What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

An Organizational Theoretic Review of Green Supply Chain Management Literature

This is a study in industrial sociology; it a partial report, to be followed by another, of an investigation of singel factory seen in the light of Max Weber's theory of bureacracy.

Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy.

Among the schools of thought on strategy formation, one in particular underlies almost all prescription in the field. Referred to as the ‘design school’, it proposes a simple model that views the process as one of design to achieve an essential fit between external threat and opportunity and internal distinctive competence. A number of premises underlie this model: that the process should be one of consciously controlled thought, specifically by the chief executive; that the model must be kept simple and informal; that the strategies produced should be unique, explicit, and simple; and that these strategies should appear fully formulated before they are implemented. This paper discusses and then critiques this model, focusing in particular on the problems of the conscious assessment of strengths and weaknesses, of the need to make strategies explicit, and of the separation between formulation and implementation. In so doing, it calls into question some of the most deep-seated beliefs in the field of strategic management, including its favorite method of pedagogy.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/smj.4250110302

The design school: Reconsidering the basic premises of strategic management

Academic management theory has a serious utilization problem. This article argues that it stands a better chance of being adopted for instrumental use if the theory is based on the paradigm of the “design sciences”, like medicine or engineering. Most academic management research is based on the paradigm of the “explanatory sciences”, like physics. The mission of these sciences is to describe, explain and predict, while the core mission of the design sciences is to develop “tested and grounded technological rules”. The paradigm of the design sciences is applied to management research and I discuss the potential of solving its utility problem by combining both types of research.

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Management research based on the paradigm of the design sciences: the quest for field-tested and grounded technological rules

La gestion territorialisee des affaires publiques connait de profondes mutations, tant institution­nelles que substantielles. L'article a pour objectif d'en analyser le sens. Il traite du cas de la France. Il demontre que le modele de la regulation croisee, valable pour caracteriser un mode de gouvernement centralise et technocratique, n'a plus cours et, qu'en lieu et place, un modele dit d'institutionnalisation de l'action collective rend intelligible la maniere dont les enjeux, ac­teurs et debats sont gouvernes. D en souligne les proprietes comme configuration sociale, et en discute les implications pour l'administration des affaires publiques ainsi que pour la sociologie et la science politique.

L'État et la gestion publique territoriale

Las políticas públicas

Michel Crozier und Jean-Claude Thoenig : Die Regulierung der organisierten Komplexsysteme. Der Fall des lokalen politischen und verwaltnngsmassigen Entecheidungssystems in Frankreich. ; Der Aufsatz befasst sich mit einem soziologischen Ansatz zur Analyse der mehr oder weniger stabilen Komplexsysteme, die sich um die Beziehungen bilden zwischen verschiedenen und untereinander abhangigen Organisationen. Es wird die Untersuchung der Regulierungsarten unterstrichen, die diese Beziehungen bestimmen. Die vorliegende Methode nimmt, uber die Betrachtung der Entscheidungsprozesse, die Analyse der Machtverhaltnisse und der Spielregeln zwischen den zu diesen Systemen gehorenden Aktoren zuhilfe. Zur Veranschaulichung wird ein konkreter Fall vorgestellt aus einer Untersuchung iiber die Beziehungen zwischen den hauptsachlichen Organisationen, die in die offentliche Fuhrung der Gemeinden in Frankreich eingreifen : staatliche Verwaltungsstellen, ortliche Verbande, politische Stellen, soziale und wirtschaftliche Organisationen, usw. Ein solcher Ansatz, der sich auf die Systemanalyse stutzt, zeigt eine neue Begrifiordnung auf zum Verstandnis der Beziehungen zwischen formellen oder informellen Aspekten innerhalb einer Organisation und ofinet neue Wege in der Untersuchung des Wandels.

La régulation des systèmes organisés complexes. Le cas du système de décision politico-administratif local en France

Quality judgements in terms of academic standards of excellence required by external stakeholders such as labour markets and steering hierarchies obviously exert strong pressure on universities. Do they generate an ‘iron cage’ effect, imposing a passive and uniform conformity on global standards? The paper examines the organization of higher education and research set-ups with a strong lens. What does academic quality actually mean when observed in the field? How do universities and their subunits – professional schools, colleges, etc. – actually achieve what they call quality? A methodological and analytical framework is tested. Three sociological concepts – diversity, recognition and local order – make it possible to build four ideal types applicable to comparative inquiry. Such a typology identifies the interdependencies existing between how they position themselves with respect to quality dimensions and internal organizational measures. The paper contributes to a broader organizational study agenda: how do local orders face and deal with market and hierarchy dynamics in a global world of apparently increasing standardization under pressure from soft power. It questions the effect of the ‘iron cage’ hypothesis. It lists a series of changing patterns or dynamics between types of universities in terms of quality sensitivity, fabrication and content. Diversity and standardization in fact coexist.

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Jean-Claude Thoenig

Papers

L'État et la gestion publique territoriale

Las políticas públicas

La régulation des systèmes organisés complexes. Le cas du système de décision politico-administratif local en France

Academic Institutions in Search of Quality: Local Orders and Global Standards

The Regulation of Complex Organized Systems.