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The first four chapters of Max Weber's Economy and Society presented by Talcott Parsons in 1947 as Theory of Social and Economic Organization present a coherent and complete analysis of social, economic and political structures based upon a consistent theory of social action and its understanding. Parsons did not see them this way. His lengthy introduction sought to insert them into his own "action frame of reference", and his rearrangement of the text made it difficult for a reader to understand why it was constructed the way that it is. This essay describes how Parsons came to be principal translator and editor of the text, examines the changes that he made to it, and links his editorial practice to the analytical procedures that he followed in his Structure of Social Action. ☆ This essay is developed from a paper originally presented in June 2005 at a conference on Max Weber's Basic Sociological Concepts at ZiF, Bielefeld University; an earlier version of the present paper was published as "Talcott Parsons als Übersetzer der 'Soziologischen Grundbegriffe' Max Webers". Max Webers 'Grundbegriffe'. Kategorien der kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschung. Ed. Klaus Lichtblau. (Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 2006) 337–366. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the concept of cultured organization. Organizations are social units distinguished from others by the fact that they have been deliberately established for a certain purpose, which means that their goals and social patterns are functionally specific rather than diffuse, in terms of Talcott Parsons's pattern variables. Thus, there is a tendency to call some social units organization by virtue of their functional and structural characteristics rather than a partial trait of all social units.