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Proponents of conflict methodology have recently asserted that consensus methodologies are ineffective in the study of elite-controlled, large-scale organizations. They have proposed utilization of a variety of techniques which place researchers in a condition of hostile contrast to subject organizations. The purpose of this paper is to introduce and assess the conflict methodology position. It, therefore, identifies the organizational subjects of conflict research, examines the assertion that consensus methodologies are ineffective in the study of elite-controlled, large-scale organizations, and provides a definition of conflict methodology. The paper concludes by assessing the implications, problems, and possible contributions of conflict methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A statement on the stratosphere of social-psychological theory invoked author George Herbert Mead to stress the origin of meaning at the intersection of writers and readers. The organization of ideas and data, tools of the writer, overlook that we fall unwittingly into empty claptrap. Fallibility is widely shared, sometimes endearing human property. It is those pioneers of the megabyte world who access and format and are interrupt-driven. Justification of the glossary

Maintenance, an important concept in the organizational literature, is often assumed to be a key factor in the low levels of sensitivity to client needs and demands apparent in many human service organizations. This paper uses data from a national sample of juvenile courts to demonstrate, however, that maintenance may relate to other variables in ways that are at variance with the common assumption. The maintenance of internal organizational operations is bound closely to the development of ties to the community; as a result, strong emphasis on maintenance actually leads to high levels of sensitivity to clients when certain environmental forces demand it. This positive relation is especially strong when organizations are highly vulnerable to external pressures. Such results suggest a contingent view of the role of maintenance in organizations and imply some further directions for research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sociological interest in the "criminogenic" features of organizational structure has tended to focus on crime-coercive corporate systems that compel their members to commit illegal acts as the price of successful system membership. Our purpose is to alert researchers to another variety of organizational criminogenesis, not equally likely to be noticed and studied: the crime-facilitative system. In this second model of criminogenesis, system members are not forced to break the law, but rather are presented with extremely tempting structural conditions—high incentives and opportunities coupled with low risks—that encourage and facilitate crime, both by system members and by outsiders who seek to enter or use the system for criminal purposes. Using the securities industry as an illustration, we review some elements we feel may be characteristic of crime-facilitative systems, and suggest some directions for further investigation. To yield a coherent and testable theory of organizational crime, research in this area now needs to move beyond simple identification of corporate criminogenesis, and on to specification of the conditions under which various types of criminogenesis are likely to occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to determine whether differences in religious denominations' formal polity structures (i.e., congregational, presbyterian, and episcopal patterns) contribute to vertical power differentials among their structural levels. Formal polity structure was measured as authority of local churches to hire and fire their ministers. Data from 26 Protestant denominations suggest a relationship between formal polity and the power distribution which was operationalized as the location of the pastoral placement bureau. This relationship was obtained independent of such important variables as size, administrative specialization, and bureaucratic formalization. The findings suggest that when studying power distributions, especially in purposive organizations, constitutionally defined and normatively shaped aspects of organizational polity (i.e., formal polity structures) should be taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the importance of identifying the environmental context in which organizations function. The relationship between an organization and those other groups and individuals constituting its environment is specified in terms of linkages. Two key dimensions of linkage are identified: strength and breadth. The former refers to how intimately the organization is connected with any other group while the latter refers to how extensive is the support. These linkages' dimensions are viewed from a "resource mobilization" perspective, i.e., as the means by which resources are brought into an organization. A study of linkages sustained by the NAACP during 1961-69 illustrates how the dimensions of linkage strength and breadth can be operationalized and applied. New avenues of research then are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years the field of sociology and the subfield of complex organization have experienced a series of running debates between persons subscribing to structural approaches and those holding to interaction perspectives of scientific inquiry. Drawing upon Spinner's (1973) discussion of the types of intertheory relationships, this paper extends his analysis by drawing attention to the Polanyi-Hanson-Kuhn position on the fundamental nature of theory-laden observation. A methodological rule is proposed, using theoretic blockage as the basis for alternate shifting between diverse theories. In this manner, tenets of various theoretic perspectives can serve as heuristics to a more informed analysis. A theoretical discussion of power, deference, and social coordination is used to illustrate how the methodological rule of theoretic blockage can be employed to advance organization theory. I argue that the theoretical diversities in the subfield of complex