purpose in the application of models developed in very different contexts from those in Latin America (Vieira & Da Silva, 2011) that have been embraced as unique, true and universal (Bédard, 2003), to the point of being replicated without a lot of thought (Bédard, 2004).

Administrative practices, in their ambivalent and still controversial status for academics, are founded on reason as a philosophical category that has oscillated between two logics: an objective one, where the observer is an external entity; and a subjective one, which uses the particular interest of the technique with a utilitarian-instrumental purpose (Marín-Idárraga, 2007). Within the latter, administration is understood as a practice-oriented knowledge.

That rationality has been behind the approaches of the most prominent thinkers and supporters of AT, such as Taylor (1961) and Fayol (2003), who recognized in humans their desire to maximize profits and, consequently, their administrative and professional capacity. According to Jurado (2015), the writings of both authors represented a separation from what administration had been for centuries: "a social and cultural practice without a theoretical discourse" (p. 132). This allowed going beyond the practice in order to form a corpus or theoretical knowledge, leaving a legacy of the work within organizations and saving what otherwise would remain personal, fragile and ephemeral memories "whose existence did not go beyond the life of their bearer" (p. 130).

De Bruyne (1973, pp. 39-40) classifies the great theoretical approaches to at as follows: (i) it is studied in a descriptive way, reducing it entirely to the results obtained or to the synthesis derived from many observations; (ii) it is studied from a normative approach, where it conditions reality based on some abstract principles to channel the results into the fulfillment of pre-defined objectives; (iii) it is studied from a psychological point of view, emphasizing its human content and the interpersonal relationships of individuals in relation to behavior; (iv) it is studied from a sociological approach, where attention is paid to the forms of formal and informal organization, conceived as institutions or systems of social relations. Thus, in at, conceptualization and theory might seem to be a few steps behind practice and action, fostering excessive pragmatism and consequent hostility to intellectual activity (Dávila, 2005). Nevertheless, efforts on creating a corpus of knowledge that has given rise to various themes around at are recognized.

Organization Theory

During the 1930s, the works of Mayo (1880-1949) would give rise to a new movement for the study of administration and organizations called "Science of organizational behavior". The purpose of this movement was to provide the administrator with instrumental tools for creating and maintaining a favorable organizational climate in order to intervene people and generate greater productivity and efficiency (Aktouf, 1998). This apparent concern for the human issue marks the beginning - between 1925 and 1945 - of the Human Relations School, from which от arises (Ibarra-Colado & Montaño-Hirose, 1990).

The development of от led to the inclusion of various areas of knowledge, such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology, in the study of organizations (Ibarra-Colado, 2002). ОТ is thus conceived as the theoretical consciousness of AT due to its continuous search for meaning to face problems in modern organizations, always linked to the same goals: productivity, efficiency, efficacy and control.

AT was developed in a context pressed by inventions and technology and governed by a mechanistic view that prevented the possibility of seeing the human nature of employees, according to Bendix (as cited in Jurado, 2015). Instead, от favored the inclusion of labor, the human interaction and the informality as the unit of analysis (Mayo, 1972), recognizing the industrial organization as a socio-technical system.

ОТ is consolidated, while marking a difference from AT, from the studies of Woodward (1975), Pugh (1997), Burns and Stalker (1961), and Lawrence and Lorsch (1973). These authors led to the creation of the Contingency Movement in the 1960s. When studying the context and the environment, the organization remained as an object of study in itself, and, for the first time, spatial and temporal aspects that contradict the claim of a unique and general discourse became apparent. This meant a departure from AT when arguing the contrary through the expression "all depends" that questions Taylor's core idea of a "one best way" (Clegg, 1990), because there is no one best way of doing things but many better ways as many organizations exist (Montaño-Hirose, 1994).

ОТ represents a set of movements that emerged sequentially and are characterized by their strong link to positivist postulates (Boal, Hunt & Jaros, 2003; Donaldson, 2003; McKelvey, 1997), the use of the hypothetico-deductive model (De Rond & Miller, 2005; Shepherd & Sutcliffe, 2011), a mechanistic approach, the use of a large-scale statistical and quantitative methodology (Donaldson, 1997; McKinley, 2003) and to empiricism. от sought to generalize, prescribe and obtain a practical use from organizational knowledge (Bort & Schiller-Merkens, 2011; McKinley & Mone, 1998).

Organization Studies

The field of os can be considered a relatively new conceptual axis in Latin America. Some authors indicate that its inception dates back to the 1970s with the establishment of the European Group for Organizational Studies (egos) and the journal Organization Studies (Clegg & Bailey, 2008). Others place its origin in the period after World War II (Augier, March & Ni-Sullivan, 2005; Scott, 2004) or from the Contingency Movement (Gonzales-Miranda, 2014).

