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The article presents a list of publications received by the journal for future review including "Messing About in Problems: An Informal Structured Approach to their Identification and Management. Frontiers of Operational Research and Applied Systems," by Colin Eden, Sue Jones, and David Sims, "The Computerization of Newspaper Organizations: The Impact of Technology on Organizational Structuring," by Nancy M. Carter and John B. Cullen, and "Productivity Gainsharing: How Employee Incentive Programs Can Improve Business Performance," by Brian E. Graham-Moore and Timothy L. Ross.

Many social structures can be viewed as collections of interconnected voluntary social pairings, for example, matches between jobholders and jobs, husbands and wives, or residents and neighborhoods. A general performance sampling model is suggested as a framework for exploring how mutual evaluation within such matches affects their continuation, and thus the structure of matches involved. The model treats continuation in a pairing as a decision made under conditions of imperfect information. It emphasizes the sampling errors involved in using small samples of observations to form judgments about matches. There are indications that the sampling characteristics of the process will often be robust enough to obscure other effects. The specific implications of one version of the model are shown to agree well with general observations from social mobility studies and more specific data from Wisconsin school superintendents. The implications of performance sampling for understanding careers in organizations and social pairings more generally are discussed. In contrast to an earlier paper, which explored major features of the gross structure of matches between superintendencies and superintendents, the present paper looks at the fine structure of the ways in which individuals leave jobs. The attempt is both to illuminate how a particular system of careers might arise from a series of elementary decisions with respect to job exits, and to connect a theory of organizational careers more explicitly with theories of other social pairings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a theoretical synthesis of the concepts of organizational size, technology, complexity, and structural differentiation. It suggests and finds that the most important determinant of differentiation in the division of labor is the scope of an organization's task, a technological dimension, and not organizational size. Neither horizontal nor vertical differentiation is thought to be determined by size while the scope of the task is proposed as a determinant of horizontal differentiation. The findings, however, support only the inference of a moderate causal connection between either size or task scope and either form of differentiation, Throughout the analysis and discussion the contrast between causal inference based on associations of levels and change rates is discussed. When dealing with the organizational processes addressed in this paper, both associations must be examined to adequately portray the complexity of the causal processes inferred. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines a broad conceptual framework for participation in organizations, which provides an overview of four defining dimensions of participatory social arrangements in organizations and their often complex interdependencies. The dimensions of participation discussed in this paper include the social theories underlying participatory social systems and the values and goals each of them implies for participation, the major properties of participatory systems, the outcomes of participation in organizations, and the contextual characteristics of participatory systems which limit or enhance their potential. The view of participation presented in this paper is of a multidimensional, dynamic social phenomenon, the study of which transcends questions unique to any given discipline paradigm and which requires an integration of micro and macro questions. The implications of this conceptualization for theory building, research, and methodology are briefly discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article argues that a society's level of social trust influences employers' hiring strategies. Employers can focus either on applicants' potential and select on foundational skills (e.g., social skills, math skills) or on their readiness and select on more-advanced skills (e.g., pricing a derivative). The higher (lower) the social trust—people's trust in their fellow members of society—the more (less) employers are willing to invest in employees and grant them role flexibility. Employers in higher-trust societies are therefore more attentive to applicants' potential, focusing more on foundational skills than on advanced skills. We empirically test this theory by using a novel dataset of more than 50 million job postings from the 28 European Union countries. We find that the higher a country's social trust, the more its employers require foundational skills instead of advanced skills. Our identification strategy takes advantage of multinational firms in our sample and uses measures of bilateral (country-to-country) trust to predict job requirements, while including an instrumental variable and fixed effects on country, year, employer, and occupation. These findings suggest a novel pathway by which social trust shapes employment practices and organizational strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bibliography is presented of publications received by the journal, including "The Japanese Corporation: How Marketing, Money, and Manpower Strategy, not Management Style, Make the Japanese World Pace-Setters," by James C. Abegglen and George Stalk, Jr., "Organization Theory: An Integrative Approach," by Robert C. Ford, Barry R. Armandi, and Cherrill P. Heaton, and "Incentives, Cooperation, and Risk Sharing: Economic and Psychological Perspectives on Employment Contracts," by Haig R. Nalbantian.