organization can provide an excellent arena for exploring critical intertheory dialogues which can advance our knowledge of organizations. At the same time they can serve as a testing ground for general intertheory and interdisciplinary linkages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is argued that the theory of negotiated order, which has remained largely submerged within a series of fairly specific "grounded" case studies of occupations, professions, and complex organizations in the health field, has a number of attractive qualities to it. As such, it represents one of the more exciting recent developments in the study of organizations. The present paper examines the more recent historical origins of the theory, summarizes its major points, and critically assesses its strengths and weaknesses. Since most of the substance of the theory is found in studies of health professionals working in hospital settings, the examples used here are also derived from this particular body of literature. Some future possible directions which we believe will improve the overall explanatory power of the perspective are presented in the concluding section. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An alternative approach to organizational theory is outlined, based on Marxian categories and propositions. The concepts of "productive forces" and "social relations of production" are specified in terms of various organizational phenomena such as organizing activity vs. organization; historical contradictions between organizational control structures and new forms of organizing work activity (e.g., occupational and professional status groups vs. administrative rationalization and bureaucratization; bureaucratic and technocratic administration vs. selforganization of labor and workers' control); the contradictions between such organizational dimensions as labor-power and its manifestations in terms of skills and knowledge, the object of labor (complexity of task structure), the means of labor (technology), the division of labor, the control of labor (cost-accounting and hierarchical authority relations), and the organization of labor (e.g., either in terms of occupations and professions or unions, corporate management, state bureaucracies, or self-organization and workers' control). Organizational contradictions between functional as well as historical phases of the work process are described for work organizations, in general, and for public service bureaucracies and courts of law, in particular. For example, administrative and technical innovations designed to increase productivity tend to come into contradiction with strategies of established authority structures (e.g., of the professional judicial elite) designed to expand domain, thus impeding or nullifying various organizational reform efforts. The paper concludes with a more general discussion of Marxian method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies of organizational action tend to isolate actors, structures, and goals as if they were not concretely interdigitated in organizational conduct. In many cases, actors are omitted as relevant units of analysis; goals are stated as abstracted entities unrelated to complex collective processes of defining, clarifying and evaluating goal-attainment, and often rules are not studied as continuously negotiated through and by interaction. Unless a close analysis of how broadly defined rules emerge as narrowly defined procedures sanctioned as reasonable and proper conduct is undertaken, the assumptive nature of the concept "bureaucracy" is left unexamined, operates invisibly, and thus impedes sociological analysis. This paper, based on fieldwork and interviews in three police organizations, identifies the processes by which an abstract organizational goal is defined, deferred to and becomes actionable. The organizational contexts of the two narcotics enforcement units (from which most of the data presented here are derived) embed the rules said to guide the pursuit of major violators of narcotics laws and systematically make certain aspects of the work either visible or obscure. Thus, some members are exposed to negative sanctioning while others experience positive sanctioning. This suggests that since the context of rules, not the rules themselves, nor the rules about the rules (so characteristic of formal organizations), determine the consequential (i.e., actionable) meanings of acts, situated interactions, accounts and shared understandings should be examined in the sociological analysis of organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of organizations has been guided by a paradigm consisting of interrelated theoretical, methodological, and practical commitments. Theoretically, a problematic of rational structuring has dominated the field. This has been coupled with positivist methodology and a practical commitment to administrative problem-solving. The paradigm has fallen into crisis as a consequence of work on several analytical problems—action, power, levels, and process. Work on the action problem emphasizes the grounding of organizational patterns in the interactions and practices of people. Patterns are also seen in recent work as the expression of power relationships. The levels problem involves the analysis of interpenetration and interdependence between distinct sectors or layers of social structure. The concern with process involves the continuous transformation of organizational patterns. The central issue growing out of the work on these analytical problems is how to handle theoretically the production and reproduction of organizational patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal and system resource approaches represent alternative conceptions of organizational effectiveness. The goal approach views effectiveness in terms of internal organizational objectives and performance. Organization-environment relations are the focus of the system resource approach, though previous applications of this perspective have been limited to profit-making organizations. This paper reconceptualizes the system resource approach for use in public agencies and examines the flow of organizational resources as an indicator of effectiveness.

