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Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 1986"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigate the patterns of technological evolution and their impact on environmental conditions and find that technological change within a product class will be characterized by long periods of incremental change punctuated by discontinuities, and the locus of innovation will differ for competence destroying and competence-enhancing technological changes.
Abstract: Investigates the patterns of technological evolution and their impact on environmental conditions. Seven hypotheses are offered in order to demonstrate that technology is a central force in shaping the environments within which organizations operate. These hypotheses are: (1) technological change within a product class will be characterized by long periods of incremental change punctuated by discontinuities; (1a) technological discontinuities are either competence enhancing (build on existing skills and know-how) or competence destroying (require fundamentally new skills and competences); (2) the locus of innovation will differ for competence destroying and competence-enhancing technological changes. Competence-destroying discontinuities will be initiated by new entrants, while competence-enhancing discontinuities will be initiated by existing firms; (3) competitive uncertainty will be higher after a technological discontinuity than before discontinuity; (4) environmental munificence (i.e., resource availability and support for growth) will be higher after a technological discontinuity than before the discontinuity; (5) competence-enhancing discontinuities will be associated with decreased entry-to-exit ratios and decreased interfirm sales variability (thus strengthening product leaders and increasing barriers to entry). These patterns will be reversed for competence-destroying discontinuities; (6) successive competence-enhancing discontinuities will be associated with smaller increases in uncertainty and munificence; and (7) those organizations that initiate major technological innovations will have higher growth rates than other firms in the product class. Data were collected from U.S. firms in three product classes, domestic scheduled passenger airline transport, Portland cement manufacture, and minicomputer manufacture, from the year of the niche market's inception through 1980. Results indicate that after the three niche openings, there were six competence-enhancing technological discontinuities and two competence-destroying discontinuities in total. Each of these discontinuities had a far greater impact on a key measure of cost or performance than more incremental technological events. In addition, except for the period following the introduction of semiconductor memory in minicomputers, the ability of experienced industry observers to predict demand following technological disruptions was far worse than prior to the disruption. Demand growth following the discontinuity was significantly higher than it was immediately prior to the discontinuity, which had an enormous impact on product-class demand. Also, the ratio of entries to exits was higher in each of the five years before a competence-enhancing discontinuity than during the five subsequent years, though none of the differences is statistically significant. Though market variability in sales growth was expected, it was found that some firms' sales grew explosively while other firms experienced sales declines. It is also suggested that as technology matures, successive competence-enhancing discontinuities increase both uncertainty and munificence, but not as much as those discontinuities that preceded them in establishing the product class. Finally, early adopters of technology were found to experience more growth than other firms. Using three different product types, with a wide range of years from inception, it is shown that technology does evolve through long periods of incremental change punctuated by relatively rare innovations that radically improve the state of the art. Although these incidences of change are rare, they stand out clearly and have significantly altered competitive environments. (SFL)

5,839 citations


Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: A theory of how technology might occasion different organizational structures by altering institutionalized roles and patterns of interaction is outlined, showing how identical CT scanners occasioned similar structuring processes in two radiology departments and yet led to divergent forms of organization.
Abstract: New medical imaging devices, such as the CT scanner, have begun to challenge traditional role relations among radiologists and radiological technologists. Under some conditions, these technologies may actually alter the organizational and occupational structure of radiological work. However, current theories of technology and organizational form are insensitive to the potential number of structural variations implicit in role-based change. This paper expands recent sociological thought on the link between institution and action to outline a theory of how technology might occasion different organizational structures by altering institutionalized roles and patterns of interaction. In so doing, technology is treated as a social rather than a physical object, and structure is conceptualized as a process rather than an entity. The implications of the theory are illustrated by showing how identical CT scanners occasioned similar structuring processes in two radiology departments and yet led to divergent forms of organization. The data suggest that to understand how technologies alter organizational structures researchers may need to integrate the study of social action and the study of social form.

