A case study in logical deconstruction: Formalizing J.D. Thompson's Organizations in Action in a multi-agent action logic

Logic is a popular word in the social sciences, but it is rarely used as a formal tool. In the past, the logical formalisms were cumbersome and difficult to apply to domains of purposeful action. Recent years, however, have seen the advance of new logics specially designed for representing actions. We present such a logic and apply it to a classical organization theory, J.D. Thompson's Organizations in Action. The working hypothesis is that formal logic draws attention to some finer points in the logical structure of a theory, points that are easily neglected in the discursive reasoning typical for the social sciences. Examining Organizations in Action we find various problems in its logical structure that should, and, as we argue, could be addressed.