La aproximación contingente en la teoría organizacional: ¿Hacia un nuevo enfoque?

• Autores: José Carlos Sánchez García
• Localización: Revista de psicología del trabajo y de las organizaciones = Journal of work and organizational psychology, ISSN 1576-5962, Vol. 8, Nº 21, 1992, págs. 39-50
• Idioma: español
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo (htm)
• Resumen

  • La teoría de la contingencia ha dominado el estudio del diseño y del rendimiento organizacional durante los últimos veinte años, pero aun, a pesar de esto, dicha teoría se está poniendo en tela de juicio por su incapacidad aparente en resolver problemas teóricos y empíricos. Así, los comentarios de Schoonhoven, 1981; Mohr, 1981; Tosi y Slocum, 1984, Fry y Schenlemberg, 1984, y Van de Ven y Drazin. 1985, sugieren la necesidad de realizar cambios a nivel teórico y metodológico.

    Para Drazin y Van de Ven (1985), algunas teorías alternativas a la teoría de la contingencia, como, por ejemplo, el marco de trabajo de las «siete eses» de McKinsey (Pascale y Athos, 1981), la teoría «Z» (Ouchi, 1981), las ocho características de las compañías excelentes (Peters y Waterman, 1982), etc. (cfr. Drazin y Van de Ven, 1985). son, en general, incluso más complejas y dejan por resolver algunas proposiciones de la teoría de la contingencia.

    El propósito del presente artículo es analizar dicha teoría y los críticas a las que se ha visto sometida, y proponer nuevas direcciones que nos ayuden a superar algunas de las limitaciones de la teoría de la contingencia.

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