The relationship between size and structure is a general problem in the study of social organization. Organization can be seen as a system of relationships among differentiated activities performed by units of a population. Viewed as arising out of the exchange relations among these units, the structural characteristics of organizations should be affected by population size. As specific expressions of this general concern, size has been included in every taxonomy of group properties and has been related to goals, effectiveness, succession, and job satisfaction in studies of formal organizations (Merton, 1957:310-326; Berelson and Steiner, 1964:364-367; Tannenbaum, 1961; Meltzer and Salter, 1962; Simpson and Gulley, 1962; and Grusky, 1961). But perhaps the greatest amount of theoretical and research attention has focused on the relationship between size and the administrative component as one structural aspect of formal organizations (Melman, 1951; Terrien and Mills, 1955; Tsouderos, 1955; Bendix, 1956:221-223; Haire, 1959:287-296; Anderson and Warkov, 1961; Lindenfeld, 1961; Haas et al., 1963; Hawley et al., 1965; Starbuck, 1965:495-502; Rushing, 1966; Raphael, 1967; Hall et al., 1967). The findings produced by this research along with other inquiries into the effects of size on structural characteristics have been inconclusive. This has led some to conclude that "… size may be irrelevant in determining organizational structure" (Hall et al., 1967:912). Such a conclusion, however, may be premature. It is clear from both our own work and that of others that the effects of size may vary by type of organization (Akers and Campbell, 1968). Further, a clearer understanding of the size factor, especially as related to the administrative segment, requires a systematic investigation into other structural features of organization. In particular, Blau and Scott (1962:227) have suggested that complexity, as a second structural characteristic, may be an intervening variable between size and the administrative component, as well as being itself directly affected by organizational size. While other studies have treated complexity in a variety of ways, none has attempted systematically to explore the interrelationships among size, complexity, and the administrative component in a relatively large number of voluntary organizations. It is the purpose of this paper to examine these interrelationships for one kind of organization. Specifically, we want to consider: 1. the relationship between organizational size and the administrative component, controlling for complexity. 2. the relationship between size and complexity controlling for the relative size of the administrative component. 3. the relationship between complexity and the size of the administrative component controlling for organizational size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with the effects of members on organizations. We looked at the kinds of responses organizations can make to members, the connection of different responses to the type of relationship between organization and members, the choice of different organizational responses, and the conditions maximizing effects of members. The term "organizational response" is used to cover both new developments which are customarily thought to be changes and those which are not usually viewed as changes. The basis for distinguishing two major types of responses to members is how the pressure for change is handled: Any new activities, procedures, norms, or goals introduced in order to alter or manipulate the source of pressure on the organization are called controls. Any new activities, etc., introduced in order to alter or manipulate the targets of pressure are called organizational modifications. The most important organizational responses to members are social controls. These may involve major redistributions of resources, the creation of new departments and services, dramatic shifts in conceptions of the organization's purposes, and so on. At the same time, they represent attempts by agents of the organization to resist, control, contain, manipulate, and prevent possible influence from members on the organization. Many times, these attempts to protect the organization are more costly than modifying those aspects of the organization which are the targets of influence. The social controls can backfire and engender greater member disaffection. Nevertheless, it was assumed that social controls should be a preferred response when pressures from members occur. Should the range of controls available to an organization become depleted—either because it has few available or because previous attempts at control have failed—organizational modifications then occur. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to suggest that certain types of grouping are associated with radical and gradual types of assimilation and fusion. I will apply the distinction between the corporate and noncorporate group to the processes of ethnic regrouping. This distinction should serve to give a structural focus to studies of ethnic relations and thus will supplement the social psychological approaches. In the concluding section, in which the wider implications of corporateness are discussed, it will be seen that such a distinction will facilitate the comparison of ethnic groups with other types of groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ORGANIZaTiON goals and their consequences provide a major frame of reference for the systematic investigation of variation in the structure and operation of large-scale organizations. Sociologists have traditionally identified relatively specific goals as one of the distinctive aspects of large-scale organization. But they have not analyzed comparatively