The transition from ОТ to os is mediated by a critical-reflective factor that enables proposing new approaches to comprehending the organizational field, without excluding ОТ, but, on the contrary, recovering its proposals. It is a European project that fosters critical thinking (Montaño-Hirose, 2004) and arises as an alternative response to the ОТ in the us (Shenhav, 2003), which has considered, as the object of study, a linear, static and causal organization (Ibarra-Colado, 2002).

In os the purpose is to generate a self-and-specific knowledge of the context in which organizations are embedded. As Ibarra-Colado (2006a) states: interpreting the problems of our local realities is indispensable, or bringing back от in a critical way when considering the reality of Latin America (Ibarra-Colado & Montaño-Hirose, 1992). Therefore, the major paradigmatic rupture involves trying to understand practices and theoretical products based on the social and cultural contexts of the parties concerned (De Mattos, 2009), seeking to comprehend, rather than to solve, the social phenomena within organizations (Clegg & Dunkerley, 1977).

OS tend to assume a constructivist stance rather that a positivist approach. Positivism had dominated the study of organizations at first. Constructivism believes that people create the society (Berger & Luckmann, 2008) and its constituent structures, such as organizations, which only exist as supra-individual entities when their members interact and socially construct themselves. In this regard, it seeks to reveal those social issues that are in the informal side of organizations.

When studying construction processes, we understand how these organizations emerge or disappear (Czarniawska, 2003) and - from a more critical point of view - we go back to their origins and organizational forms in order to de-reify the organization (Burrell & Morgan, 1979). A paradigmatic debate within the academic world begins with the emergence of new schools of thought. The presence of, often, dissimilar variables of analysis allows studying the social phenomena within organizations from a multidisciplinary perspective, favoring the emergence of this new theoretical perspective.

Far from being exclusive, OS are inclusive (Clegg & Hardy, 1996) and seek to mobilize the approach from various disciplines as a crossing point (Callon, 1986) in the study of organizations. The participation of various rationalities in comprehending social phenomena within organizations goes against single-discipline approaches, exemplified by the excessive specialization of modernity. As organizations become more complex, structurally speaking, it is increasingly unlikely that a single discipline has the necessary knowledge to address all the problems. Modernity is based on a growing functional differentiation of phenomena. Post-modernization and post-modernity, however, are characterized precisely by the opposite process (Clegg, 1990) that opposes the bureaucratic differentiation and seeks to go from a rigid to a flexible model, from mass to niche consumption, from unqualified to versatile work. As a result, the critical view cannot be excluded as a constitutive element of os. Given the participation of various theoretical perspectives, the critical view of social phenomena within organizations is a particular issue found in research studies that choose the perspective of os.

Research and Education in Administration and Organizations

Research and education, as historical and articulating axes in the administrative and organizational field, have been associated with the production and generation of knowledge, as well as with the reflection and the methodologies upon which it is constructed. In this sense, research can be understood as a social activity that seeks to contribute to a field of knowledge, although, in essence, it helps solve social problems from the understanding of reality (Calderón & Castaño, 2005). Education, understood at a higher level, refers to reflection, problematization, discussion, argumentation and knowledge construction (Marín-Idárraga, 2005).

Both activities are closely related. Research has been a key element in education and in the university as a meeting point; therefore, quality education should be supported in research (Malaver, 1999). Education, for its part, "should encourage participation, seeking that discussion and debate contribute to the incorporation of knowledge" (Marín-Idárraga, 2005, p. 53) and to the generation of ideas for new research projects by teachers involved (Duque & Royuela, 2005). "Without the renewal of knowledge, academic programs could not move forward. Teaching helps identify themes for research" (Daniels, 1999, p. 28).

In the administration field, research has not been traditionally a strength due to its practical approach and the consequent carelessness of the theory (Calderón & Castaño, 2005). "The temptation of intending to change the world subjugates much more than the arduous task of trying to understand it" (Dávila, 2005, p. 40). According to García and Carrieri (2001), there is a production of manuscripts that appear to show a path that research in administration would be building. But, in this respect, a big question related to the critical and reflective nature arises: Are those paths being created really new, or are they following the way already outlined in other countries?

As for education, the teaching-learning processes should be aimed at the socialization of knowledge with a special emphasis on the pedagogical aspects, thus making possible to address the needs of today's society (Marín-Idárraga, 2005). Pedagogy, whose general purpose is the analysis and understanding ot the phenomenon of education, recognizes and studies the aspects related to this as a complex and multidisciplinary phenomenon that articulates various sciences and disciplines for its comprehension. In the field of administration and organizations, pedagogy has taken part in the discussion of the relationship between theory and transmission process of knowledge, emphasizing the techniques used in the classroom (Wren, Buckley & Michaelsen, 1994) and their excessive instrumentalization (Ottewill, 2003).

