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This article describes the theoretical basis and characteristics of a process-based, negotiated and generative approach to the evaluation of organizations. Illustrated by a case study, it highlights the inappropriateness of standardized instruments in the face of complexity and uncertainty, suggesting ways to improve the practice of evaluating dynamic complex systems. It underlines how conducting an evaluation within an organization is an opportunity to produce knowledge that reflects on and can potentially transform existing systems. Using an action-research method, 'instructions to the double', the implications for data collection and analysis suited to complex interventions and complex environments, are presented and discussed. In particular, the article describes the monitoring and evaluation of practices as unfolding processes, in which evaluative methods and tools are context dependent and subject to social, dynamic and contested mobilization of knowledge. The collective negotiation and production of knowledge in collaboration with practitioners working within the organization, is considered as the necessary condition for enhancing the formative and transformative role of evaluation and supporting reflexivity in professional practices.

In this article, we build on the results of a participatory action research project in healthcare to discuss a number of methods that can strengthen the link between reflexive work and authoring in organizational contexts. We argue that, from an organizational point of view, the challenge is to devise new ways to configure (and consider) people as the authors of their work. This means assuming responsibility for, and constructively contributing to, the goals of the organizations to which they belong. Combining insights from theoretical reflection and experience from the field, the article discusses the tools, process and material conditions for fostering practical reflexivity and organizational authorship. We conclude that much is to be gained if we distinguish between authorship and authoring. Authorship is the general process whereby managers and organizational members contribute to the reproduction of organizational realities. Authoring is constituted by the special circumstances whereby authorship is brought to critical consciousness and becomes open to deliberate reorientation.

Purpose– The aim of the paper is to investigate social sustainability by focussing on the stakeholder theory and by presenting specific levers and capabilities for building more socially sustainable organizations.Design/methodology/approach– The paper is based on the analysis of recent academic and managerial literature. Through comparing theoretical and methodological perspectives from multiple authors, a specific theoretical and methodological viewpoint based on the stakeholder theory is proposed.Findings– The paper discusses the idea that building socially sustainable organisations requires the management of multi-stakeholder processes that are physiologically conflicting and that often create paradoxical tensions. Participative settings of action and reflection and capabilities as reflexivity and "paradoxical thinking" are proposed as key levers for dealing with multi-stakeholders processes towards a more socially sustainable organizing.Research limitations/implications– This paper raises reflections focussed on the "social pillar" of sustainability and does not consider different types of organizations in different multi-stakeholders processes. Such a perspective does not exhaust the variety of cases and research studies that could be considered in the field and further developed.Originality/value– The value of the paper is in its construction of a framework for both research and practical purposes in the domain of management and sustainability. The work also attempts to link the concepts of reflexivity and paradox to a methodological proposal for leading the organizational journey towards social sustainability.

At the 50th anniversary of James D. Thompson's fundamental book, Organizations in Action, TAO Digital Library proposes a reflection on this great master's legacy and the evolution of organizational studies. Twelve researchers, from different disciplinary fields, analyze both the texts utilized for teaching and the contribution of several important journals, particularly in recent decades. The outcome is an overall picture that may stimulate different, divergent evaluations and, even more importantly, desirable, deeper reflections.