Why organization happens – the case of macro-organizations

Abstract

Why does organization happen and why does organization expand? We discuss these questions by examining how a fairly simple form of organization in the form of standards expanded and finally led to the emergence of two global macro-organizations in the fields of management and sustainability. We find four ways by which organization expanded in these cases and we analyze the arguments for expansion used by the organizers. We argue that the search for trust, transparency, independence and impartiality can be significant drivers of organization.