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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. Goal approach indicators are matched with system resource measures in examining the convergence and consistency of the two approaches. The convergence of effectiveness measures is examined by observing the correlations between themselves and four organizational decision making variables that had previously been shown to be associated with effectiveness. An examination of the data collected through interviews with representatives of 110 public agencies reveals some consistency but no convergence between the two approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A striking feature of the social participation literature is the tendency to concentrate on one type of activity. For example, studies dealing with formal organizations have described the character of such groups and their participants. Studies of friendship participation have traced the patterns of friendships and the type of people who are attracted to each other as friends. Consequently, few sociologists have focused their attention upon a question like: Are there any patterns or relationships between the different types of social participation? Participation in formal voluntary associations and informal voluntary interactions may be related to each other, influence each other, or at least be similarly influenced by other variables. This paper analyzes different types of social participation to determine if participation in one area of social activity is related to participation in other areas of social life. Specifically, we will try to determine (1) whether people who have many friends or who have a number of intimate friends are more apt to belong to formal voluntary organizations than those who have few friends or intimate friends; (2) whether participation in the family is related to participation in formal voluntary associations and informal voluntary interaction; and (3) whether ethnic generation status and sex alter the patterns between the different types of social participation. Generational status will be used as an independent variable since changes in ethnic status may modify the direction or the degree of relationship between the types of social activity. Sex will be used as a control variable since the roles which men and women play in society often differ considerably-especially among ethnics. [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]

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]

The article presents information about the 1961 annual meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society will be held in Omaha, Nebraska on April 27, 28, and 29. Papers of not more than 25 minutes reading time should be in the hands of the proper chairman not later than January 15, 1961. The papers to be discusses include topics like population, community studies, criminology, family, methods and techniques of research, occupational and industrial sociology and others.

Proprietors of a society, in order to gain their ends, frequently resort to the use of force and violence. An important tool is the organization of violence. Massive violence is instituted by these organizations and at the behest of the societal proprietors as a means of goal attainment. One of the consequences of this massive violence is the disruption of the experience of everyday life and the imposition of another experience upon the actor. The organization, as a result of its own action, creates problems which must be solved in order that action may be continued. The organization must make combat action meaningful by making it relevant; it must devise strategies for successfully moving individuals from one reality to the other; it must define the parameters of the most relevant action, i.e., violence; it must socialize men into violence; it must devise strategies to constrain, channel, and direct the actions of men socialized into violence; it must, in short, construct a social reality designed to cope with the exigencies of the battle-moment. A discussion of some of the factors relevant to the success or failure of this project has been the subject of this paper. [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]

This paper focuses upon two university voluntary organizations engaged in tutoring lower-class Negro youngsters with the hope of increasing their intellectual capabilities and eventual achievements. The long-term goal of both groups was to boost the Negro into better educational tracks in school and eventually to better his social conditions within the community. This was to be accomplished by spending time with students after regular school hours helping them with the courses in which their performance had been considered poor. How much time a tutor spent with his tutee was determined by the particular individuals involved, for no stringent rules governed the didactic nature of the programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article assesses Durkheim's theory of the division of labor in advanced societies relative to Spencer's views on the subject. It seeks to correct a key chapter in the history of sociological thought, for it is in his classic 1893 work that Durkheim is presumed to have routed both Spencer's account of the division of labor and his larger theory of man and society. In fact, Spencer and Durkheim differ very little in their conceptions of the causes of an expanding division of labor (both identify population growth and concentration, and its impact, through heightened competition—group and individual—on specialization of function). They do differ, however, in their treatment of its effects, but Durkheim's explanation is not necessarily—as is commonly assumed in textbook narratives—an improvement on Spencer's. Indeed, many of the questions involved (e.g., whether and to what extent exchange presupposes or creates norms, or divided labor produces cohesion beyond that resulting from mutual need, or the division of labor itself is a moral or economic phenomenon) remain moot. Spencer and Durkheim championed explanations that derived from larger and generally competing perspectives, namely, the moral communalist and the "exchangist" (as Durkheim dubbed his opponent's position). One cannot actually banish the other, for each is a perennially serviceable intellectual outlook. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article builds on theoretical work in the social movements literature that uses "master frames" (Snow and Benford 1992) to account for the cyclical clustering of social movement activity within certain historical periods. I identify "master frame alignment" as the dynamic process by which social movement actors rhetorically transform the master frames within a cycle of protest to make them resonate more clearly with a movement's unique social and historical situation. Just as frame alignment processes serve to link a movement organization's activities, goals, and ideology with those of a potential group of adherents, master frame alignment processes link the activities, goals, and ideology of a movement organization with those espoused within the broader symbolic atmosphere of the social movement. I present historical data from Irish newspapers and political documents to show how the Irish Sinn Fëin movement, seeking self-determination during the early twentieth century, rhetorically reconstructed the master frames generated by the League of Nations in order to better exploit this particular window of political opportunity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research investigates the contradictory role of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as the linking-pin organization within the economic and educational network of intercollegiate athletic organizations. The NCAA is posited as an institutional structure that developed from struggles over the legitimate definition and practice of intercollegiate athletics within the system of higher education in the U.S. It regulates athletic competition and the distribution of material resources in the network and strives to develop and maintain the legitimate purposes of athletic competition in the system of higher education. This study furthers research in the social organization of sport by combining economic and cultural explanations to reveal competing rationalities and the ebb and flow of domination in the institutional process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most recent sociological analysis of corporate Political Action Committee (PAC) behavior focuses on the 1980 election, but 1980 was highly unusual, with many characteristics of a critical or realigning election. Thus, previous findings that business was highly unified, or that ideological conservatives were more unified than pragmatic corporations, may be artifacts of special conditions in 1980. This study shows, however, that on a race-by-race basis business was even more unified in 1986 than in 1980. In 1986, as in 1980, conservative corporations were more unified, though they changed their behavior substantially between 1980 and 1986, becoming much more cautious. [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]