the effects of different goals on organizational behavior, nor have they confronted the problem of measuring goals when comparing organizations. In a study recently concluded, custodial and treatment goals of correctional institutions for delinquents were used as the major source for independent variables in the testing of hypothesized relationships about the social structure of these institutions.)Using data from this study, this paper has two purposes. First, we wish to illustrate a method for the measurement of goals when these are defined vaguely and in such a way as to protect the institution's public image. By using several methods of measuring goals we were able to achieve both a more precise definition of goals and one which showed how the goals of different levels and groups in the institution intermeshed. Second, we wish to present illustrative data demonstrating the effects of different goals on the internal structures of the organizations. Specifically, we will compare departmental structures, power balances, and staff perceptions of organizational norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how actors within an organization draw meaning from their local setting in ways that ultimately hinder institutional efforts toward standardization. Using a case study of a public sector organization that is inundated with standards--a police department--this analysis develops a standards-as-culture lens to show how local conditions inform the cultural resources police officers deploy. It is argued that individuals connect features of their community with repertoires of uniqueness--what they call "the Blueville Way"--to perform, justify, and sustain a sense of nonconformity with political measures meant to standardize the provision of policing services. Data for this study include 100 interviews and field notes gathered over an 18 month period spent with a police department in headquarters, patrol cars, and the streets. This article contributes an account of the significance of "cultural match" in law enforcement: perceptions and practices are driven by the socioeconomic context in which an organization is embedded, thereby impeding full compliance with industry standards that are deemed locally incompatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do institutional entrepreneurs craft new organizational forms under unstable conditions, especially when all of the relevant organizational models have serious liabilities in terms of legitimacy? Previous literature argues that emergent organizational models must adopt existing organizational elements in order to solve three problems: (1) gaining access to resources, (2) exploiting previous competencies, and (3) demonstrating legitimacy to salient audiences. Yet, these three distinct needs often require very different organizational elements associated with diverse, contradictory moral logics. This article, which examines the case of for-profit ventures started by Chinese state organizations in the 1990s, reveals one strategy that entrepreneurs can use to solve this problem—to deliberately increase ambiguity about the organization's central characteristics and its underlying moral logic. This strategy makes it possible for new organizations to solve the problems of resources, competency, and legitimacy by simultaneously adopting (and adapting) contradictory organizational elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1912 Emile Durkheim predicted that testators would shift their beneficiaries in their last wills from their families to organizations as societies industrialized, primarily because the family would decline as an economic institution. This article analyzes and expands Durkheim's prediction into a "Durkheimian" theory of organizational inheritance. The 429 last wills filed in the probate court of Providence, Rhode Island, from 1775-1985 are content analyzed in order to test Durkheim's prediction and to determine if other fundamental changes have occurred in testamentary behaviors. Contrary to Durkheim's prediction, families and kin remain as the beneficiaries in more than 90 percent of the sole beneficiary wills and in more than 80 percent of the combined beneficiary wills. Spouses, children, and grandchildren remain as the most frequent beneficiaries. Although many other types of beneficiaries besides family members and voluntary associations were named by testators in 1985, these other types accounted for a relatively small percentage of the beneficiaries. Other factors are suggested that could bring about widespread organizational inheritance during the next twenty years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article attempts to determine the effect of financial controls on long term incremental organizational changes, effects of environment on an organization and the conditions that transform the corporate form by analyzing the historical and interview data on one of the largest steel corporations in the United States. Recent organizational analysis focus on how environmental changes affect organizations. Several sociologists criticize this paradigm, claiming it is too narrowly defined, underestimates the effects of internal organizational variables on change, and neglects organizational control over the environment. Dialectical analysis recognizes disequilibrium in organizations and between organizations and their environment, and the irrational social action that emerges from organizational contradictions. The social world, within dialectical theory, is in a continuous state of becoming whereby one set of arrangements gives way to another. The dialectical model stresses active participation in the ongoing social construction of organizations that creates and resolves contradictions.