2,818 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explored whether external legitimacy or internal coordination processes more prominently underlie the liability of newness, the higher propensity of younger organizations to die, in a population of voluntary social service organizations.
Abstract: An abridged version of this paper was awarded the Best Overall Paper Award for 1986 by the Academy of Management, Organization and Management Theory Division. A deep debt of gratitude is owed to Howard Aldrich, Glenn Carroll, and Paul DiMaggio for their involvement at the planning stages of our research program on voluntary organizations in metropolitan Toronto. Specific thanks are due to Howard Aldrich and Jim March for insightful comments and discussions. We would specially like to thank Agnes Meinhard for invaluable statistical support and also three anonymous ASQ reviewers. This research was supported by grant number 410-84-0632 from SSHRC, Canada and grant number 4555-55-7 from the National Welfare Grants Directorate, Health and Welfare, Canada. This study explores whether external legitimacy or internal coordination processes more prominently underlie the liability of newness, the higher propensity of younger organizations to die, in a population of voluntary social service organizations. The findings show more support for the external legitimacy than for the internal coordination argument. Indicators show that forms of external legitimacythe acquisition of a Community Directory listing, the acquisition of a Charitable Registration Number, and board size at birth all significantly depress organizational death rates, whereas most internal organizational changes are unrelated to death rates. The exception is chief executive change, which lowers death rates, suggesting that chief executive turnover may be adaptive. The lack of institutional support experienced by young organizations is one important reason underlying the liability of newness in organizations.

1,023 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, Toulouse et al. examined the relationships of chief executive need for achievement and the traditional contingencies of size, technology, and environmental uncertainty with organizational structure.
Abstract: The authors would like to thank Jean-Marie Toulouse and Jeannine Robichaud for their help with the data gathering and sample design, Richard Germain for his advice and analytical contributions to the LISREL analysis, Morty Yalovsky, Peter H. Friesen, Donald C. Hambrick, Alex Whitmore, and Richard P. Bagozzi for their suggestions, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the Government of Quebec FCAC program, respectively, for grants #494-84-0012 and #EQ1 867. A study was undertaken to examine the relationships of chief executive need for achievement and the traditional contingencies of size, technology, and environmental uncertaintywith organizational structure. A number of models relating the structural constructs of formalization, centralization, and integration with their hypothesized determinants were examined using LISREL and multipleregression analyses. CEO need for achievement and size were found to have the strongest relationships to most structural constructs; technology and uncertainty had very little impact on structure. The relationships between need for achievement and structure were usually highest in samples of small and young firms, suggesting that CEO personality might be influencing structure, rather than the reverse.

835 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Staw et al. as discussed by the authors used a longitudinal sample to predict job attitudes in later life and found that dispositional measures significantly predicted job attitudes over a time span of nearly fifty years, and the implications of these findings are discussed in terms of both theories of job attitudes and organizational development activities that attempt to alter employee job satisfactions.
Abstract: This research was supported in part by grant AG 4178 from the National Institute of Aging to the Institute of Human Development (John Clausen, principal investigator) and by a University of California faculty research grant to Barry Staw. Correspondence regarding this paper should be sent to Barry M. Staw, School of Business Administration, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720. Recent debates between the job enrichment and socialinformation-processing perspectives have led to a trend toward greater situationalism in organizational research. This paper, however, argues for a more dispositional approach in which the role of the person is emphasized. Using a longitudinal sample, measures of affective disposition from as early as adolescence were used to predict job attitudes in later life. Results showed that dispositional measures significantly predicted job attitudes over a time span of nearly fifty years. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of both theories of job attitudes and organizational development activities that attempt to alter employee job satisfactions

748 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Aldrich et al. as mentioned in this paper explored whether an ecological, an adaptation, or a random organizational action perspective more appropriately describes the impact of organizational change in a population of voluntary social service organizations.
Abstract: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Xl World Congress of Sociology, New Delhi, India, in August 1986. We gratefully acknowledge the involvement of Howard Aldrich, Glenn Carroll, and Paul DiMaggio at the initial stages of our research program on voluntary organizations in metropolitan Toronto. Specific thanks are due to Howard Aldrich and James G. March for insightful comments on an earlier draft. We would specially like to thank Agnes Meinhard for outstanding statistical support and anonymous ASQ reviewers for helpful suggestions. This research was supported by grant number 410-84-0632 from SSHRC, Canada, and grant number 4555-55-7 from the National Welfare Grants Directorate, Health and Welfare, Canada. This study explores whether an ecological, an adaptation, or a random organizational action perspective more appropriately describes the impact of organizational change in a population of voluntary social service organizations. The results indicate that some changes are disruptive, some have no impact on organizational mortality, and others are adaptive. One plausible interpretation of the results is that the effects of organizational changes depend on the location of the changes in the organization -whether in the core or the periphery. Core changes, which are thought to be more disruptive, are best described by an ecological view. Peripheral changes are best described by an adaptation view. The study shows that selection and adaptation are complementary rather than contradictory views, and one clear implication is the need for simultaneous modeling of selection and adaptation processes to build a more complete theory of organizational change.