Methodological Aspects

With the purpose of reaching the goal of analyzing the current state of the study of organizations, from the revision of the top 10 Latin American journals published between 2000 and 2014, a model of revision was shaped in order to systematically assess the contributions of this literary corpus (Ginsberg & Venkatraman, 1985) to the study of organizations. This task was undertaken through the search and critical assessment of literature by means of a transparent and reproducible procedure, intending to improve the quality of the consultation process and its results (Tran-field, Denyer & Smart, 2003). The methodology employed was not free from challenges, such as the access to information and the complete collection of data, an insufficient representation of journals of the scientific field of study, or the great amount of documents to analyze (Pittaway, Robertson, Munir, Denyer & Neely, 2004). In spite of this, it was important to have a method to face the vast information covered by the research. Therefore, the revision process consisted of three parts: data collection, analysis and synthesis.

Data Collection

Researchers may collect the papers in different ways: by using a panel of experts to identify the relevant documents, by using the knowledge of the existing literature for the selection of papers, or by searching for texts in different databases through key words (Crossan & Apaydin, 2010), among others. For this literature review, a predefined selection of journals was established for the analysis. The choice was to consider very prestigious academic articles in a worldwide level, which provide indicators based on citation methodologies with themes that are useful and reasonably valid for the analysis (Garfield, 1972). Along with this, papers published in those journals with international impact were submitted to a deep process of exploration before being published, more than books or book chapters (Ullah, Butt & Haroon, 2008) - which does not mean books are less important -, ensuring their relevance and pertinence for the research.

For journal classification, two of the main databases were cross-matched (Web of Science and Scopus), assessing the impact of each paper by the amount of references cited within a specific theme frame. With this aim, three criteria were considered: (i) theme categories related to the research (business, management, sociology, organization); (ii) the correlation between the JCR (Journal Citation Reports) and SJR (Scimago Journal and Country Rank) indicators; and (iii) interquartile ranges of the frequency distribution of the respective indicators. The results of the scrutiny allowed the selection of 10 journals catalogued in the third (Q3) and fourth (Q4) quartiles for 2014, and indexed in ISI and/or Scopus databases, as shown in table 1.

Table 1 Journals selected for the research. 

Source: Own elaboration.

Upon selecting the journals for analysis (year 2014), it was shown that all were indexed in Scopus, but only 4 were included in the Web of Science database. For this reason, and despite the fact that our criteria for the selection of journals (at the Latin American level) considered both databases, for reasons of clarity and comparability, only data obtained from Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR) will be presented (table 1).

Then, the papers to analyze were chosen. The following data was considered to classify the main themes approached in the organizational field: title, name of authors, institutional affiliation, abstract and key words. Only those publications written as a paper were considered, while editor comments, forums, book reviews, case studies, etc., were excluded. Similarly, special editions published during the period studied were also included, for a total of 3,210 papers corresponding to the 2000-2014 period.

Data Analysis

The purpose of the research was to analyze the current state of the study of organizations in the Latin American context, rather than an in-depth revision of a specific theme. Therefore, methodologically, the work was led towards a more descriptive approach and the analysis of the papers reduced, choosing range over depth.

The identification and categorization of the main themes to classify a particular text into certain theoretical perspective, given the nature of the data collected, was based on a previously built framework and on the interpretation and conceptualization made by the researcher. In this sense, the work of text analysis and classification is part of a qualitative methodology with a descriptive focus (Hernández-Sampieri, Fernández & Baptista, 2010).

Data Synthesis

The synthesis made from this revision is an added value, which contributes knowledge to the academic field as it provides substantial information for future researches. At the same time, it outlines the theoretical fields and perspectives in the study of organizations. The chosen papers were classified into the three conceptual axes considered in the research - AT, ОТ and OS - as well as a fourth, cross-thematic axis, named R&E. According to Tranfield, Denyer and Smart (2003), a conceptual consolidation of the diverse themes studied in and around organizations was sought in a fractured field that is not free from debate and controversy.

The results of this study are presented in frequency charts. The amount of papers per year, the institutional affiliation of authors, the amount of co-authored texts, the main authors by theme, the institutions with higher presence, and the most frequent themes are presented there. Together with that, an instrument for Social Network Analysis was implemented so that the most relevant authors, as well as the institutions they are members of, could be identified (Matheus & Silva, 2006). In this sense, the analysis of social networks is a pertinent, useful and appropriate tool, structured enough, through which it is possible to understand the intellectual development of the themes referring to organizations in Latin America (Melo-Ribeiro, 2014).