Using a sample of 387 male federal employees who responded to a questionnaire, this study tests two theoretical perspectives concerning the effect of women's labor force participation on men's work experiences. One theory, with roots in the external-conflict/internal-cohesion and minority-group size/discrimination literature, predicts that the greater the representation of women in work groups, the greater the social solidarity among male workers and the less the social support for males from female coworkers. A second theory, derived primarily from Blau's exploration into the quantitative properties of social structure, suggests that the higher the proportional representation of females, the lower of social solidarity among male workers and the greater the social support for males from female coworkers. The findings support the latter, not the former, theoretical perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Colleague consultation in professional organizations is both important and commonplace. One consequence of consultation is that some individuals acquire more prominence than others in the work contact networks. The literature suggests that variation in prominence depends on personal characteristics, such as occupation, education, ascribed traits, and activities both inside and outside the organization. Using sociometric data for the staff members of a psychiatric hospital for children, various hypotheses dealing with the effects of personal attributes are examined. An alternative explanation is that social relations within and between organizational subunits influence the likelihood that subunit members will be prominent in the hospital-wide communication network. The analysis indicates that these subunit relations have direct effects on prominence and also mediate the effects of certain personal characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the phenomenon of deviance by employees against the rules of the formal work organization as the behavior of interest, the differential saliences of both formal (i.e., management) and informal (i.e., co-worker) sanction severity are empirically compared. As hypothesized, the perceived threat of informal sanctions by one's fellow co-workers explains both property deviance and production deviance far better than the perceived severity of the more formal responses initiated by management. Further, if the two forms of social control are causally ordered, we find that management actions to constrain deviant employees do have an effect, albeit indirect, in that formal sanctions operate on deviance indirectly by shaping the informal sanctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research which reports the effects of global and contextual organizational characteristics on patterns of female and black participation in organizational work forces is reviewed. Explanations of work-force composition include economic and political conditions internal and external to the organization. Findings are organized and summarized by means of twelve propositional statements. Moderate support exists to link formalization, occupational composition of the work force, and community values to the sexual and racial composition of the organization's work force. Centralization, executive characteristics, unionization, community labor-force composition, and community supply of labor have also been linked to work-force composition—but less frequently or less consistently. Slack resources, demand for labor, visibility of operations, and dependence on government contracts also affect work-force compositions—but indirectly. The review concludes by noting limitations in the existing literature and by making suggestions regarding future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The population ecology model of formal organizations is used to study how adaptive maneuvers enable organizations to maintain themselves in a distribution of like organizations and, ultimately, to understand how the process of selection leads to survival and reproduction of certain types of organization and attrition of other types of organizations. Selection is readily affected by organization innovation, whether administrative or technological. This research dealt with how the steel rail may have affected the survival of 214 railroads in a fourteen-state area of the U.S. from 1860 to 1890. The findings indicate that two organizational characteristics, age of railroad and size of a rail operation, contributed more to rail survival than did technological innovation. Several methodological and theoretical issues are discussed which surround the choice of the population ecology model and the conduct of this research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a widely accepted premise of mass society theory that voluntary associations play an important integrating role in modern society by mediating between the individual and the remote influences on life, work, and politics. There are two major variants of the mediation hypothesis: (1) purely social interaction within organizations lessens alienation in immediate relationships; (2) interaction accompanied by political exposures reduces alienation in the political domain. Controlling for social class, activity in instrumental, political groups is associated with significantly lower levels of political alienation. Activity in nonpolitical, social organizations is found to have more general attitudinal consequences—both for levels of social alienation and for estrangement from political processes. These patterns suggest that, despite the consistent effects of SES on nonalienative beliefs, voluntary associations provide independent settings of social and political integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Michel's notion of the inevitable and ironic transformation of groups with egalitarian intent into groups with oligarchical practices is examined through an analysis of thirty-four role playing partisan groups. Each group is a triad with an extended shared history or a history of equality that comes with friendship. Each group differentiated itself by selecting a representative to confront another student who played the role of a university dean. In nineteen of the groups the constituents obtained a news report of the outcome of those negotiations independent of their representative's report. In the other