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This paper compares the Butler and Ehrenberg analysis of the narcotic effects of impasse procedures, presented in the preceding article, with the purposes, methods, and empirical results of the authors' earlier paper on the same subject. The authors use the differences in the two papers to argue that a need exists to achieve a better blending in industrial relations research of model building and testing, of quantitative and qualitative data, and of simple and complex statistical tests. The differences in results presented in the two papers are shown to reflect, in part, differences in the definition of the problems examined. These authors stress the importance of choosing statistical techniques that fit the theoretical and policy problems of interest to industrial relations researchers and practitioners, and the power gained from mixing qualitative and quantitative methods. [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 paper argues that evolutionary processes occur in the environments of organizations. Ideal types of environment, originally conceptualized by Emery and Trist, are elaborated and extended. A review of recent literature gives evidence of the decreasing autonomy and the increasing interdependence of organizations. Four approaches to interorganizational analysis are reviewed and found inadequate to deal with present-day conditions. This paper then outlines a perspective which allows any organization, its transactions, and the environment itself to be viewed in a common conceptual framework. Two hypotheses are discussed: (I) that organizational change is increasingly externally induced; and (2) that organizational adaptability is a function of ability to learn and to perform according to changes in the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Through a review and integration of the heretofore rather distinct literatures dealing with (1) policy making in administrative agencies, (2) the use of scientific and technical information in public policy, and (3) the utilization of policy research, this paper develops preliminary conceptual frameworks of the variables affecting the acquisition and the utilization of technical information by administrative agencies. Although previous research, based largely upon case studies of a few decisions within a single agency, has resulted in numerous bivariate hypotheses, the number of variables involved and recognized problems of generalizing the results suggest that future research be oriented toward a number of strategies capable of simultaneously examining the effect of numerous variables over large numbers of cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges the conclusion made by previous broken-tie researchers that interlocks are not primarily organizational phenomena. Instead, we argue that it is incorrect to assume that all organizational interlocks, when broken, will be reconstituted. Broken ties shown most likely to be reconstituted with the same firm (direct reconstitution) are those in which the sending firm is in a position to exercise power over the receiving firm. The paper introduces the concept of a functional reconstitution, whereby a firm establishes a tie with another firm in the same industry as the previous tie, rather than reestablishing the tie with the same firm. Focusing on interlocks between industrial and financial corporations, the paper compares the determinants of direct reconstitution with those of functional reconstitution. The results show that the factors that affect the likelihood of direct reconstitution have no effect or the opposite effect on the likelihood of functional reconstitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes data describing jobs in 100 establishments in order to test hypotheses about the characteristics of jobs and organizations associated with the structure of internal promotion ladders. The diversity of labor market arrangements found within the organizations indicates only weak support for hypotheses linking internal labor markets to organizational or sectoral imperatives. At the job level, however, there is support for hypotheses linking job ladders to firm-specific skills, organizational structure, gender distinctions, technology, occupational differentiation, the institutional environment, and the interests of unions. The paper concludes with an examination of how promotion ladders are formed from clusters of jobs associated with each other by occupation, skill, or gender composition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many models of organizational decision behavior have been proposed in economics and organization theory. This paper reconstructs the specific properties of various decision models in dealing with two fundamental dimensions of decision making: uncertainty and conflict of interest. On the basis of these two attributes the paper proposes a methodology for selecting organizational decision strategies. Among other decision strategies, a new model of heuristic decision making is elaborated that includes Simon's "satisficing" model in a more general framework, based on some models of scientific discovery, in order to achieve a better explanation of ill-structured problem solving. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper challenges conventional descriptions of planning as necessarily tied to setting specific goals. The author describes a more intuitive planning process which proceeds by identifying arenas of activity and preferred styles of acting. The choice of planning mode is contingent upon task, organizational, and people characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically reviews one of the most important but least understood concepts in management--organizational climate. A contingency approach is proposed, various measures are discussed, and the studies are reviewed. Recommendations for future research are enumerated based on an analysis of the existing literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is concerned with some of the often neglected behavioral problems associated with the practice of management by objectives. These include problems relating to managerial style, adapting to change, interpersonal skills, setting objectives, measurement, and management by objectives quality control. The paper concludes with some criticisms of the current state of management by objectives research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of collective bargaining on several factors known to be determinants of student achievement in the public schools, particularly its effect on the teacher's allocation of time among various activities. Estimates based on a national survey show that bargaining appears to reduce time