This paper describes how takeovers are accomplished and why they are not readily accommodated by existing organizational theories. We examined the factors that made organizations vulnerable to takeovers during the 1980s, using event-history techniques on time-series data covering all takeover bids for Fortune 500 firms between January 1980 and December 1990. The paper shows that greater organizational slack, age, and having a finance chief executive officer increased the risk of takeover; family control and financial characteristics such as a higher market-to-book ratio lowered the risk; while bank control and intercorporate network ties had no discernable effect. The results indicate an irony: Large corporations that were most successful by the standards of organization theory were most likely to be taken over in the 1980s. We argue that theory about organizations and environments has been premised on an assumption of managerialism that is no longer tenable and that it must adjust to the financial model of the corporation that now dominates economic and policy discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resource dependence approach to organization-environment relations concerns in part the strategy and tactics whereby organizations seek to control aspects of their environment. This study utilizes and extends the resource dependence perspective and establishes the existence of a strategy that the corporate strategy literature ignores. Data from United States antitrust law is used here to sustain the argument that suppression of technology is one strategy used to control resource dependence. Specific tactics and their characteristics are identified, along with their objectives and the processes whereby these may be achieved. The paper shows that the selection of specific tactics is likely to depend on both the particular objective sought and the current judicial interpretation of these areas of law. Recent changes in the latter are producing a situation conducive to the utilization of patent-based tactics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper the development of interorganizational dependence is reviewed. The conceptualization and operationalization of dependence in the research of the Aston Group is criticized on conceptual and methodological grounds. We suggest that future research incorporate the idea of interorganizational networks of interdependence and distinguish explicitly between intra- and interorganizational dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has a dual purpose: to build a conceptual approach to authoritative relations in organizations that permits a reasonable interpretation of existing research; and to encourage significant future research. Its focus is upon several concepts common in the study of authority, which are often treated as being more or less mutually exclusive but which may also be usefully considered as interacting overlays of authoritative relations. Thus, in this paper authoritative relations are conceived as "integrative," that is, as having "traditional," "functional," and "behavioral" component overlays. In the application of the integrative conceptual approach illustrated here, the crucial issue is the increase of the congruence of the several overlays so that they substantially reinforce one another. The relevant literature is sampled, both to illustrate applied techniques and to sketch an organization structure appropriate for increasing the congruence of the several overlays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports the results of the Fontainbleu Seminar sponsored by the European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management in Brussels and the Center of Permanent Education in May of 1975. The seminar participants, which included organizational theorists in Europe, are listed, and the papers presented at the conference will be published in December of 1975.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between an organization’s proportion of female managers and the number of new management jobs initially filled by women versus men. We draw on theories of job differentiation, job change, and organizational demography to develop theory and predictions about this relationship and whether the relationship differs for jobs filled by female and male managers. Using data on a sample of New York City advertising agencies over a 13-year period, we find that the number of newly created jobs first filled by women increases with an agency’s proportion of female managers. In contrast, the effect of the proportion of female managers on the number of new management jobs filled by men is positive initially but plateaus and turns negative. In showing these influences on job creation, we highlight the dynamic and socially influenced nature of jobs themselves: new jobs are created regularly in firms and not merely as a response to technical and administrative imperatives. The results also point to another job-related process that differs between women and men and that could potentially aggravate, mitigate, or alleviate inequality: the creation of jobs. Thus this research contributes to literatures on demography, the organization of work, and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, we introduce performance feedback models to specify conditions under which organizations' decision makers are more (or less) likely to accept the risk and uncertainty of nonlocal interorganizational partnership ties rather than prefer embedded ties with partners with which they have either past direct or third-party ties. Learning theory suggests that organizations performing far from historical and social aspirations may be more willing to accept the uncertainty and risk of such nonlocal ties with relative strangers. An analysis of Canadian investment banks' underwriting syndicate ties from 1952 to 1990 supports predictions from learning theory and, in addition, indicates that inconsistent performance feedback (i.e., performance above either historical or social aspirations but below the other) triggers the greatest risk taking in selecting partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