524 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyze leading theories and applications and evaluate individual, group, and self-directed approaches to career planning, and provide an overview of new directions in theory and case studies in which the major contributors discuss how each would approach the same client.
Abstract: Recognized authorities in career development analyze leading theories and applications and evaluate individual, group, and self-directed approaches to career planning. Four new chapters include an overview of new directions in theory and a case study in which the major contributors discuss how each would approach the same client.

454 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Aldrich et al. as discussed by the authors analyzed 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 and concluded that 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.
Abstract: A previous version of this paper was presented at the 1984 Academy of Management annual meeting. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Science Foundation (SES 7924905), the CenterforAdvanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (BNS 76-22943), and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Teri Bush, Kelsa Duffy, and Jill Fukuhara provided splendid technical support. Howard Aldrich, Robert Althauser, Yinon Cohen, Frank Dobbin, Paul Osterman, and the ASQ reviewers and editors offered helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. 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. Atthe 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.e

423 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that two current perspectives on the relationship between meaning and action differ with respect to the amount of shared meaning necessary for organization, and they provide empirical evidence to show that through communication, organized action can occur despite differences of interpretation among organizational members.
Abstract: Gerald Salancik discussed this theory in a colloquium at the College of Commerce and Business Administration, University of Illinois, Champaign, in 1979. Two current perspectives on the relationship between meaning and action differ with respect to the amount of shared meaning necessary for organization. We argue that these two perspectives can be integrated if we understand how communication links meaning and action. We provide empirical evidence to show that through communication, organized action can occur despite differences of interpretation among organizational members. Communication enables members to create equifinal meaning, from which organized action can follow. Our data revealed four communication mechanisms that generate and sustain equifinal meaning: metaphor, logical argument, affect modulation, and linguistic indirection.e

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the focus is shifted to social and economic regulation and the issue of compliance in the enforcement of selective enforcement in law enforcement, and the focus shifts from law enforcement to economic regulation.
Abstract: Most studies of law enforcement deal with police work, and many are concerned with underenforcement of selective enforcement as problems. This book shifts the focus to social and economic regulation and the issue of compliance.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined British Columbia's decision to host a world's fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver and proposed a new theory that integrates determinants of escalation from several levels of analysis over time.
Abstract: The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the librarians at Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, the Vancouver Public Library, and the archivist at the Expo 86 offices. The authors would also like to express appreciation to Nick Steadman, Ian Mulgrew, Mark Wexler, several Expo 86 staff members who preferred not to be cited by name, and ASO's associate editor and anonymous reviewers. This paper examines British Columbia's decision to host a world's fair (Expo 86) in Vancouver. Despite rapidly increasing deficit projections (from a $6-million projected loss in 1978 to over a $300-million projected loss in 1985), the provincial government remained steadfast in its plans to hold Expo. Expo is therefore a visible and prototypical example of the escalation of commitment, a phenomenon subject to extensive laboratory research in recent years. By examining the Expo case in some detail, this study provides field grounding for previous investigations of escalation. The case not only illustrates the frequently studied processes of self-justification and biased information processing but also highlights the potential importance of institutional explanations of escalation. New theory is proposed that integrates determinants of escalation from several levels of analysis over time. It is proposed that escalation starts with project and psychological forces but can evolve over time into a more structurally determined phenomenon.*

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The New Media as discussed by the authors provides state-of-the-art summaries of recent research in a single integrated source, and in accessible language, providing valuable insights from programme managers, policy-makers, administrators, and evaluators.
Abstract: The New Media seeks to fill several gaps in the growing literature on the uses, impacts, and implications of the new media explosion: between policy and academic research, between practical management texts and abstract speculation about the future of the office, and across communication literature in general. Taking a communication research perspective, The New Media provides state-of-the-art summaries of recent research in a single integrated source, and in accessible language. Anyone seeking a firm foundation for understanding the impact and future uses of the new communication media will benefit from reading this volume. It is both timely and full of insight. 'A theoretical and academic approach provides valuable insights from programme managers, policy-makers, administrators, and evaluators.' -- European Broadcasting Union Review, Vol 36 No 5, September 1985