spent in instruction, to increase the level of education of teachers, and to increase the number of administrators -- all differences associated with lower student achievement. On the other hand, bargaining tends to increase the time teachers spend in class preparation, the experience level of teachers, and the teacher-student ratio -- differences associated with higher student achievement. The net effect of collective bargaining on teacher productivity is therefore not clear at this time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops and illustrates the use of two methodologies to analyze the effect of unions on productivity in the public sector. Although the methodologies are applicable to a wide variety of public sector functions, the focus of the paper is on municipal libraries because of the availability of relevant data. The empirical analysis, which uses 1977 cross-section data on 260 libraries, suggests that collective bargaining coverage has not significantly affected productivity in municipal libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper first describes in a relatively nontechnical fashion several econometric techniques that the authors believe should be useful to industrial relations researchers. Those techniques are then applied to an analysis of whether public sector impasse procedures create a "narcotic effect," that is, a tendency for the bargaining parties, once they use the procedures, to become increasingly reliant on them in future negotiations. The authors reanalyze data from Thomas Kochan and Jean Baderschneider's study of the impasse experience of police and fire fighters under New York State's Taylor Law during the 1968-76 period and find that while a narcotic effect did exist, as Kochan and Baderschneider argued, that relationship lasted only during the early years of the period and was actually reversed in later years. The authors conclude by explaining how such a pattern of results could occur, tracing the implications of their findings for public policy, and suggesting other research questions that could be analyzed by the econometric methods they have described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of cyclical movements in strike activity. The first part of the paper develops a bargaining model that demonstrates the crucial role of limited information as a cause of strikes. This model is believed to be an improvement over others because it allows for maximizing behavior on the part of both the union and the firm and it explicitly incorporates the interdependency that exists between the concessions of one side and the demands of the other. The second part of the paper uses this model to show how inflation may cause a systematic cyclical movement in strike activity. This analysis is developed for both the case of rational price expectations and that of adaptive price expectations. In the final section of the paper a series of fourteen hypotheses, developed either from the author's model or from previous studies, is tested through a regression analysis of strike data for American manufacturing over the 1954-75 period. The results show, among other things, that inflation has been responsible for much of the increase in strike rates experienced in manufacturing in the 1970s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper re-examines the question, recently raised in this journal by Bloch and Kuskin, of whether wages are determined differently in the union and nonunion sectors. Whereas Bloch and Kuskin employed ordinary least squares to estimate separate wage equations for the two sectors, this study uses a methodology proposed by Heckman and by Lee to correct for the possibility that wage differences may determine the union status of workers as well as vice versa. The authors find that union status is strongly related to the predicted union-nonunion wage differential, but their evidence nevertheless reinforces Bloch and Kuskin's empirical finding that the union earnings function is less sensitive than the nonunion earnings function to changes in nearly every observable attribute of workers, such as education and experience. The authors also conclude that previous studies using separately estimated union and nonunion wage equations may have understated the success of unions in raising the relative wages of their members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions of strike activity, and in particular of the costs of strike activity, generally ignore the existence of capital markets. If strikes are costly and if they are predictable, the presence of capital markets limits the losses that can be imposed on firms. This paper examines the effect of strikes on the value of the firm as measured by the stock market. The results indicate that strikes do have a negative effect on the value of the firm, although not a very large one, and that the stock market predicts the occurrence of strikes efficiently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and operation of linkage mechanisms constitute a major task for administrators of systems in complex and rapidly changing environments. The paper describes four different assessments of the needs for change and the linkage mechanisms these assessments lead to, their costs, and their effects on the system as a whole. For systems in a turbulent environment, subsystems and also linkage mechanisms need to be clearly differentiated, and supported by integration into the system as a whole. Where system support is inadequate, linkage problems tend to provoke a multiplication of innovative subsystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the traditional Weberian concerns about complex organizations require refinement and extension for the understanding of organizations designed for social development. Six ideal type modes of looking at development bureaucracies are proposed: (1) that the organization is theoretically oriented; (2) that the organization is designed to provide latent structures to meet the changing contingencies of the development process; (3) that the organization is client centered and is consequently designed to work with the entire social system(s); (4) that the organization is designed to perform a socialization or resocialization function; (5) that social development organizations are ideally committed to a norm emphasizing experimental design as the primary consideration in program design; (6) and that the organization for social development is constrained by the limited alternatives for change available at any given time. In addition, brief attention is given to the great importance of community disintegration and ego impairment as critical constraints on attempts to repair and/or modernize a social