In organization and management scholarship, the attributes of business enterprises from the Global North have long been held as ideals against which to compare the organizational reality of the public sector and the Global South. Occasionally, the former is equated to the perfection to which the ‘others’ should aspire. Even well-intentioned attempts to study forms of organizing in these ‘other’ contexts are usually short-circuited by idealizations eclipsing their uniqueness while foregrounding their (assumed) imperfections. What if we dispense with idealization? Can we think of imperfection as a strength and not a weakness of organizations? What insights can we learn from the ‘imperfect’ organizations across sectors and geographies that have long dealt with multiple complex stakeholders (public organizations) and heterogeneous and resource-constrained social environments (Global South organizations)?
 
This sub-plenary is a step in this direction. We will explore how attending to public organizations and the reality of the Global South can expand the theoretical toolbox of our field and further diminish the dominance of idealized and normative images of organizations.