Meta-organisation as partial organisation: An integrated framework of organisationality and decisionality

Abstract

Meta-organisations often lack the monitoring and sanctioning power associated with the organisation of individuals, and thus they can be considered partially organised. Little research investigates the extent to which meta-organisations, in general, and clusters in particular are organised. The current meta-organisation literature thus perpetuates an implicit assumption that all meta-organisations are equally incomplete. This chapter challenges this assumption and theorises about variations in organisational structures of meta-organisations. To do so, it transposes the partial organisation concept and specifies at the meta-organisation level: 1) degrees of structural organisationality, as measured by the selective combination of membership, hierarchy, rules, monitoring, and sanctioning, and 2) degrees of decisionality - that is the extent to which each organisational component is itself the object of decisions. By combining structural organisationality and decisionality, the chapter identifies four dynamic meta-organising profiles: thin partial meta-organising, thin meta-organising, thick partial meta-organising, and thick meta-organising. The chapter contributes to current efforts to advance meta-organisation theory and proposes an analytical tool to investigate this phenomenon. At the same time, it provides insight into the conceptualisation of clusters as social actors.