system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines two different ways of measuring the distribution of power in sixteen health and welfare organizations. Participation in decision making about the allocation of organizational resources and the determination of organizational policy was strongly related to the degree of complexity as measured by (1) the number of occupational specialities, (2) the amount of professional training, and (3) the amount of professional activity and was weakly related to the degree of formalization as measured by the degree of job codification and the amount of rule observation. Except for rule observation, hierarchy of authority or the reliance on the chain of command for work decisions was not as strongly related to each of these measures of organizational structure. A partial correlational analysis between each measure of the distribution of power and the five structural properties indicates that participation in decision making retains an association with the first two indicators of complexity and the first indicator of formalization even when the other five variables are controlled simultaneously. The hierarchy of authority retains an association with the amount of professional activity and the amount of rule observation. At the same time, it is important to recognize that these two measures of the distribution of power are themselves strongly interrelated. When decisions about the allocation of organizational resources are centralized, then there is a centralization of work decisions as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes an experiment on changes in individual and group risk taking tendencies recurring during a semester play of the Carnegie management game. The data clearly indicated that the management game teams studied changed in their risk taking attitudes during the course of the game. At the end of game play the teams showed a greater preference for risk taking than when they were first formed. This was true both for individuals and for teams as groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a reformulation of the concept of rationality in public policymaking. Following Lindblom's critique, it accepts that "comprehensive rationality" is unfeasible as a practical policymaking strategy, but suggests that a slightly recast concept could provide a suitable "ideal criterion" for the assessment of policymaking strategies. Adopting this "limited rationality" criterion, a variant of the "mixed scanning strategy" emerges as a basic prescription for the conduct of public policymaking, the paper provides a pair of case studies (in the field of transportation) to illustrate the need for mixed scanning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the first in a series of articles introducing a new conceptual and methodological framework for the use of experts in decision situations. Presented is the first theory of expert resolution wholly consistent with the Bayesian or subjectivist view of probability. The approach taken rests philosophically on the foundations of decision analysis. The results form practical tools for solving expert resolution problems. The present paper develops a structure in which the expert resolution problem may be logically formulated and conceptually solved. A framework is developed which enables a decision maker to encode his state of reformation concerning an expert. Application of the tools of Bayesian inference provides a mechanism by which a decision maker can incorporate an expert's opinion into his own. The more complicated case in which a decision maker is confronted with the diverse judgments of more than one expert is also addressed in detail. Additionally, the problem of determining the economic worth of one or a panel of experts is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This note presents a description of a time-sharing computer program written to implement a man-machine interactive algorithm for the solution of the multiple criteria problem. The interactive algorithm was suggested in a recent paper by Geoffrion, "Vector Maximal Decomposition Programming," Working Paper No. 164, Western Management Science Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, September 1970. A unique feature of this program is the man-machine dialog which obtains information from the decision-maker through a series of simple, ordinal comparisons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the effect of performance evaluations on expectations for future performances: given a situation in which a person C knows the evaluations received by persons A and B at each step of a series of performances in a specified task, changes in C's expectations about A and B are accounted for as a function of the received evaluations. The process is studied using an extension of a Bayesian model previously constructed by the authors. Whereas the model was originally limited to the cases where person C is both an actor and an observer (that is, either C = A or C = B), in the present extension these become particular cases of the model. The paper also presents, as an example, the simulation of a situation in which A and B have equal ability at the task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to develop a theory of job satisfaction which incorporates differences in work values and perceived job characteristics as key explanatory variables, it empirically examines the relationship between job satisfaction and the work values and job rewards associated with six dimensions of work--intrinsic, convenience, financial, relations with co-workers, career opportunities and resource adequacy. It is found that work values have independent effects on job satisfaction. The extent to which workers are able to obtain perceived job rewards is conceptualized to be a function of their degree of control over their employment situations. The paper also seeks to develop a framework which links the variation in the job satisfactions of workers to the factors that influence the degree of their control over the attainment of job rewards in American society. The analyses in this paper are based on data from the 1972-73 Quality of Employment Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the relationships between stage of development in organizational life cycles and organizational effectiveness. We begin the paper by reviewing nine models of organizational life cycles that have been proposed in the literature. Each of these models identifies certain characteristics that typify organizations in different stages of development. A summary model of life cycle stages is derived that integrates each of these nine models. Next, a framework of organizational effectiveness developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh