Michel Crozier

Bio: Michel Crozier is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: Collective action & Organizational studies. The author has an hindex of 20, co-authored 68 publications receiving 6850 citations.

The Bureaucratic Phenomenon

Abstract: In The Bureaucratic Phenomenon Michel Crozier demonstrates that bureaucratic institutions need to be un-derstood in terms of the cultural context in which they operate. The originality of the study lies in its association of two widely different approaches: the theory of decision-making in large organiza-tions and the cultural analysis of social patterns of action. The book opens with a detailed examina-tion of two forms of French public serv-ice. These studies show that professional training and distortions alone cannot ex-plain the rise of routine behavior and dys-functional "vicious circles." The role of various bureaucratic systems appears to depend on the pattern of power relation-ships between groups and individuals. Crozier's findings lead him to the view that bureaucratic structures form a neces-sary protection against the risks inherent in collective action. Since systems of protection are built around basic cultural traits, the author presents a French bureaucratic model based on centralization, strata isolation, and individual sparkle-one that that can be contrasted with an American, Russian, or Japanese model. He points out how the same patterns can be found in several areas of French life: education, industrial relations, politics, business, and the colonial policy. Bureaucracy, Crozier concludes, is not a modern disease resulting from organiza-tional progress but rather a bulwark against development. The breakdown of the traditional bureaucratic system in modern France offers hope for new and fruitful forms of action.

L' acteur et le systeme

Abstract: Michel CROZIER, l'auteur du Phenomene bureaucratique, associe a Erhard FRIEDBERG, montre, contre tous les mirages d'une rationalite totalitaire, le caractere essentiellement opportuniste des strategies humaines et la part irreductible de liberte qui existe dans toute relation de pouvoir. Ce livre n'est pas un manuel de sociologie des organisations discipline dont Michel Crozier est l'un des fondateurs en France mais bien une sociologie de l'action organisee.

L'acteur et le système : les contraintes de l'action collective

Abstract: La liberte des acteurs est un fait ; l'existence de systemes organises et coherents en est un autre. Comment ces deux realites s'articulent-elles ? Les auteurs montrent, contre tous les mirages d'une rationalite totalitaire, le caractere essentiellement " opportuniste " des strategies humaines et la part irreductible de liberte qui existe dans toute relation de pouvoir. Ce livre n'est pas un manuel de sociologie des organisations - discipline dont Michel Crozier est l'un des fondateurs en France - mais bien une sociologie de l'action organisee. Il constitue une veritable critique de la raison collective.

The Crisis of Democracy

Abstract: The report outlines that in 1960sWestern Europe the governments are “overloaded with participants and demands” which the highly bureaucratic political systems are unable to handle, thus rendering their societies ungovernable. It points to a political decision made by France that was made in “semisecret, without open political debate, but with a tremendous amount of lobbying and intrabureaucratic conflict.”

Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures

Abstract: This paper differs from previous examinations of organizational learning in that it is broader in scope and more evaluative of the literatures. Four constructs related to organizational learning knowledge acquisition, information distribution, information interpretation, and organizational memory are articulated, and the literatures related to each are described and critiqued. The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed here as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: 1 drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, 2 learning from experience, 3 learning by observing other organizations, 4 grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and 5 noticing or searching for information about the organization's environment and performance. Examination of the related literatures indicates that much has been learned about learning from experience, but also that there is a lack of cumulative work and a lack of integration of work from different research groups. Similarly, much has been learned about organizational search, but there is a lack of conceptual work, and there is a lack of both cumulative work and syntheses with which to create a more mature literature. Congenital learning, vicarious learning, and grafting are information acquisition subprocesses about which relatively little has been learned. The literature concerning information distribution is rich and mature, but an aspect of information distribution that is central to an organization's benefitting from its learning, namely how units that possess information and units that need this information can find each other quickly and with a high likelihood, is unexplored. Information interpretation, as an organizational process, rather than an individual process, requires empirical work for further advancement. Organizational memory is much in need of systematic investigation, particularly by those whose special concerns are improving organizational learning and decision making.

The Population Ecology of Organizations

Abstract: Factors impacting the organizational structure of firms have been analyzed often utilizing organizations theory. However, several other theories and perspectives have been proposed as potential alternative means of analyzing organizational structure and functioning. While previous studies regarding organizational structure have utilized such perspectives as adaptation and exchange theory, few studies have utilized population ecology theory, thus leading to the current study. Although population ecology theory is most often used in the biological sciences, many of its principles lend well to organizational analysis. Due to internal structural arrangements (e.g. information constraints, political constraints) and environmental pressures (e.g. legal and fiscal barriers, legitimacy) of an organization, the inflexibility of an organization limits the firm's organizational analysis utilizing an adaptation perspective. The challenges and discontinuities associated with utilizing an ecological perspective are identified, including issues related to the primary sources of change (selection and adaptive learning) and related to differentiating between selection and viability. Utilizing competition theory and niche theory, several models for analyzing organizational diversity are incorporated to address factors not encompassed by ecological theory. By compiling elements of several theories, a population ecology model applicable to business related organizational analyses is derived. (AKP)

The Population Ecology of Organizations

Abstract: A population ecology perspective on organization-environment relations is proposed as an alternative to the dominant adaptation perspective. The strength of inertial pressures on organizational str...