better understand the connection between organizational identity and how organizations relate to their stakeholders, this paper introduces the construct of identity orientation, previously applied at the individual-level of analysis, at the organizational-level of analysis and proposes that organizations have three distinct identity orientations: individualistic, relational, and collectivistic. In a field study using qualitative and quantitative methods and including 1,126 participants from 88 organizations in the legal services and non-alcoholic beverage industries, I assess the construct's viability, explore its properties, and analyze its predictors at multiple levels of analysis. Results reveal that organizations' relations with stakeholders constitute a prominent feature of organizational identity, that relations with external and internal stakeholders are perceived as tightly coupled, that both pure and hybrid identity orientation types are relatively common, and that identity orientation varies widely among business organizations. Further, specific organizational variables bearing on organizations' stakeholder relations appear to be stronger predictors of identity orientation than general organizational-level or individual-level variables. Implications for a range of literatures addressing organizations' external (stakeholder management, interorganizational relations) and internal relations (human resource management, psychological contracts) are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses data on radio format changes to test hypotheses on innovations as catalysts for nonmimetic change in organizations. Innovations are difficult to interpret using existing schemata, causing organizations to search for information on the opportunities and threats implicit in observed innovations. Such search may lead to mimetic adoption of the innovation or, more likely, to more varied nonmimetic change. Results show an effect of innovations on the rate of nonmimetic change in radio markets, with innovations in large or nearby markets having greater effect and innovations by large organizations having less effect. The social and competitive relations of the innovator to a given organization are thus modifiers of the catalytic effect. These findings have implications for theories of innovation, competition, and organizational isomorphism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using models drawn from organizational theory and institutional economics, this paper examines the extent to which firms borrow money. We argue that corporate borrowing depends on four factors: the expected return on borrowing, the availability of internal funds, the strategic orientation of the chief executive officer, and the firm's board composition. We formulate four hypotheses, which we test with data on 22 large U.S. manufacturing firms from 1956 through 1983. Retained earnings, the expected return on borrowing, the presence of a representative of a financial institution on the firm's board of directors, and the presence of a CEO from a finance background are all associated with the level of borrowing. The findings suggest that both economic and organizational factors affect the extent to which firms borrow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses evolutionary, social psychological, organizational, and game theoretic literatures as frames to explore the dilemma of the choice to volunteer. Although one's group may benefit from voluntary action, volunteers typically incur more costs than others, even when their actions are successful. The four experiments presented here addressed when and why people volunteer in fictitious financial scenarios that varied group size, the number of volunteers required, the payoffs to volunteers and nonvolunteers, and the need to work more or for smaller outcomes than others. The results suggest that, in general, undergraduates, M.B.A.s, and executives volunteered most often when personal benefits were high. Executives also focused on issues related to self-interest when they were questioned about voluntary action in the workplace. The discussion raises issues about voluntary action in situations in which people interact at a distance and speculates about implications for the dynamics and antecedents of altruistic action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews current perspectives on organizational decline and integrates important underlying factors into a conceptual framework that refines the definition of decline in organizations. In the model developed here, decline moves through the following stages: 0) the organization is blind to the early stages of decline; (2) it recognizes the need for change but takes no action; (3) it takes action, but the action is inappropriate; (4) it reaches a point of crisis; and (5) it is forced to dissolve. The discussion of this model points to areas in which additional research is needed to develop sensitivity to the conditions leading to decline and a better understanding of conditions that are common to declining organizations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While idealized conceptions of internal labor markets suggest that career