is introduced. This framework organizes criteria of effectiveness into four models-rational goal, open systems, human relations, and internal processes models. We hypothesize that certain of the models are important in evaluating the effectiveness of organizations in particular life cycle stages but not in others. The analysis of a state agency's development over five years provides some evidence to support these hypothesized relationships between life cycle stages and criteria of effectiveness. We conclude that major criteria of effectiveness change in predictable ways as organizations develop through their life cycles. Some shifts in state of development are resisted by the organization much more than are others, and intervention into organizations may be needed to help make the transitions less painful and costly. We also discuss why the predictions of contingency theory often are not substantiated by research because the responses of organizations to the external environment vary in different life cycle stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the present philosophy and practice used in probability encoding by the Decision Analysis Group at Stanford Research Institute. Probability encoding, the process of extracting and quantifying individual judgment about uncertain quantities, is one of the major functions required in the performance of decision analysis. The paper discusses the setting of the encoding process, including the use of sensitivity analyses to identify crucial state variables for which extensive encoding procedures are appropriate. The importance of balancing modeling and encoding techniques is emphasized and examples of biases and unconscious modes of judgment are reviewed. A variety of encoding methods are presented and their applicability is discussed. The authors recommend and describe a structured interview process that utilizes a trained interviewer and a number of techniques designed to reduce biases and aid in the quantification of judgment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines ‘alternative institutions’ in a variety of institutional domains as participatory-democratic modes of organization. Grounded in comparative data, it posits structural conditions, both internal to an organization and in its environment, which support or undermine the achievement of its collectivist-democratic ideals. While the literature on social movement organizations well demonstrates the fragility of democratic systems and their tendency toward oligarchization, goal displacement, and organizational maintenance, this work suggests, in propositional form, conditions which militate against these all-too-common transformation patterns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metaphors may enlighten our theoretical understanding of affairs, and they may be used to mystify and distort our view of social reality. In a recent series of papers, Gareth Morgan has proposed increasing metaphorical usage, to enrich management and organizational theory. This paper argues that Morgan's advocacy of metaphorical usage is too indiscriminate. By favouring a relativist (rather than a rationalist) theory of knowledge, he invites a proliferation of metaphorical ideology. Morgan's preference for an unbridled metaphorical usage is attributed, in part, to what Edgely (1984) describes as 'liberal dogmatism', and also to his neglect of the social processes that generate and disseminate metaphors. The paper uses a variety of previous metaphorical contributions to management thought - cybernetic, psychological, biological, systemic, mechanical, neurological - to argue that, in general, metaphorical usage in organization studies has always been socially partisan, and that Gareth Morgan's proposals will intensify a mode of partisanship that is clearly at variance with his sympathies expressed elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perceived importance of seven power factors to two types of intradepartmental decision are examined: those which a manager takes alone and those which are taken in a group composed of departmental members only. The major findings from this examination are that while formal authority is important in the former situation it is of lesser importance in the latter situation; the reverse is true for personality. We conclude that decision method has a pronounced effect upon the relative importance of power factors. Secondary analysis of the data suggests that group composition also has a marked effect but that issue domain has a negligible effect. Nevertheless, managerial expertise remains dominantly important throughout the whole range of decision-making situations; this finding also concurs with the results from our companion paper (Kenny and Wilson, 1984). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the importance of the interdisciplinary approach to the study of business is well recognized as a means of exploring and applying the knowledge and methodology of social and behavioral science to business activity, the surface has barely been scratched as far as our knowledge of the determinants of business policy and action is concerned. This paper expands, in table form, a model of power measurement developed by a political scientist (Robert A. Dahl), and then applies this power measurement table to business decision making at the board of directors level. We feel that the usefulness of power comparison lies in allowing one to discern which individuals or groups influence decision making in the firm, which, in turn, determines at least the formal basis of firm behavior. In a separate section of the paper the effect of a firm's organizational structure on an individual's power is discussed. This is followed by a discussion of the limitations and contributions of "power comparability" to a theory of firm behavior. [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]

Based on measures across a variety of dimensions, this paper reports on the communications and decision-making practices of Japanese firms operating in Japan and the United States compared to American firms operating in the United States. The findings document substantial similarity among these firms. Contrasting Japanese firms in Japan with American firms in the U.S., the findings dispute some of the traditional characterizations of the two management systems. Many similarities were found in the form and volume of communication across the two cultures. Further, contrary to stereotypes, managers of Japanese firms were not found to utilize a consultative decision-making process more extensively than American managers do. From a methodological standpoint, the findings suggest the desirability of first examining cross-cultural phenomena from the vantage point of universalistic organizational theory, and, subsequently, examining the mediating effects of particularistic factors such as culture. [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]

