James March: a postmodern perspective on organization without management theory

In this paper, we look back at James March's main contributions to the evolution of organizations and their decision-making. On the basis of an in-depth analysis of his work, we discuss the main concepts to which he has dedicated his life as a researcher. Whether it is for innovation and the process of exploration associated with it, or for the ambiguity that persists in learning cycles, March always shows us the ambivalence of our concepts. While innovation is seen as the ultimate goal of any good differentiation strategy, his research warns us of the negative effects that can be associated with it, and the risks it poses to the organization. The same applies to the notion of ambiguity in learning. While our research would like to exclude it from our decision-making models, it reminds us of its persistence, but also of the potential for creativity that it constitutes. The strength of March's work is to encourage us to remain cautious in our diagnoses for the development of our companies by not venerating too strongly the notions seen exclusively as virtuous, such as innovation or by not too quickly condemning situations perceived as harmful, such as ambiguity. It is therefore subjective and unpredictable, making the idea of a unified theory of management inoperative (Joullié, 2018). March's way of thinking is deeply postmodern in the sense of Foucault (1961) who saw the world as a representation. In March's case, learning is ambiguous and decisions are often far from purely performative logic. In this social game, myths play an important role in organizations and behavior takes on roles that counteract any objective learning based on facts. His teachings remain of the utmost importance for both practitioners and academics in charge of modeling the real functioning of our organizations.