Selected journals, their country of origin, the number of papers chosen for each of them and the corresponding impact indexes until December 2014, according to Scimago, are presented in table 1.

Research Results

The academic production in the field of management and organizations in Latin America has grown significantly in recent years. This is evident in the publishing of papers, as shown in graph 1. The number of publications increased by 123.5% between 2000 and 2014. They went from 123 in 2000 to 275 in 2014. Only in 2005, 2012 and 2014, the amount of publications decreased in relation to the previous year.

Source: Own elaboration.

Graph 1 Number of papers published per year. 

The classification and categorization made are, by themselves, an important result of the research, since they show the themes associated with each defined theoretical perspective and cross-thematic axis. Table 2 displays the top 5 themes in each of the axes established. In this regard, AT provided the highest amount of classified papers; followed by os and ОТ. On the subject of R&E, only the three themes shown in table 2 were identified. It is worth noting the broad thematic diversity found in AT, marked in the 661 papers filed under the "Others" category.

Table 2 Main themes by each conceptual axis. 

Source: Own elaboration.

Table 3 introduces the top 10 themes with the highest register throughout the analyzed period. It is worth noting the little difference between each of the themes in terms of percentage and the great diversity of research interests that is seen under the "Others" category, reaching up to 32.2%, which shows the thematic plurality existing in Latin America. There is great theme heterogeneity in every approach, especially among AT. Nevertheless, the most common theme is the New Institutionalism discussed in OS (11.8%).

Table 3 Main topics per year. 

Source: Own elaboration.

Out of the theoretical perspectives and the cross-thematic axis established for the revision (table 4), 60% correspond to AT, 28% to OS, 7% to ОТ and 5% to R&E. All of them underwent an increase, but AT clearly leads the figures with a steady growth of 194.9% during the 10-year period studied; more than twice the average. Such growth reflects a functional and pragmatic trend in the study of organizations. In this regard, organizational reality and the social dynamics taking place seem not to be important objects of inquiry yet. On the contrary, the interest of researchers prevails in the solution of problems related to management itself. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the papers related to OS increased 73.1% in the period studied, which makes it evident there is a new perspective in the study of organizations.

Table 4 Theoretical perspectives and cross-thematic axis of the papers per year. 

Source: Own elaboration.

After checking the journals referring to the theoretical perspectives studied (graph 2), it is worth saying that: AT is the one theoretical perspective on top with the most papers classified. This is a steady pattern in all journals, with the exception of CLAD journal, which focuses on themes related to the public sector. Since one of the themes associated with OS is that of New Institutionalism, many papers in the CLAD journal were filed under that category. This allowed the growth of papers related to os.

Source: Own elaboration.

Graph 2 Papers by journal, theoretical perspective and crosscutting theme axis. 

Regarding the latter, there are other journals with very specific profiles in terms of their perspective. For instance, the Journal of Technology Management & Innovation, and the Journal of Theoretical & Applied Electronic Commerce Research feature papers on technology and innovation. The rest of the journals analyzed publish papers referring to different themes, which is why they cannot be classified into one specific theme.

ОТ is present in every publication studied, but in terms of the amount of papers filed, the top three are Revista Venezolana de Gerencia (43), RAE (36) and RBGN (28). Additionally, the cross-cutting approach of R&E has more presence in the journals Innovar and RBGN. In some publications such as Academia, BAR, Journal of Theoretical & Applied Electronic Commerce Research and CLAD, the amount of papers is low.

When analyzing graph 3, the data included shows a clear trend on the part of researchers to write in co-authorship. It is worth noting there is a point of inflection in 2006, when the co-authorship trend intermingled, which allowed, in turn, the amount of articles published to increase considerably as of that year. When checking the 3,210 papers edited in the last ten years in the selected journals, 31% are signed by one single author, showing a 50% decrease in the last 15 years. The rest were written by two (33%), three (24%), four (9%), five or more authors (2%). This means that 68% of the texts considered were written in co-authorship.

Source: Own elaboration.

Graph 3 Authorship per year. 

Table 5 displays the main authors with the amount of papers published by them and their corresponding institution. Additionally, the amount of documents belonging to each approach is discriminated. Most of the researchers are members of Latin American institutions. A remarkable aspect is that, on this list, there are not authors from Universidad del Zulia, which is the one with the highest representation thanks to the amount of articles published. In that sense, publications are centralized in a few authors regardless of their link to the educational institutions. In fact, in some cases, authors may have worked at several universities or educational institutions. Thus, in relation to the matter of co-authorship, the spreading of the results of research focuses on some professors able to build networks of academic cooperation.

As seen in graph 4, the degree of co-authorship of the top 15 researchers in publications indicates that 73.3% of them show a trend to publishing with a co-author. In fact, they have presented their work between two or more authors in at least six occasions. Three authors show a trend to writing individually, which reflects the positive co-relation existing between the amount of papers published and co-authorship.