Recent research on teacher militancy report associations between various personal background and organizational variables and attitudinal militancy. These relationships arc frequently interpreted by the post hoc application of social psychological concepts. A causal model is developed that incorporates relevant personal and organizational variables and the social psychological variables that presumably mediate the relationship between these and attitudinal militancy. Research designed to test the model shows the model is supported. [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]

Survey data from 390 respondents was analyzed to determine the relative effects of organizational involvement, socioeconomic status, and political attitudes on political participation. Two theoretical perspectives were investigated: mobilization theory and selection theory. Both the mobilization and selection perspectives were supported by the data; however, organizational involvement was shown to explain more of the variance in political participation than did social status and political attitudes. The mobilization perspective was further examined to determine if it worked equally well in all types of organizations. We found that the relationship between organizational involvement and political participation was stronger for "instrumental" than for "expressive" groups and for organizations characterized by high, as compared to low, levels of political discussion. [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]

The article presents information about sociologist Lawrence Milton Hepple. Hepple, professor of Sociology of Religion at Methodist National Seminary, Kansas City, Missouri, and formerly associate professor of Rural Sociology at the University of Missouri, died of a heart attack on November 22, 1960, in Kansas. He was born and reared in Missouri, attending high school at Moberly. He received an A.B. degree from Central College in 1932, and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Missouri in 1940 and 1946, respectively. His teaching career began in 1942 when he served as instructor in Sociology at the University of Missouri. He became assistant professor of Sociology in 1945, assistant professor of Rural Sociology in 1947, and associate professor of Rural Sociology in 1950. In July 1960, he accepted the position of professor of Sociology of Religion at the new Methodist National Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. Hepple served as president of the Boone County Mental Health Association, and was chairman of the section on Religion and the Aged in the task force created by the state in preparation for the White House Conference on Aging.

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]

Increased peer contact in age-graded voluntary associations is thought to be conducive to the development of political self-interest among older people. Analysis of the age structure of 304 aged individuals' association memberships revealed that desire for political change to benefit the aged, receptivity to appeals for organized political action, and willingness to actually engage in behavior designed to secure change were greatest among members of age-graded associations and lowest among older people with mixed generational memberships. When the experience of aging is taken into account, older people having no memberships, but who were experiencing a strong sense of social dislocation grounded in aging, tended to have the strongest desire for political change. Members of age-graded associations, however, whether or not they were experiencing dislocation, showed the greatest potential for actual political mobilization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Shils has pointed out, the study of the life of immigrants was one of the original justifications for the existence of American sociology. The earlier widespread sociological concern with immigrants and ethnic groups is confirmed by the voluminous literature, both analytical and descriptive, produced on these subjects. Since 1935 and particularly after World War II, however, the attention of sociologists to these subjects has continually been declining, as can be evidenced by comparative statistics on the "race and ethnic relations" specialty of the members of the American Sociological Association (while before 1955, 8.2 per cent had listed this field as their specialty, the percentage declined to 8.4 per cent in 1959); and by a decline in the scope and number of sociological publications on immigrants and ethnic groups. In contrast, it should be noted that a comparable decline of interest does not prevail among historians and anthropologists. The historians appear even to have increased their interest in recent years, as we note in the works of Handlin, Bjork, Hoglund, Jones, and Govorchin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

United States college students' knowledge of and attitude toward about sociology were surveyed. Thirty percent were able to name the national organization of sociologists, namely the American Sociological Association (ASA). Among the mistaken efforts were 12 votes for the National Association of Social Workers. Asked to identify the principal scholarly journal published by the ASA, 22 percent named the "American Sociological Review". Only 5.3 percent could name the ASA president. 13.8 percent said "Midwest Sociological Society" in answer to a request for the name of the regional professional organization of sociologists in this part of the United States. Students who have given some consideration to careers in sociology did relatively well on several questions.