movement in bureaucratized organizations invariably occurs along formally defined job ladders, scholars of the subject generally recognize that actual career trajectories are only imperfectly constrained by formal job ladders. This paper argues that some occupational and organizational characteristics work to increase the similarity between trajectories implied by formal job ladders and actual career movement, while others tend to structure divergence between the two in systematic ways. An analysis of vacancy filling in four bureaus of the federal government demonstrates the effects on personnel practices of task idiosyncrasy, imperfect information, training needs that are inconsistent with formal job ladders, and the organization's configuration of vacancies and employees eligible to fill them. Results are based on a model that takes account of the horizontal boundaries between positions created by intraorganizational structure and official job ladders, as well as the vertical stratification of positions by grade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most ideas of intelligent choice assume that decision making involves estimating the probable future values of currently available alternatives and choosing the best of them. Sometimes chosen alternatives turn out to be better than anticipated; sometimes they turn out to be worse. The difference between the predecision estimated value of a chosen alternative and its postdecision value, determined after some of its consequences have been experienced, can be defined as postdecision surprise. This paper examines a systematic bias in the distribution of postdecision surprises attributable to the structure of intelligent choice itself. It is shown that unbiased, random errors in estimation result in a structural tendency toward postdecision disappointment, which will be most characteristic of decision situations in which variation among the true values of alternatives is relatively small, the ambiguity or uncertainty in evaluation is relatively high, and the number of alternatives considered is relatively large. The decision dilemma is clear. Choosing apparently better alternatives will, on average, produce higher returns; however, in the absence of behavioral adjustments, higher expected benefits will be associated with greater expected disappointments. The effects are illustrated with results computed for the special case of normally distributed values and errors. Some implications are suggested for understanding postdecision surprise and the development of social norms of intelligent choice in individuals and organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the effects of succession of the publisher in local newspaper organizations. Unlike much previous research, the analysis simultaneously took into account: (1) the organizational context of the succession event; (2) the timing of succession relative to the organizational life cycle; and (3) the type of transfer undertaken in control structures. The findings show that the rates of death of newspaper organizations increase following succession of the founder. This finding holds for all types of founder control structures and forms of newspaper organizations. The analysis also shows some weak evidence that succession has its greatest impact when the transfer of control occurs from and between organizations controlled by individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human factors engineering concerns the design of equipment in accordance with the mental and physical characteristics of operators. Human factors engineers advise design engineers, but the organizational context limits their influence and restricts their perspective. The discussion of organizational context in this paper explains why military and industrial top management personnel are indifferent to good human factors design and shows how the social structure favors the choice of technologies that centralize authority and deskill operators and how it encourages unwarranted attributions of operator error. The role of equipment and system design in shaping cognitive maps and mental models is explored, and the technology-social structure paradigm is questioned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines three hypotheses regarding the relative significance public bureaucracies assign to evaluations, examinations, and seniority in making promotions. The control proposition asserts that the state of the bureau's authority structure is an important factor; the technical uncertainty proposition assumes that the nature and variety of organizational skills and tasks play a dominant role. Against these propositions, which emphasize emergent internal structural conditions, we pose a legal-institutional null hypothesis. This hypothesis explains promotion criteria in terms of the extra organizational constraints and conditions represented by civil service regulations and regional differences in experience with merit systems. While the results provide some support for the control and technical uncertainty propositions, they underscore the significance of extraorganizational factors. The significant effects of regional differences are of special interest because they indicate the degree to which intraorganizational advancement criteria are ultimately shaped by the socioeconomic and cultural environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to determine the nature of budget decision making in a university. Using a research design employing cross-sectional and longitudinal data, the analysis explores whether budgeting conforms more closely to a bureaucratic model of organization or to a coalitional model of