Source: own elaboration.

Graph 4 Most prolific authors in relation to co-authorship. 

In relation to countries (table 5), the analysis shows that from the 78 countries represented in the research, the first five are Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking countries. The biggest contributor is Brazil with 36%, followed by Spain with 14%, and Colombia with 12%. It is worth noting that among the first 10 countries 70% of the publications belong to authors from Latin American institutions, of which 60% speak Spanish. Most journals publish papers in other languages such as English or Portuguese and, spite of being in Latin America, there is a high percentage of authors publishing in those journals, although they are not affiliated to institutions in these latitudes.

Table 5 Percentage of authors by country. 

Source: Own elaboration.

Researchers of analyzed journals are affiliated to 1,096 institutions. This figure is obtained from the number of times that an institution is mentioned as the place of ascription of the papers. In this sense, a text may be related to several different institutions. Considering this, the educational institution with the highest amount of publications is Universidad del Zulia from Venezuela (5.1%), followed by Universidad Nacional de Colombia (4.8%), and Fundação Getulio Vargas from Brazil (3.9%). As shown in table 6, there is not one single Latin American educational institution that stands out for the amount of papers published. However, in percentage terms, the first universities in the list publish four times more than the last ones. That is, and as an example, Universidad Nacional de Colombia publishes four times more papers than puc Rio or Universidad de Chile.

Table 6 Secondment main institutions of the authors. 

Source: Own elaboration.

When network analysis is carried out (Figure 1), the great network of worldwide cooperation becomes visible. The most prominent ones are Universidad del Zulia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Fundação Getulio Vargas, universities that stand with the most joint contributions with other educational institutions in the publishing of papers. The most prolific universities have the broadest networks of cooperation, and are associated with international institutions.

Source: Own elaboration

Figure 1 shows the Institutions 

Figure 1 shows the most important conglomerations of networks of cooperation. It can be observed that the three above-mentioned universities have cooperation relationships with a considerable number of universities from the same region and, in some cases, they are also related or connected to international universities. That is the case of the Venezuelan Universidad del Zulia, which has active involvement with universities in the usa, Spain, Brazil, Colombia, among others. In contrast, there is a greater presence of regional universities in the other two major networks (Fundação Getulio Vargas and Universidad Nacional de Colombia) and, therefore, more domestic networks of cooperation are constituted. From an institutional point of view, authors join different entities among which networks of national and international cooperation are built, even if they are not very dense and dynamic, in order to have a better chance for their papers to be published.

The cross-thematic axis titled R&E is a relevant theme into which it is worth delving. The results of the investigation on this axis show tensions among the scientific rigor, originality and relevance of research. Rigor focuses on the theory and the methodology according to the conventions of a scientific community, while originality and relevance suggest necessary considerations for this type of community, taking into account the impact on knowledge to direct the practical application, reconsider the understanding of reality or legitimate aspects in it (Ofenhejm, Zambaldi & Alves de Moraes, 2011).

In this regard, some of the texts analyzed show that the researcher's work has become an academic productivism as capital that requires knowledge. This trend is supported by national and international agencies, as well as by the current system (Netto & Bianchetti, 2011), thereby increasing precariousness of the research in the context of academic capitalism. Other studies propose, for example, to measure research skills from the intellectual capital for institutions of higher education (Sanchez-Torres & Rivera, 2009), exposing an increasingly pragmatic relationship between research, education quality and knowledge management.

As for education, the teaching-learning processes should be aimed at the socialization of knowledge, emphasizing the pedagogical aspects, and thus making possible to address the needs of today's society (Marín-Idárraga, 2005). Pedagogy, whose general purpose is the analysis and understanding ot the phenomenon of education, has taken part in the discussion on the relationship between theory and the transmission process of knowledge, with special emphasis on the techniques used in the classroom (Wren, Buckley & Michaelsen, 1994) and their excessive instru-mentalization (Ottewill, 2003).

From the point of view of education, the results show several issues that have been discussed in recent decades, such as the reduction in the complexity of the phenomena studied in administration (Mainardes & Domingues, 2010; Uribe, Ortiz & Domínguez, 2011); the americanization of teaching and the instrumentalization of knowledge (Alcadipani & Bertero, 2012); efficiency in education as an essential element (Marcén & Martínez-Caraballo, 2012); shortcomings in the generational shift (Hernández & Dueñas, 2005); the lack of adaptability and use of tools in virtual teaching (Buil, Hernández, Sesé & Urquizu, 2012); and bullying and violence associated with teaching (León, 2009).