A field study of 25 strategic decision processes, together with a review of the related empirical literature, suggests that a basic structure underlies these "unstructured" processes. This structure is described in terms of 12 elements: 3 central phases, 3 sets of supporting routines, and 6 sets of dynamic factors. This paper discusses each of these elements in turn, and then proposes a general model to describe the interrelationships among them, The 25 strategic decision of processes studied are then shown to fall into 7 types of path configurations through the model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores Thompson's theory of organizational assessment as it pertains to the organizations's use of social reference groups. Because certain organizations, such as universities, have ambiguous goals and because the organization's decision makers are faced with unclear means to attain these goals, the organization must rely on measures of relative performance using other similar organizations as the standard of assessment. The behavior of salaries in 652 colleges and universities over a 10 year period relative to the published AAUP scales is analyzed using four hypotheses developed from Thompson concerning the use of other organizations as reference groups in measuring organizational performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organization theorists have faced many difficulties in conceptualizing organizational goals and understanding organizational behavior through them. This paper suggests that commitment to a goal paradigm has retarded analysis by requiring the disassociation of conceptual scheme from incompatible empirical findings on organizations. Barnard's incentive system analysis is seen as providing the foundations of a counter paradigm, and suggestions are made for its development along the lines indicated by his statement "the individual is the basic strategic factor in organization." Organizations are not viewed as analytically distinctive social units given meaning by their goals, but as arbitrary focuses of interest, marketplaces whose structures and processes are the outcomes of the complex accommodations made by actors exchanging a variety of incentives and pursuing a diversity of goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management theorists and practitioners have developed various rationales for the adoption of participative management. In recent years empirical evidence has pointed to the increasing importance of the lateral dimension in the managerial role. The growing emphasis on a manager's lateral interactions provides new justification for the use of participative management. This article examines the relationship between participation and lateral relations and establishes a new rationale for the adoption of participative management. Participative management has been described variously as "a subtle means of having employees think they are a more important part of the organization" or as "group decision-making." The exact dimensions of this concept are not of major importance for this paper; but, for purposes of clarity, participative management is defined as the participation of employees in the managerial role. This includes decision-making, planning, controlling, and any of the other management functions. A possible side benefit of a more judicious use of the participative style of management is the reduction of time spent interacting horizontally in the organization. The participative approach can also get the subordinate involved in some aspects of lateral relations.

Recent evidence suggests that the policies and practices of school systems are loosely structured and weakly controlled. This paper attempts to discover the mechanisms that coordinate school systems despite their structural looseness. The authors argue that by regulating the flow of resources from the district to the school and classroom, administrators influence the content of instruction as well as student learning. Three resources are examined for their effects on the teaching and learning of reading in first grade: the allocation of time, the provision of curricular materials, and the array of students found in schools and classrooms. The analysis indicates that on the average, reading instruction in small groups is constrained by the regulation of these three resources. For students in high- level ability groups, curricular materials play a particularly important role. Administrative decisions on resource allocations constrain teachers' use of resources, which in turn has an impact on student learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the development of organizational social science in the United States. This article is motivated by the observation that the quality of data on which organizational knowledge is built has not improved at nearly the same pace. This paper lays out some advantages to be derived from a centrally funded large-scale organizations data base. An effort to develop a national organizations data base is currently being sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The author's purpose here is to stimulate thought and debate, which are prerequisites to the creative efforts that will be required to pursue this project or set of projects. A further purpose of this article is to lay out some of the problems toward which funding is likely to be directed as part of a process that will eventually produce this large and representative data base. A more positive observation can be derived from an examination of work in related branches of social science. Organizational demography draws heavily on ideas coming from labor economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrapment refers to the process by which organizational decision makers escalate their commitment to an ineffective course of action in order to justify the allocation of previous resources. This paper presents the results of two laboratory experiments that explored the effect on entrapment of individuals' perceptions that the ineffectiveness of prior resource allocations had negative implications for their self-identity. The first experiment showed that entrapment was greater when subjects were told that their in- effective performance reflected their self-identity than when they were told that it did not. The second experiment explored the joint effects on entrapment of performance feedback and the extent to which the feedback was perceived to have negative implications for self-identity. Feedback was manipulated so that half the subjects were