Theorists in various fields have discussed characteristics of top managers. This paper attempts to synthesize these previously fragmented literatures around a more general “upper echelons perspective.” The theory states that organizational outcomes—strategic choices and performance levels—are partially predicted by managerial background characteristics. Propositions and methodological suggestions are included.

Upper Echelons: The Organization as a Reflection of Its Top Managers

Cet article cherche a determiner a quels types d'evenements historiques s'applique l'analyse de path dependence. Selon l'A., il s'agit de sequences historiques au sein desquelles des evenements contingents mettent en mouvement des modeles institutionnels ou des chaines d'evenements ayant des proprietes deterministes. L'identification de la path dependence implique a la fois de relier un resultat a une serie d'evenements et de montrer en quoi ces evenements sont eux-memes des occurences contingentes ne pouvant etre expliquees par des conditions historiques prealables. Ces sequences historiques sont generalement de deux types : les sequences a auto-renforcement et les sequences reactives

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/3108585.pdf

Path dependence in historical sociology

This study examines postwar patterns in macroeconomic policies and outcomes associated with left-and right-wing governments in capitalist democracies. It argues that the objective economic interests as well as the subjective preferences of lower income and occupational status groups are best served by a relatively low unemployment-high inflation macroeconomic configuration, whereas a comparatively high unemployment-low inflation configuration is compatible with the interests and preferences of upper income and occupational status groups. Highly aggregated data on unemployment and inflation outcomes in relation to the political orientation of governments in 12 West European and North American nations are analyzed revealing a low unemployment-high inflation configuration in nations regularly governed by the Left and a high unemployment-low inflation pattern in political systems dominated by center and rightist parties. Finally, time-series analyses of quarterly postwar unemployment data for the United States and Great Britain suggests that the unemployment rate has been driven downward by Democratic and Labour administrations and upward by Republican and Conservative governments. The general conclusion is that governments pursue macroeconomic policies broadly in accordance with the objective economic interests and subjective preferences of their class-defined core political constituencies.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0003055400269712

Political Parties and Macroeconomic Policy

The authors are jointly responsible forthe theoretical argumentand analysis. M. Craig Brown suggested the topic of civil service reform. Maureen J. McConaghy, Nancy Brandon Tuma, Glenn R. Carroll, and P. Y Liu provided methodological advice, Sharon Stevens aided early computational work. Both of us are grateful to Phillip Bonacich for his advice throughout the research, and to Marshall W. Meyer, John W. Meyer, William G. Roy, Herman Turk, Richard A. Berk, David McFarland, Oscar Grusky, and Jeffrey Pfeffer fortheir helpful comments on an eariner draft. This paper investigates the diffusion and institutionalization of change in formal organization structure, using data on the adoption of civil service reform by cities. It is shown thatwhen civil service procedures are required bythe state, they diffuse rapidly and directly from the state to each city. When the procedures are not so legitimated, they diffuse gradually and the underlying sources of adoption change overtime. In the lattercase, early adoption of civil service by cities is related to internal organizational requirements, with city characteristics predicting adoption, while late adoption is related to institutional definitions of legitimate structural form, so that city characteristics no longer predict the adoption decision. Overall, the findings provide strong support for the argument that the adoption of a policy or program by an organization is importantly determined by the extent to which the measure is institutionalizedwhether by law or by gradual legitimation.

/pdf/institutional-sources-of-change-in-the-formal-structure-of-2jhnjuwh9d.pdf

Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935

This paper is a systematic analysis of the comparative method. Its emphasis is on both the limitations of the method and the ways in which, despite these limitations, it can be used to maximum advantage. The comparative method is defined and analyzed in terms of its similarities and differences vis-a-vis the experimental and statistical methods. The principal difficulty facing the comparative method is that it must generalize on the basis of relatively few empirical cases. Four specific ways in which this difficulty may be resolved are discussed and illustrated: (1) increasing the number of cases as much as possible by means of longitudinal extension and a global range of analysis, (2) reducing the property space of the analysis, (3) focusing the comparative analysis on “comparable” cases (e.g., by means of area, diachronic, or intranation comparisons), and (4) focusing on the key variables. It is argued that the case study method is closely related to the comparative method. Six types of case studies (the atheoretical, interpretative, hypothesis-generating, theory-confirming, theory-infirming, and deviant case analyses) are distinguished, and their theoretical value is analyzed.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/1955513.pdf

Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method

Existing theories of the nature of the state in Western capitalist democracies have been mostly propounded from one of three major theoretical perspectives, each emphasising a particular aspect of the state: the 'pluralist', which emphasises its democratic aspect: the 'managerial', which emphasises its bureaucratic elements: and the 'class', which focuses on its capitalistic aspect. Each of these theoretical perspectives has contributed something to our understanding of the state, but each also has its limitations. In this book, Alford and Friedland evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each perspective and present a new, synthetic framework for a more comprehensive theory of the state. Impartially reviewing the major historical and empirical works within each theoretical tradition, they reveal how empirical study has been shaped by theoretical assumptions. They agree that each perspective has a distinctive 'power' to understand part of the reality of the modern state, although it is powerless to explain other parts. In each case, the part that can be explained is the perspective's 'home domain', or the aspect of the state that it emphasises, while other aspects are either rejected or reinterpreted. The authors argue that the state cannot be adequately understood unless full account is taken of each of these home domains, and they suggest how the contributions of each perspective to the explanation of its own domain can be integrated into a new, and more powerful, theory.

Powers of Theory: Capitalism, the State, and Democracy

Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: State and society in theoretical perspective 1. Theoretical perspectives as modes of inquiry Part I. The Pluralist Perspective: 2. State and society in pluralist perspective 3. The democratic state and consensus 4. The democratic state and participation 5. The pluralist perspective on the bureaucratic state 6. The pluralist perspective on the capitalist state Part II. The Managerial Perspective: 7. State and society in managerial perspective 8. The bureaucratic state and centralisation 9. The bureaucratic state and fragmentation 10. The managerial perspective on the capitalist state 11. The managerial perspective on the democratic state Part III. The Class Perspective: 12. State and society in class perspective 13. The capitalist state and accumulation 14. The capitalist state and class struggle 15. The class perspective on the democratic state 16. The class perspective on the bureaucratic state Part IV. Theory, Politics, and Contradictions in the State: 17. The powers of theory 18. The power of politics 19. The power of contradictions.

Robert R. Alford

Papers

Powers of Theory: Capitalism, the State, and Democracy

The Dead End of Matatheory@@@Powers of Theory: Capitalism, the State, and Democracy.

Health Care Politics: Ideological and Interest Group Barriers to Reform

Party and Society: The Anglo-American Democracies.

Party and society