Research and education, as articulating axes, should essentially favor the reflection on themselves. That is, productions that enable critical views about matters related to what and how to research, what and how to teach, and what and how to employ teaching methods in administration and organizations. This involves thinking on the possibilities about how to create and reproduce knowledge in these processes (Chia & Holt, 2008).

Discussion and Final Comments

Results show a clear tendency of researchers to conduct organizational studies from a functional-positivist perspective. This demonstrates the limited presence of a comprehensive view to study social phenomena within organizations. However, the increase in publications of os represents growing interest and concern for organizational analysis and favors - as in this case - the emergence of academic networks and discussion spaces in Latin America, with their focal point in organizations and not only in administrative practices or in the implementation of efficient management models. Some examples are the Latin American and European Meeting on Organizational Studies (LAEMOS), the Brazilian Society of Organizational Studies (SBEO), the Mexican Network of Researchers on Organizational Studies (REMINEO), the Network of Latin Research Graduate Studies in Business Administration and Organizational Studies (PILARES) and two networks still being constituted: the Colombian Network on Organizational Studies (REOC) and the Latin American Network on Critical Organizational Studies (ECO).

The present research exposes the general and comprehensive framework of the study of organizations in Latin America. It is a literature review based on specific criteria that leaves aside academic texts and other journals affiliated to other type of indexes such as SciElo, EBSCO, Pro-Quest, Latindex, among others. Although it is a limiting factor, it was considered necessary to limit the research and define the criteria for the classification and analysis. This is reflected in the classification of the papers from the proposed perspectives, since it implies considering that the same paper could be related to several perspectives. Additionally, and due to the nature and objective of the research, an outlook of the organizational field is exposed without going deeply into each topic of study and methodology used by the authors, aspects that can be investigated in the future from a specific theme.

There is even a questionable assumption: that every journal indexed in the Web of Science and Scopus databases enjoys a reputation of being good quality. The point is not to question the prestige of journals, but only to point out that evaluation processes are conditioned by the amount of time and dedication of reviewers, the themes and interests of the academic committees of journals, and by the pressure that rankings exercise as criterion of evaluation -an aspect often associated with resources for its operation. These considerations, among others, contradict the quality of publications without delegitimizing them per se.

Associated with the above is the subject of bibliometric practice, which becomes a "black box" according to La-tour (1987). To value scientific production only by means of the quantity of citations that a scientific product has, is the same as entering into a dark world of inaccuracies that question its impact and quality. Within the multiple comments that could be made from this, which exceed the objectives and scope of this article, just mentioning that the analysis of the citations in its beginnings consisted in a methodology for documentation, thereby giving value to the fact that one author cited the other; since this established links between documents sharing common ideas or reflections. But to go on evaluating the text in terms of its impact and quality through the number of citations it has (in relation to the "H" index, which today is highly valued), not only distorts the relationships and networks that arise in the creation and socialization of knowledge, but partializes and reduces knowledge to an arithmetic activity that leads and encourages a race to obtain numbers, tossing aside the sense and the elemental reason of publications. This, in turn, opens the discussion on the possibilities and conditions that Latin American journals have in accessing the Web of Science and Scopus databases. Time, economic resources and the premature importance given to research in these fields of knowledge, among other aspects, make their access a difficult issue to achieve.

The three theoretical perspectives, as well as the cross-thematic axes described above, are a theoretical-methodological classification proposal, still unfinished, to systematize the articles analyzed. It is worth mentioning that this classification proposal is itself a value of research. Although it is not exempt from controversies, debates and possible disagreements, this proposal will facilitate discussion and, hence, will promote the study of organizations as a field of research interest. In this regard, the analysis shows that even though AT carries more weight (60%), OS are becoming increasingly significant (28%). It is also important to note that AT, OT and OS develop in parallel and, in that sense, os do not represent an "improved" version of AT and OT, thereby showing their expiration. os are a new way of approaching the study of organizations, taking up at and OT in a critical manner and with the support of other disciplines of the social sciences to analyze organizational phenomena in a more comprehensive way. The three perspectives are not only contemporary; they also represent an increasing interest for researchers, so choosing one of them does not exclude the possibility of adopting other approaches. In other words, the study of organizations in Latin America has a connotation of non-exclusion from the theoretical-conceptual point of view, even when there is a strong inclination towards AT. In that sense, theoretical perspectives coexist in the organizational zoo (Perrow, 1984) and are used to analyze the various organizational issues.

This theoretical diversity is related to the themes associated with each of the proposed conceptual axes. In the administration field, it is typical to find a diversity of themes related to organizational management and intervention. This is one of the reasons, among many ot hers, Administration has become so valued and necessary, because of its versatility and possibilities of application in companies. However, considering this wide range of themes, AT and OT are expected to have a deeper comprehension of the actions they favor within organizations and the ethical and human implications such actions entail. This does not occur in the conceptual axes of os or in that of R&E, where it seems that not only themes are more reduced and definite, but the pragmatic and functional trend of at is prone to cover more application themes; moreover, it is in this field in which new managerial fashions and trends emerge.