organization. The data suggest that coalitional behavior is most easily discernible in budget decision making when resources are relatively scarce. Thus, decisions about resource allocation tend to conform more with behavior predicted by coalitional theory, at least during periods of relative scarcity of resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A chief executive job is a pairing of an individual and an organization. A career within a system of chief executive jobs consists in a series of such pairings involving a single individual. This paper considers one system of careers, Wisconsin school superintendents from 1940 through 1972, and examines the extent to which statistical characteristics of that system are consistent with a simple Markov model that assumes both individuals and jobs to be indistinguishable and careers at that level to be essentially random. The results indicate that the system is nearly, but not entirely, random. Deviations from randomness appear to be due primarily not to differences among the individuals involved, but to differences among the jobs (districts) and to nonstationarity in exit rates over the duration of a job. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for understanding the consequences of control systems for organizations. It is suggested that there are some reasons for anticipating that careers in top management in many social systems would tend to be nearly random events involving nearly indistinguishable managers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two competing approaches--exchange and power-dependency--have been used in previous studies to conceptualize interorganizational relationships. The basic premise of this paper is that an integrated view of these relationships is needed that incorporates propositions from both of these approaches. Propositions are developed from these two approaches for explaining variations in the frequency of interaction and the nature of interactions between pairs of organizations in an interorganizational set. Special emphasis is given to the nature of interactions in an asymmetrical relationship. The propositions are tested using data on interactions between community organizations and local offices of the United States Training and Employment Service. The results suggest that interorganizational relationships should be conceptualized as a mixed-motive situation in which each organization behaves in accordance with its own self-interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops and tests the argument that technology should be thought of as representing the work of each level of organization as well as different subunits in an organization. Predictions of divergent effects of individual task and subunit workflow technologies on staff characteristics and subunit structures were tested on 142 patient care wards in a stratified random sample of 16 hospitals. The data rather clearly support the conclusion that as we move from tasks to workflow, the effects of technological predictability shift from individual job qualifications and specialization to systems of subunit coordination and control. The effects of technology are compared to those of subunit size and it is concluded that while size continues to have independent effects, it is a less powerful predictor of subunit structure than technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a number of complex and currently unresolved conceptual issues arising in research on innovation in complex organizations. In an effort to link the issues they are approached through an exploration of the factors responsible for instability in empirical findings. Four separate sources of instability are defined and their theoretical and methodological implications are treated at some length. The analysis of the relative adoptability of innovations and the innovativeness of organizations are found to be related by mirror-image theoretical symmetry. The four sources of instability are seen to have the same implications for the development of a theory of adoptability. Seven prescriptions for research on innovation are suggested. Although this study suggests how one might arrive at a general theory of innovation, it does not actually construct any specific theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the characteristics of the recent Soviet literature on public administration and organizational behavior. During the Stalin era research in these areas was effectively stifled, and some promising early studies were repudiated. The past decade has witnessed a tremendous renewal of interest in administrative science among Soviet scholars. Much of the conceptual apparatus and methodology is admittedly borrowed from the West, but applications are interesting and the potential for originality is high. These developments have evoked a conservative reaction from ideologists who seek to preserve the purity of orthodox Marxist social theory, but the innovators appear to have won official acceptance for administrative science as a valid and useful discipline. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article comments on several of the general problems in the theory of organizations. One of the general problems focused in the article is questioning the extent to which the classical Weberian model of bureaucracy is appropriate for understanding the large variety of forms of organization in societies in general and in developing societies in particular. The article also examines the degree to which organizations were built according to the Weberian model and whether these organizations were conductive in bringing about developmental change, modernization or development.

