Pedro Monteiro is shedding light on two critical areas of modern organizational research: how knowledge processes and organizational structures interact, and the promises and challenges of bureaucracy. His work provides fresh perspectives on collaboration across specialist domains and the role of bureaucracy in fostering or hindering organizational success. He is also the co-founder of a podcast that communicates research within management and organization studies.
Pedro Monteiro’s journey into organizational studies began in Recife, Brazil, and has taken him across the globe. With a background in sociology and an academic path influenced by a chance discovery of the book Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach, Pedro Monteiro is now an Assistant Professor at Copenhagen Business School and a Visiting Scholar at the School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. He was recently included in the Poets and Quants list of best undergraduate professors for 2024.
In this interview and video recording, which you can watch in the player above, we met Pedro Monteiro at the Economics Library at the School of Business, Economics and Law—a place he greatly appreciates.
– I have been very happy to exchange ideas with the community here at the university because I think there's great research being done. It has been generative for me and I hope also for colleagues here, he says.
The Crucial Role of Knowledge in Organizations
Pedro Monteiro emphasizes the fundamental importance of an organization’s ability to utilize knowledge, as it can make the difference between being more or less competitive or having more or less reliable processes. Knowledge is described as the fuel that keeps organizations functioning, but there are even stronger reasons why knowledge and expertise matter.
Recently, Pedro Monteiro published an article in MIT Sloan Management Review: How Not to Organize In-House Experts: Lessons From Boeing. The crashes of two Boeing 737 Max planes tragically claimed 346 lives and led aviation authorities worldwide to ground the aircraft. This event highlighted critical failures in managing expertise, an area Pedro Monteiro examines in his research.
– The investigations suggest that an inability to manage expertise properly resulted in faulty plane designs, Pedro Monteiro says.
– I think that it's an unfortunate but important reminder that getting expertise right can mean the difference between having reliable processes or catastrophic failures, he adds.
Bureaucracy: A Double-Edged Sowrd
Pedro Monteiro also explores how bureaucratic structures influence organizations. When referring to bureaucracy, Pedro Monteiro emphasizes an organizational structure characterized by clear roles, rules, and procedures, focusing on professionalism and goal prioritization, rather than the common understanding of the term.
His research examines both the strengths and weaknesses of bureaucracy. And in the fields he is interested in, it is well understood that bureaucracy plays a crucial role.
– What I found is that it’s not so much the question of whether it is bureaucratic or not, but how bureaucratic it is—meaning how the structures are designed, enacted, and understood, Pedro Monteiro says.
And if it is done in a particular way, it can help rather than hinder.
– Then that can actually support collaboration, innovation, learning and so on, he says.
it’s important to understand how these systems evolve, change, or even erode, and what impact that may have on things we treasure, like democracy
However, he notes that bureaucratic organizations can also become dysfunctional.
– That's what we usually mean when we talk about bureaucracy in the popular sense, referring to burdensome procedures, excessive red tape, or complicated processes that confuse people, Pedro Monteiro Says
He stresses the importance of understanding bureaucracy, even when it is perceived as complex or unnecessary.
– In light of recent social changes, such as the erosion of the role of experts in society or questions about the public sector’s relevance, it’s important to understand how these systems evolve, change, or even erode, and what impact that may have on things we treasure, like democracy, for example, Pedro Monteiro says.
Communicating Research to Wider Audiences
Pedro Monteiro is dedicated to making research accessible to audiences beyond academia. As the co-founder of the Talking About Organizations Podcast, which he has run for over 10 years, he shares insights about the importance of effective communication.
– Organizational studies is quite a small field but I think that's not always well known and understood. I think it’s important to showcase to people that such ideas exist, he says.
In the video below, Pedro Monteiro discusses his podcast and the importance of research communication by independent institutions.
Video (01:48)
Why Research Communication?
By focusing on expertise and bureaucracy, Pedro Monteiro sheds light on the organizational systems that shape our modern world, driven by a strong desire to share the findings of his research.
– My aim is to help organizations navigate complexity while fostering accountability and adaptability, he concludes.