The purpose of the above is not to favor an epistemological stance characterized by an irreconcilable polarity of perspectives, the functional-positivist one on the one hand and the comprehensive one on the other; nor is it to stigmatize one of them in terms of value. The organizational study implies recognizing the reality of organizations in their particular context, as well as having clear that their operation is ruled by the logics of efficiency and productivity. Thus, far from defending the idea of standing for one theoretical perspective in particular, the purpose of this work is to favor complementarity. In that way, it is important that the functional pragmatism of intervention meets the organizational objectives with a previous comprehension of the reality to be intervened, taking into account that a better comprehension of organizational phenomena will enable a better intervention.

From the point of view of the countries participating in the research, Brazil has a very high contribution regarding the number of authors. Moreover, the researchers who publish the most have a high percentage of co-authored papers. It could be said that, thanks to that, Brazil has become an important reference in the region. The reason for this is that Brazil, unlike other countries such as Colombia or Chile, has built a history of theoretical-conceptual development in the organizational study and a series of active academic networks that favor cooperative associations; a feature that encourages the dissemination of research results. It would be valuable to integrate and promote a greater quantity of collaborative research among countries and, why not, with comparative methodologies that show the global academic community the reality of Latin American organizations, thus avoiding a sort of trend towards individualist regionalism.

This research promotes many reflections and considerations on the reality of the study of organizations in the region, which could well be part of a future research agenda. This is precisely the case in Brazil, for example, where the beginning of os dates back to the 1950s. Beatriz Wahrlich (1977) conducted an analysis of the main theories that were in progress during that period, questioning the fact that the field of theory was undermined by the favoring of its practical aspect. Since then, os in Brazil distinguish two main and complementary lines: one related to management and to the proper administrative practices, and other linked to the human and social sciences.

In this context, the presence of a relevant group of Brazilian intellectuals stands out against the dominant trend, critically positioning itself and adopting an anti-management stance, which led to the founding of a critical tradition originating in the os in that country. Among such researchers who stood out were Alberto Guerreiro Ramos, who began his reflections in the 1950s; Mauricio Tragtenberg, who developed his studies during the 60s and 70s, and Fernando Prestes Motta, in the 1980s and 1990s (Misoczky, Flores & Goulart, 2015). This tradition of critical thinking is currently expressed in three aspects: (i) Critical Theory and Marxism, where Marx, Lukács and the Frankfurt School have been retaken; (ii) Critical Management Studies, critical works in the management, centered in this subject and that mainly take as reference authors of the Anglo-Saxon context; and (iii) Critical Analysis in os, which is based upon post-structuralism and postmodernism (Faria, 2009). Does this development explain the great rise of the study of organizations in this country? What differences exist in Mexico, which is the other focus of organizational study development in Latin America? These are some of the questions that guide possible research lines.

Another aspect to highlight is the contribution of two relevant researchers in Latin America who are not in the research due to the type of publication they carry out (restrictive and limiting aspect of the research), but are important to highlight. On one hand are the reflections of Ernesto R. Gantman related to the reality of the Administration in Latin America (2010, 2011, among others), the potential of Critical Management Studies for organizational analysis (2013, 2017) and other issues in which he expresses his concern for local research in relation to the Administration and the study of organizations.

On the other hand (from the Mexican context), are the contributions by Eduardo Ibarra Colado. Within the multiple themes he worked on, such as: organizational studies, university studies, critical management, among others, highlighting the issue of coloniality as a pertinent and timely aspect for what is discussed in this article. The author warns that the same conceptualization of organization was reinvented as an "indispensable artifice that homogenizes different realities, incorporated into the everyday language of our countries and used to explain the economic problems that derive from the rationality of the market" (Ibarra-Colado, 2006b, p. 5). With this issue raised, Ibarra underlines the importance of the studies of the organization in Latin America, in a globalized context where the Anglo-Saxon perspective predominates.

The lack of homogenization in epistemological and methodological perspectives is also reflected in the journals. There is no absolute evidence that indicates the hegemony of one of the theoretical perspectives and the cross-thematic axis suggested in any of the journals participating in the research. Although there is preponderance towards at, generally, the perspectives and the thematic axis described coexist in the journals. This suggests that the reality of the study of organizations in Latin America is fragmentary, vague and with no clear preeminence.