In the past several years, many psychiatric establishments have come to express an ideology often referred to as the "therapeutic milieu." While the distinctions between such a credo and an ethic of "custody" are well understood, the differences between the two types of arrangements in terms of organizational structure are less clear. In general, however, the former tends to take the shape of a bureaucracy, while the latter more closely approximates a diffuse and flattened authority system. Such a trend appears to be related to changing relationships between hospitals and the larger community as well as to increased autonomy on the part of the clients such institutions serve. Within the debureaucratized milieu, however, important processes of change seem to take place which importantly affect the content and functions of communication channels, the processes of decision making with respect both to clinical and administrative matters, the attitudes that staff have toward themselves and toward patients, the strategies which staff employ to articulate appropriate conduct for the clients, and the meaning of the institution for both patients and staff. This paper attempts to describe the historical forces shaping recent innovations in hospital administration, to set forth the organizational features of the "therapeutic milieu," and to trace the interpersonal consequences of the debureaucratized establishment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is difficult to introduce the concept of organizational goal without reifying the organization-treating it as something more than a system of interacting individuals. On the other hand, the concept of goal appears indispensable to organization theory. This paper proposes a definition of "organizational goal" that resolves this dilemma. The goal of an action is seldom unitary, but generally consists of a whole set of constraints the action must satisfy. It appears convenient to use the term "organizational goal" to refer to constraints, or sets of constraints, imposed by the organizational role, that have only an indirect relation with the personal motives of the individual who fills the role. More narrowly, "organizational goal" may be used to refer particularly to the constraint sets that define roles at the upper levels of the administrative hierarchy. In actual organizations, the decision-making mechanism is a loosely coupled, partially decentralized structure in which different sets of constraints may impinge on decisions at different organizational locations. Although the description of organizational goals is consequently complex, the concept of goal can still be introduced in an entirely operational manner. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to explain relationships among community health and welfare agencies by viewing them as being involved in an exchange system. Organizational exchange is defined as any voluntary activity between two organizations which has consequences, actual or anticipated, for the realization of their respective goals or objectives. Organizations have need for three main elements: (1) clients, (2) labor services, and (3) resources other than labor services. Theoretically, were all the essential elements in infinite supply there would be little need for organizational interaction and for subscription to co-operation as an ideal for health agencies. Under conditions of scarcity, however, interorganizational exchanges are essential to goal attainment. The interdependence of the agencies is contingent upon three related factors: (1) the accessibility of each organization to necessary elements from outside the health system, (2) the objectives of the organization and particular functions to which it allocates the elements it controls, and (3) the degree to which domain consensus exists among the various organizations.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay initiates a stock taking conversation with the Administrative Science Quarterly's broad community of scholars--its editors, editorial board members, reviewers, authors, submitters, and readers--about the criteria that organization studies scholars use in evaluating one another's work. I review ASQ's founding editors' vision for the field of organization studies, as articulated in essays by Edward Litchfield and James Thompson that appeared in the first issue of the journal in 1956. Then I outline seven concerns that have been voiced about the state of the field or ASQ in the subsequent 50 years, indicating how ASQ's content in recent years stacks up vis à vis these concerns. Then I offer my own thoughts on these concerns. I argue that we should remain open to diverse modes of inquiry, but I also acknowledge significant challenges to doing so. I close with a list of questions to which readers might respond, in the hope of generating a dialog that can make ASQ's role in the social construction of the field of organizational studies more self-conscious and fruitful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on administrative science news and conferences. The Third International Conference on System Science in Health Care will be held on July 16-20, 1984 in Munich, Germany. The World Research Congress on Free Time and Leisure will be held at Marly-le-Rois, France, on September 24-28, 1984. The First International Conference on Organizational Symbolism and Corporate Culture will be held in Lund, Sweden, on June 26-30, 1984, and will be organized by the Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism (SCOS).

