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)

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion Jonathan Haidt Pantheon Books, 2012One has likely heard that, for the sake of decorum, religion and politics should never be topics of conversation with strangers. Even amongst friends or even when it is known that others hold opposing political or religious views, why is it that discussion of religion and politics leads to visceral-level acrimony and that one's views are right and the other's views are wrong? Professor Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia examines the psychological basis of our "righteous minds" without resorting to any of the pejorative labeling that is usually found in a book on politics and religion and eschews a purely comparative approach. Haidt proposes the intriguing hypothesis that our visceral reaction to competing ideologies is a subconscious, rather than leaned, reaction that evolved over human evolution to innate senses of suffering, fairness, cheating and disease, and that moral foundations facilitated intra-group cooperation which in turn conferred survival advantages over other groups. These psychological mechanisms are genetic in origin and not necessarily amenable to rational and voluntary control - this is in part the reason debating one's ideological opposite more often leads to frustration rather than understanding. Haidt also suggests that morality is based on six "psychological systems" or foundations (Moral Foundations Theory), similar to the hypothesized adaptive mental modules which evolved to solve specific problems of survival in the human ancestral environment.While decorum pleads for more civility, it would be better, as Haidt suggests, dragging the issue of partisan politics out into the open in order to understand it and work around our righteous minds. Haidt suggests a few methods by which the level of rhetoric in American politics can be reduced, such that the political parties can at least be cordial as they have been in the past and work together to solve truly pressing social problems.There are a number of fascinating points raised in the current book, but most intriguing is the one that morality, ideology and religion are products of group selection, as adaptations that increased individual cooperation and suppressed selfishness, thereby increasing individual loyalty to the group. That morality, political ideology and religion buttress group survival is probably highly intuitive. However, given the contemporary focus on the individual as the source of adaptations, to the exclusion of all else, to suggest that adaptations such as religion and political ideology arose to enhance survival of groups is heresy or, as Haidt recounts, "foolishness". While previous rejection of group selection itself was due in part to conceptual issues, one could also point out the prevailing individualist social sentiment, "selfish gene" mentality and unrelenting hostility against those who supported the view that group selection did indeed apply to humans and not just to insects. Haidt gives a lengthy and convincing defense of group selection, his main point being that humans can pursue self- interest at the same time they promote self-interest within a group setting - humans are "90 percent chimp, 10 percent bees". One can readily observe in the news and entertainment mediate that religion is a frequent target of derision, even within the scientific community - Haidt points to the strident contempt that the "New Atheists" hold for religion. They claim that religion is purely a by-product of an adaptive psychological trait and as a mere by-product religion serves no useful purpose. However, the religious "sense" has somehow managed to persist in the human psyche. One explanation by the New Atheists of how religion propagated itself is that it is a "parasite" or "virus" which latches onto a susceptible host and induces the host to "infect" others. As a "virus" or "parasite" that is merely interested in its own survival, religion causes people to perform behaviors that do not increase their own reproductive fitness and may even be detrimental to survival, but religion spreads nonetheless. …

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion

'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony', American Journal of Sociology, 83, pp. 340-63.

Models and Methods in Social Network Analysis presents the most important developments in quantitative models and methods for analyzing social network data that have appeared during the 1990s. Intended as a complement to Wasserman and Faust’s Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications, it is a collection of original articles by leading methodologists reviewing recent advances in their particular areas of network methods. Reviewed are advances in network measurement, network sampling, the analysis of centrality, positional analysis or blockmodeling, the analysis of diffusion through networks, the analysis of affiliation or “two-mode” networks, the theory of random graphs, dependence graphs, exponential families of random graphs, the analysis of longitudinal network data, graphic techniques for exploring network data, and software for the analysis of social networks.

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Models and methods in social network analysis

The overworked american

Part I. Introduction: 1. Social network analysis: an introduction 2. Strategic options for disrupting dark networks Part II. Social Network Analysis: Techniques: 3. Getting started with UCINET, NetDraw, Pajek, and ORA 4. Gathering, recording, and manipulating social networks Part III. Social Network Analysis: Metrics: 5. Network topography 6. Cohesion and clustering 7. Centrality, power, and prestige 8. Brokers, bridges, and structural holes 9. Positions, roles, and blockmodels Part IV. Social Network Analysis: Advances: 10. Dynamic analyses of dark networks 11. Statistical models for dark networks Part V. Conclusion: 12. The promise and limits of social network analysis.

