Holistic Organizational Analysis – the Pentagon Model

Abstract Our “Beacons of Organizational Sociology” series makes available, through essays or first-time translations, concepts and texts that have shaped debates in organizational sociology in non-English-speaking countries or presents reflections on such debates by established scholars. The second text in this series presents a model for holistic organizational analysis, named The Pentagon Model . The model is developed in Norway and has, during the last two decades, been successfully applied in many research projects, both basic and applied, and in different kinds of organizations. The model has also proved to be well-suited for educational purposes and for the dissemination of research-based findings. The model builds on established organization theories and rests on a basic argument that most organizational issues concerning qualities and capabilities can be fruitfully sorted into five interdependent categories: formal structure, technology, culture, interaction, and social relations and networks. This taxonomy can be used both as guidelines for data collection by qualitative or quantitative methods and for sorting findings into corresponding groups of variables. The model has proved to be widely applicable and can be used for studying phenomena on different organizational levels: individual, collective, system and ecological. It can also be used with different time perspectives: to explain things that happened in the past, to describe present-day situations, and to point to upcoming challenges and future possibilities.