Organizational cultures, and in particular stories, carry a claim to uniqueness-that an institution is unlike any other. This paper argues that a culture's claim to uniqueness is, paradoxically, expressed through cultural manifestations, such as stories, that are not in fact unique. We present seven types of stories that make a tacit claim to uniqueness. We show that these seven stories occur, in virtually identical form, in a wide variety of organizations. We then suggest why these stories have proliferated while others have not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the prevailing image that elements in organizations are coupled through dense, tight linkages, it is proposed that elements are often tied together frequently and loosely. Using educational organizations as a case in point, it is argued that the concept of loose coupling incorporates a surprising number of disparate observations about organizations, suggests novel functions, creates stubborn problems for methodologists, and generates intriguing questions for scholars. Sample studies of loose coupling are suggested and research priorities are posed to foster cumulative work with this concept.1 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Goal attainment in organizations is maximized when goal displacement is minimal. Goal displacement is minimal where goals are tangible. If there is a high degree of goal intangibility, goal attainment can still be maximized by keeping tangible goals directed toward the central intangible goals, but it is reduced by displacing tangible goals to peripheral goals of system maintenance. The system of evaluation and sanctioning reinforces both the peripheral displacement of goals and the neglect of the claimed goals in favor of goals designed to maintain the organization primarily as an end in itself. Increasing goal attainment is difficult, since those who have most authority to support such activity frequently are not inclined to do so. Five major hypotheses and a model on the marginal propensity to perform are suggested for describing the relationships discussed in this analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of industry size (number of production personnel) and the division of labor ("complexity") on the relative number of administrative personnel are examined for 41 industries. Results show that the effects of size and complexity are independent and opposing (size is inversely and complexity is directly associated with relative size of administration). At the same time, size and complexity interact (the positive effects of complexity decrease as size increases, and the negative effects of size increase as the division of labor increases). The interactive effect holds only for managerial and clerical personnel, and does not hold for professional personnel. Results also indicate that with increases in the division of labor, professional and clerical personnel may increase at a faster rate than managerial personnel. Since the findings are so complex, no single hypothesis can probably account for all of them. The "complexity-administrative growth hypothesis," first explicitly formulated by Anderson and Warkov, is a plausible explanation for some of the results, but in itself it cannot account for all results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The organizational variables of complexity, centralization, formalization, stratification, adaptiveness, production, efficiency, and job satisfaction are defined. These variables are interrelated in seven basic propositions as suggested by the theoretical writings of Weber, Barnard, and Thompson. Then the seven propositions are used to derive twenty-one corollaries and to define two ideal types of organizational systems. A limits proposition is suggested. The axiomatic theory, consisting of twenty-nine hypotheses, is tested against a number of research studies and receives considerable support. It appears useful in analyzing a number of organizational problems, including organizational change, centralization versus decentralization, and morale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We draw on an in-depth longitudinal analysis of conflict over harvesting practices and decision authority in the British Columbia coastal forest industry to understand the role of institutional work in the transformation of organizational fields. We examine the work of actors to create, maintain, and disrupt the practices that are considered legitimate within a field (practice work) and the boundaries between sets of individuals and groups (boundary work), and the interplay of these two forms of institutional work in effecting change. We find that actors' boundary work and practice work operate in recursive configurations that underpin cycles of institutional innovation, conflict, stability, and restabilization. We also find that transitions between these cycles are triggered by combinations of three conditions: (1) the state of the boundaries, (2) the state of practices, and (3) the existence of actors with the capacity to undertake the boundary and practice work of a different institutional process. These findings contribute to untangling the paradox of embedded agency--how those subject to the institutions in a field can effect changes in them. We also contribute to an understanding of the processes and mechanisms that drive changes in the institutional lifecycle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article develops and tests theory on when and where a new organizational form will emerge. Recent theory holds that as the number of organizations using a particular external identity code first increases beyond a critical minimal level, the code becomes an organizational form. Going beyond this formulation, we theorize about how an external identity code is established. We argue that when the identities of individual organizations are perceptually focused, they will more readily cohere into a distinct collective identity. We develop ideas about how two observable aspects of organizations might generate perceptually focused identities in a common market: (1) de novo entry and (2) agglomeration in a geographic place with a related identity. Using comprehensive data from the market for disk drive arrays, we test these ideas and an alternative by estimating effects of different specifications of organizational and product densities on rates of entry and exit for array producers. Overall, the analysis supports the notion that firms with perceptually focused identities aid in establishing an organizational form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]