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Disrupting Dark Networks

Our goal in this paper is to explore two generic approaches to disrupting dark networks: kinetic and nonkinetic The kinetic approach involves aggressive and offensive measures to eliminate or capture network members and their supporters, while the non-kinetic approach involves the use of subtle, non-coercive means for combating dark networks Two strategies derive from the kinetic approach: Targeting and Capacity-building Four strategies derive from the non-kinetic approach: Institution-Building, Psychological Operations, Information Operations and Rehabilitation We use network data from Noordin Top’s South East Asian terror network to illustrate how both kinetic and non-kinetic strategies could be pursued depending on a commander’s intent Using this strategic framework as a backdrop, we strongly advise the use of SNA metrics in developing alterative counter-terrorism strategies that are contextdependent rather than letting SNA metrics define and drive a particular strategy

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Strategies for Combating Dark Networks

Social scientists who study religion generally believe that social networks play a central role in religious life. However, most studies draw on measures that are relatively poor proxies for capturing the effects of social networks. This book illustrates how researchers can draw on formal social network analysis methods to explore the interplay of networks and religion. The book's introductory chapters provide overviews of the social scientific study of religion and social network analysis. The remaining chapters explore a variety of topics current in the social scientific study of religion, as well as introducing a variety of social network theories and methods, such as balance theory, ego-network analysis, exponential random graph models, and stochastic actor-oriented models. By embedding social network analysis within a social scientific study of religion framework, Networks and Religion offers an array of approaches for studying the role that social networks play in religious belief and practice.

Networks and Religion: Ties that Bind, Loose, Build-up, and Tear Down

In recent years social network analysis (SNA) has enhanced our understanding of how terrorist networks organize themselves and has offered potential strategies for their disruption. To date, however, SNA research of terrorist networks has tended to focus on key actors within the network who score high in terms of centrality or whose structural location (i.e., their location within the overall network) allows them to broker information and/or resources within the network. However, while such a focus is intuitively appealing and can provide short-term satisfaction, it may be putting the cart before the horse. Before jumping to the identification of key actors, we need to first explore a network’s overall topography. Research suggests that networks that are too provincial (i.e., dense, high levels of clustering, an overabundance of strong ties) too cosmopolitan (i.e., sparse, low levels of clustering, an overabundance of weak ties), too hierarchical (i.e., centralized, low levels of variance) and/or too heterarchical (i.e., decentralized, high levels of variance) tend not to perform as well as networks that maintain a balance between these extremes. If these dynamics hold true for terrorist networks as well, then the key player approach may be appropriate in some circumstances, but may lead to deleterious results in others. More importantly, it suggests that analysts need to consider a network’s overall topography before crafting strategies for their disruption. Authors Sean F Everton, PhD is an Assistant Professor in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. He is also the Co-Director of the Common Operational Research Environment (CORE) Lab, which is part of the Defense Analysis Department and specializes in the application of new analytical methodologies (e.g., social network and geospatial analysis) to the crafting of strategies at the operational and tactical levels. While most of his work focuses on social network analysis, he has also published in the areas of sociology of religion, economic sociology, and political and social

https://calhoun.nps.edu/bitstream/10945/46760/1/Everton_Network_Topography_2009.pdf

Network Topography, Key Players and Terrorist Networks

Congregational attendance data are abundant, accessible, and relevant for religious research. Weekly attendance histories provide information about worshippers, congregations, and denominations that surveys cannot capture. The histories yield novel measures of commitment, testable implications of rational choice theory, and compelling evidence that attendance responds strongly to changes in the opportunity cost of time.

Sean F. Everton

Papers

Disrupting Dark Networks

Strategies for Combating Dark Networks

Networks and Religion: Ties that Bind, Loose, Build-up, and Tear Down

Network Topography, Key Players and Terrorist Networks

Never on Sunny Days: Lessons from Weekly Attendance Counts