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Kenneth D. Mackenzie


Kenneth D. Mackenzie (born 1937) is an American organizational theorist, former Professor at the University of Kansas and management consultant. He is known for his work on his early work on the "Theory of Group Structures" and his later work on organizational design

Mackenzie received his BA in Mathematics with a minor in Physics in 1960 from the University of California, Berkeley, where in 1964 he also obtained his Ph.D. in Business Administration.

After his graduation Mackenzie started his academic career in 1964 at the Carnegie-Mellon University as Assistant Professor of Economics. In 1967 he moved to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1972 he moved to the University of Kansas, where he was appointed Edmund P. Learned Distinguished Professor from January 1972 to January 2006. He further taught at U.C. Berkeley, University of Waterloo, and KU. In 2000 Mackenzie founded the consultancy firm EMAC Assessments, LLC.

Mackenzie has served on numerous editorial boards including Management Science, Organizational studies, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Journal of Management Inquiry, Human Systems Management, and Engineering Management Research.

He has published 19 books and over 100 articles.

Mackenzie research interests have been in the fields of organization theories, organization design processual models, organizational leadership, multi-level research and the discoverer of the organizational hologram.

Mackenzie’s research is based on his bed rock belief that there are only three fates of any theory: to be (a) ignored, (b) rejected, and (c) revised. Consequently, it is self-evident and unreasonable for him to expect any of his theories to escape these fates. Therefore, he is not interested in “proving” or justifying them. He knows that they somehow must be wrong. What he chooses to publish is his current best effort but only after finally failing to find grievous fault. The goal is to improve theories rather than to defend them. The best way to do this is to actively search for and highlight hidden flaws and inconsistencies. Finding these flaws provides vital clues for making improvements in the theory. Fixing them paves the path to improvements.


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