In spite of that, it is important to emphasize that, at the end of this research, the journals related to administration and organizational themes and indexed in the ISI-Scopus databases were few. This shows the remote possibilities of researchers to publish and disseminate their research results in these journals. Furthermore, researchers see their publication options even more reduced given the quantity of annual issues of the journals, since most of them are biannual. Additionally, there is a conjuncture of no less importance which is the proliferation of Ph.D. programs in Latin America (for instance, only in Colombia, there are nine Ph.D. programs in Administration and related areas) that encourage the publication in high-profile journals. This is closely related to the higher education accreditation systems that rank universities and such programs based on the impact of their Ph.D. students' publications in this type of journals. Publication alternatives become then even fewer and more difficult. In this regard, one could resort to other type of possibilities of high-quality publications that are not reduced and confined to publishing in journals indexed in the ISI-Scopus databases.

Language is another factor that adds to the difficulty of publishing. Although they are Latin American journals and many of them state in their publication requirements that they accept papers in native languages (Spanish and Portuguese), some of them only receive - perhaps, prefer - papers in English. The aim of this reflection is not to underestimate publications in this language, but to show the contradiction of not encouraging publications in the spoken languages of the region. In the same way that researchers are compelled to publish in high-profile journals, journals themselves are conditioned to finding international recognition through the dissemination of their publications. Since English is the global language of academics, journals seek, through their papers, to be known worldwide and, thus, acquire greater prestige. Although this does not have to be a negative situation, it does have a questionable aspect in which some matters that - despite being related to the academic community - are prioritized and manipulated to favor the particular purposes of the journals. This could be an example of a typical situation in other latitudes that is starting to meddle in the Latin American reality, where one of the strategies to be implemented by editors is to open special issues in regional languages, which may widen and encourage the participation of other type of authors.

Since the theme of R&E is an extremely important aspect, papers related to this axis were analyzed. Results lead to conduct critical research studies, distancing oneself from the pragmatic view - without meaning that this view is not important. Although it is true that the theme strictly related to research and education has gained strength, the articulation with education in administration and the pedagogical aspects that strengthen the learning process are still emerging compared to other themes published in these fields of knowledge. Research is in itself a theme of interest to be researched; it is a crucial academic activity that supports education in Administration and favors new pedagogical strategies. In this sense, this theme should be part of a complete research agenda in Latin America that, in turn, will encourage several lines of research.

In this capitalist context, that has moved functionalism and the positivist view of reality to the efficient applicability of research processes, it is a priority to encourage and create, at the same time, appropriate dissemination spaces that do not prioritize these logics. For that, it is necessary to create networks of cooperation where research interests are relatively common and favor long-term collaborative research. This could help identify those researchers living in different perspectives of analysis. Furthermore, the edition of textbooks or book chapters is also a feasible option that can boost spaces different from the publication of papers in high-profile journals. Due to their critical and interdisciplinary nature (Gonzales-Miranda, 2014), os necessarily entail dialog and foster discussion. Therefore, the creation of academic communities and spaces for the dissemination of research results and theoretical reflections become the logical tributary to consolidate os as a different approach to study organizations, whose supremacy has focused - still does - in the functional and positivist view of AT.

From the networks of cooperation point of view, it is clear that the journals classified in the ISI-Scopus indexes are appealing to researchers for them to disseminate the results of their research. This is proved by the considerable participation of non-Latin American authors in journals of the region and the publication of papers in English. The research results allow the academic community of researchers to identify the institutions, authors, areas and themes of production that are currently at peak, and to show new lines of work, new connection possibilities and new trends in research interests in Latin America. The challenge is that these networks of cooperation will provide new knowledge, thus becoming an input for the development of Latin American societies.

This work has showed a diverse reality of the study of organizations in Latin America. Likewise, it reflects the willingness to create spaces to consider the administrative practices in organizations from different views, approaches and methods. This heterogeneity calls to reflect even more on Latin American organizations and the implications of administrative interventions. At the same time, it requires an autocriticism whose repercussions foster not only a better teaching and research development in academic institutions and in the work of professors and researchers, but also a better citizenry and society model that is being built from this field of knowledge.

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* This paper is the result of the research project “Revisión de literatura sobre el estudio de las organizaciones a nivel nacional y latinoamericano entre el 2000 y el 2014” financed by Universidad eafit, which is part of a set of projects developed between 2012 and 2016.

CITACIÓN: Gonzales-Miranda, D. R., Ocampo-Salazar, C. A., & Gentilin, M. (2018). Organizational Studies in Latin America. A Literature Review (2000-2014). Innovar, 28(67), 89-109. doi: 10.15446/innovar.v28n67.68615

Received: February 2017; Accepted: May 2017

**DIRECCIÓN DE CORRESPONDENCIA: Diego Gonzales-Miranda. Carrera 49 n.° 7 sur 50, Bloque 26. Medellín, Colombia.

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