fifteen groups the constituents had to depend on their representative's report. In those groups that relied solely on their representative's report, oligarchical interrelations emerged. This contrasts with the news report groups who maintained egalitarian relationships while developing a political standpoint toward each other, the opposition and the future. We conclude that Michels' statement on organizational oligarchy is illuminated further by a consideration of an emergent monopoly of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major criticisms of the dominant comparative structural and structural contingency approaches to organizations were examined and found to possess at least ten major limitations. These structural approaches have resulted in an emphasis on organizational efficiency, goals, consensus, statics, and constraints of the environment, size, and technology which perpetuate the status quo; but the analysis of power, change, conflicts of interest, and individual volition have been obscured. Although structural analysis has resulted in some limited abstract generalizations concerning the form of organizations, these generalizations do little to contribute to understanding organizational processes, strategic choice, and power relationships. These important aspects of organizations could be unmasked by viewing organizations as arenas of micro-individual and group interests as well as arenas through which macrosocietal, class, and multinational interests and conflicts are played out. To minimize these limitations in the analysis of organizations, triangulations of perspectives, levels of analysis, sources of data, and methodologies are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following contingency theory on a goal based model of effectiveness, an analysis of the effectiveness of 73 human service organizations was attempted. The initial measure of effectiveness was self-reports from organizational members. When these measures were compared with additional indicators of effectiveness on the same goals, dissimilar results were found. This suggested that it was fruitless to try to establish single measures of organizational effectiveness, because there are contradictions among the goals of the organizations and among the internal and external parties concerned with the organizations. A contradiction model of effectiveness is proposed which incorporates elements of the system resource and goal models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Data from 23 alcoholism halfway houses are analyzed to assess the relationship of four aspects of organizational size to three levels of organizational functioning. As identified by Kimberly (1976), the dimensions of size are (1) personnel, (2) inputs/ outputs, (3) physical capacity, and (4) amount of discretionary resources. The three levels of organizational analysis are (1) internal (reflecting social control issues), (2) external (organization-environment relations), and (3) socio-technical (core technology issues). The amount of discretionary resources, followed closely by personnel size, is the dimension of size most relevant to all three aspects of organizational operations. Contrary to expectations, input-volume (or number of residential clients) was related negatively both to a more differentiated internal structure and to supportive organization-environment relations. Also unexpected, client-size had little relationship to the programming or staffing aspects of the core technology. Physical capacity (number of client beds) was the least significant aspect of size for this sample of organizations. Additional analyses of size as a multi-dimensional concept and refinement in theories relating size to the structure and operations of residential service organizations are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of discrepancies between preferred and perceived control among church members are investigated in terms of amount and distribution of control. For each dimension of control, three categories of respondents are identified: those who preferred a greater amount or wider distribution of control than they perceived to exist within their churches (deficit); those whose preferred and perceived control scores were identical (balance); and those who preferred a lesser amount or more concentrated distribution of control in their churches than they perceived to exist (surplus). For both amount and distribution of control, a perceived deficit is more common than a surplus. Respondents experiencing discrepancies in either direction are more dissatisfied and alienated than those with a balance in desired and perceived organizational control. A deficit is associated with more dissatisfaction (but not necessarily more alienation) than a surplus. Subsample comparisons show these findings hold for both officers and non-officers. Regression analyses show that discrepancies regarding organizational control are important even after other aspects of control have been introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Systematic study of the sociology of organizations is almost absent in both the classical and modern Marxist traditions. Although some recent studies in the Marxist tradition show considerable promise, the field has been dominated by the Weberian perspective. The development of new theory should be informed by the Marxian concepts of (a) labor theory of value, (b) the forces and relations of production, (c) historical development of capitalism, and (d) class structure and class struggle. Bourgeois organizational theory has some serious deficiencies, but there is much of value that can be subsumed under the broader rubric of Marxist political economy. The potential for a Marxist theory of bureaucracy is explored in an examination of managerial strategies to minimize external uncertainties in a monopoly capitalist system, and internal uncertainties arising from the work force. Strategies for controlling the work force include the division of labor, organizational hierarchy, rules and procedures, the uses of secrecy and hoarding of knowledge, and the maintenance of ethnic and sexual divisions in the work force. Further research is needed on (a) differentiating capital accumulation and social control strategies, (b) comparisons between workers in the state and corporate sectors, (c) comparisons between work