told their performance was increasingly ineffective and half that it was increasingly more effective, though still not successful. Half of each group was told performance was due to skill and half that it was mainly due to luck. Entrapment was greater in the skill than the luck condition among those who received the somewhat positive feedback, but the skill-luck difference in entrapment was significantly reduced among those who received negative feedback. Practical and theoretical implications of these and other related findings are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the early life history of an innovative bureau within a state regulatory commission (The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission). Documentary data and participant observation from the Bureau of Consumer Services are used to describe and analyze the bureau's manipulation of symbols in myth building and the development of a ritual "dramaturgy of exchange" through which the bureau assured its growth and survival in its interorganizational environment. The bureau created "products" (information) for use by its friends and supporters to ensure continued resources to aid its acceptance as a legitimate innovation. Relationships with its presumed adversaries in industry were managed through ceremonial exchanges engineered to achieve predictable coalition solutions. This case suggests that certain features such as the development of a dramaturgy of exchange and a system of ritual classification occur early in the process of institutionalization in societal sectors that are technically underdeveloped. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The prevailing assumption in recent literature is that strategic choice and environmental determinism represent mutually exclusive, competing explanations of organizational adaptation. The present paper, in contrast, argues that choice and determinism are independent variables that can be positioned on two separate continua to develop a typology of organizational adaptation. The interactions of these variables result in four main types: (1) natural selection, with minimum choice and adaptation or selection out, (2) differentiation, with high choice and high environmental determinism and adaptation within constraints, (3) strategic choice, with maximum choice and adaptation by design, and (4) undifferentiated choice, with incremental choice and adaptation by chance. These types influence the number and forms of strategic options of organizations, the decisional emphasis on means or ends, political behavior and conflict, and the search activities of the organization in its environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the development of norms in newly formed groups. The behavior of 19 decision-making groups provided the basis for a model of norm development, in which uncertainty over appropriate behavior leads members to use their past experiences in similar social settings as scripts for choosing behaviors in the current situation. Depending on the similarity of the members' scripts, a common basis for action is either taken for granted or negotiated within the group. As the members interact they either tacitly revise their beliefs about appropriate action, implicitly agreeing with the direction being taken by the group, or overtly attempt to pull the group toward their own interpretation through challenges to the implied norm. Data from the decision-making groups is used to illustrate the model, and implications for related research domains are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the identifications of members of subunits when they evaluate policies specifying the amount of resources to be allocated to different subunits in their organization. We studied conditions affecting members' identification with their subunit, using a sample of 185 school principals. With the coalition model of organizations as our starting point, we expected a relatively high baseline probability of identification with the subunit. It was hypothesized that identification with the subunit would be countervailed by conditions that diminished subunits' competition for resources. The three conditions proposed were members' perceptions of (1) the availability of resources, (2) the existence of organization-level planning, and (3) the frequency of controversy about resource allocations. We found that members' identification with the subunit was weakened when they perceived that (1) the amount of resources available to subunits was increasing, (2) a plan or operating procedure governed the allocation of resources to subunits, or (3) controversy over resource allocations to subunits had been frequent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A systematic, interdisciplinary research program stimulated by the early Lewin, Lippitt, and White (1939) studies has been conducted in Japan during the past 30 years. The present paper provides an overview of this research on the "PM Theory of Leadership," covering its basic conceptual and methodological structure and the key studies that contributed to its development. The distinctive approach that the PM research program has taken to understanding the interaction between the performance and maintenance group functions is described, beginning with their initial representation as leadership types in experimental conditions. Experimental and field studies are described which suggest that the consequences of leadership in Japan are ordinarily the result of an interaction of P-oriented and M-oriented behaviors. When compared with U.S. leadership research results, PM research indicates that leadership at the lower and middle management levels may be consistently more important for subordinates' performance in Japan than it is in the U.S. However, the kind of autocratic leadership that some of Lewin's critics suggested would be successful in Japan may be less often constructive in Japanese organizations than it is in U.S. organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the ways central administrators constrain the work of school principals through a complex web of controls. Six controls, including hierarchical, social, and environmental elements, provide a balance of autonomy and control over these managers. A combination of both tight controls and loose controls are used, with principals granted considerable autonomy over the processes they use but held accountable for results. Both the social status of the school and the size of the district systematically affect the patterning of control. These findings suggest that a more comprehensive framework should be used to understand control over middle managers in not-for-profit organizations. [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]