organization under full range of socialist economies and those in capitalist economies in both manufacturing and government and (d) alternatives for the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extension of the exchange model for the analysis of interorganizational relations is developed, incorporating into the model recent developments in exchange theory. Organizational interactions are viewed as networks of exchange relations, and various forms of interorganizational activity such as merger and coalition or alliance formation are analyzed in relation to power and position in the network. Linkages between various types of exchange networks and what economists refer to as market structures are examined. Finally, previous criticisms of exchange formulations are reviewed, and directions for future theoretical and empirical work concerning networks of interorganizational relationships are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational change may be considered as analogous to scientific change. Kuhn's analysis of scientific activities as paradigm guided is applied to an organizational framework to suggest that organizational activities may be understood in the same fashion. This perspective is briefly applied to the current controversy in health care. Research attention is directed toward the use of knowledge in organizational activities and in health care in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The voluntary organization literature has viewed the processes of selective attraction and socialization almost exclusively as a function of individual characteristics rather than organizational characteristics. Using data from two voluntary associations, we found that organizational characteristics (goal specificity, change orientation, and restrictiveness) were associated with the degree of selective attraction and socialization of attitudes. After controlling for the compositional characteristics of the membership, these data suggest both an organizational and an individual effect on socialization and selectivity. We concluded that the organizations studied here were more of a means for the support of attitudes held prior to joining than a means for developing or changing attitudes through membership. Further research might examine what role different voluntary associations play in the structuring of attitudes, providing a greater understanding of both individuals and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between organizational size and the proportional size of the administrative component. The hypothesis is that organizational size is directly related to the difference between the relative sizes of the clerical and managerial components-the clerical ratio minus the managerial ratio. The data, drawn from general hospitals, show that the managerial component and organizational size are negatively related, and that organizational size and the relative size of the clerical component are not related. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max WEBER utilized the ideal-type in various ways. One of them was in his analysis of bureaucracy as a form of social organization. Generally, he stated that the bureaucratic type of administration is "from a purely technical point of view, capable of attaining the highest degree of efficiency and is in this sense formally the most rational known means of carrying out imperative control over human beings." More specifically, he stated the following characteristics of the ideal-type of bureaucracy: (1) It consists of a formation of offices with each office having a specified "span of control," and specified duties and responsibilities. (2) The offices are organized into a hierarchy with each lower office under the control and supervision of the next higher one. (3) Operations are governed by a system of rules and consist of the application of these rules to particular cases. (4) Each office is occupied by an official who conducts himself in a spirit of formalistic impersonality. (5) The occupancy of an office is based on technical competency, and the hierarchy is a career line for the office occupant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students of organizations, whether with applied or more basic research interests, have had difficulty with the concept of organizational purpose or goal. The problems with purpose are identified by three questions, of which the most basic is: "What is organizational purpose?" In most organizations there is a coherence of, a direction to, and an order in activities such that the organizations are or appear to be explicable in terms of some goal. Organizational purpose is postulated as the phenomenon that provides this order, direction, and coherence. However, there is little agreement as to the nature of this phenomenon. Some would assert that it is found in or as a product of the motives and purposes of the members. Others would assert that it is much more clearly an organizational phenomenon, citing as supporting evidence the continuity through time of the same order and direction in activities despite changes in personnel. The second question, "What data identify purpose?" must be answered as a prerequisite for research whether or not we can agree on a theoretical answer to the first. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Formal organizations, as well as individual practitioners, are important agents of professional service. Yet, despite the attention which has been given to the relations between clients and free professionals, relations between clients and client-serving organizations largely remain to be explored. Since the form of the professional client relationship has significant effects on the behavior of the free professional, presumably it has an equally marked impact upon the structures and activities of client-serving organizations. Our purpose here is to suggest what some of these effects may be. We have chosen to analyze effects upon authority structures and control within the staff, assuming that these structures have a central, strategic position vis-`-vis other attributes of organization. We shall attend especially to the effects of variations in the form of the organization-client relationship. The analysis begun here could be extended profitably to a number of other organizational characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]