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Abrahamson as discussed by the authors recasts the concept of structure as an instantaneous correspondence between an infrastructure, a sociostructure, and a superstructure, three manifestations of collective life joined through a dynamic juxtaposition of technological solutions, political exchanges, and social interpretations in and around organizations.
Abstract: I am grateful to many colleagues for their comments on previous versions of this manuscript. Special thanks to Eric Abrahamson, R. Kabaliswaran, Michael Rosen, and the reviewers and editors of ASQ for helpful discussions along the way. The development of this paper was supported in part by a grant from the Tenneco Fund Program at the Graduate School of Business Administration, New York University. Theories of structure have artificially segregated various streams of research on intraorganizational and interorganizational relations. This paper recasts the concept of structure as an instantaneous correspondence between an infrastructure, a sociostructure, and a superstructurethree manifestations of collective life joined through a dynamic juxtaposition of technological solutions, political exchanges, and social interpretations in and around organizations. These levels are shown to describe reflexive yet partially autonomous realmswhose progressive interrelatedness is governed by processes of convergence and divergence, thereby supporting both stability and change in social relationships within organizations, populations, and communities. Ultimately, it is argued, structuring can be understood as a dialectical unfolding of relations between embedded social actors that translates individual action into societal consequences.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the determinants of organizational selectivity in hiring, including the use of educational credentials, written and unwritten tests, and screening on the basis of workers' characteristics were examined using a sample of 254 establishments in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Abstract: The authors gratefully acknowledge the comments of James Baron, Mark Granovetter, and John Meyer on an earlier version of this manuscript. Organizational hiring criteria help determine which individuals enter organizational labor markets as well as serving as an important component of organizational control systems more effort placed on screening workers at entry means that less emphasis may be placed on training and socialization or on monitoring them once in the organization. The determinants of organizational selectivity in hiring, including the use of educational credentials, written and unwritten tests, and screening on the basis of workers' characteristics were examined using a sample of 254 establishments in the San Francisco Bay Area. The analyses suggested that hiring standards for different occupations (both white and blue collar) within establishments were positively correlated with each other and were affected by the same set of factors. Formal hiring standards were positively related to the presence of a personnel department, to the amount of training and technological change, and to the presence of an internal labor market. The proportion of the workforce covered by collective bargaining was negatively related to organizational selectivity, and there was no effect of economic sector (core versus periphery) and organizational size once other organizational factors were controlled. The results indicate that hiring standards reflect not only organizations' skill requirements but also the preferences of various groups for such standards and their ability to enforce these preferences.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Kanter et al. as discussed by the authors found that women tended to use an acquiescence strategy to a greater extent than men in coping with their powerlessness in organizational situations and that relative job dependency had a greater effect than gender on the use of this strategy.
Abstract: The author would like to express her thanks to Rosabeth M. Kanter, J. Richard Hackman, Cheryl Tromley, and Mark Shanley for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. Special thanks go to David M. Mangini for his statistical assistance. The anonymous reviewers and editors of ASQ also provided useful feedback on the article. A critical-incident interviewing method was used to determine the strategies employed by men and women in organizational situations. Ninety-eight male and female participants provided an example of a frustrating workplace situation in which they were powerless because they were dependent on others and the action they took in response to the situation. Measures of job dependency, taken as a measure of relative power for each job, were also assessed. Chi-square, correlational, and log-linear results indicated that while men and women did not differ in the relative power of the jobs they held, women tended to use an acquiescence strategy to a greater extent than men in coping with their powerlessness. When examined, relative job dependency, however, had a greater effect than gender on the use of this strategy.,

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, three theories are proposed to account for individuals' perceptions of sexual harassment: there is a basic difference between men and women in personal orientation toward sexual harassment and how they define it; the second is that differential sexual experiences at work account for differences in perceptions; and the third is that differences are accounted for by gender-role "spillover" that is, when a job comes to be seen as primarily a man's or a woman's job the gender role spills over into the work role.
Abstract: The data used in the research reported here were collected with the support of a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant USPHS-MH-32606-01 to the second author. The authors gratefully acknowl.edge the assistance of Dale Berger, Pamela Cooper, and Allan Wicker in the preparation of this manuscript. We would also like to thank Gerald R. Salancik, Associate Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly, and the three anonymous ASQ reviewers for the contributions they made through the publication review process. The EEOC guidelines on sexual harassment place a great deal of importance on the recipient's evaluation of his or her experience. Research has consistently shown that women, more than men, consider sexual behavior at work to be sexual harassment. In this study, three theories are proposed to account for individuals' perceptions of sexual harassment. The first is that there is a basic difference between men and women in personal orientation toward sexual harassment and how they define it; the second is that differential sexual experiences at work account for differences in perceptions; and the third is that differences in perceptions are accounted for by gender-role "spillover" that is, when a job comes to be seen as primarily a man's or a woman's job the gender role spills over into the work role. Analysis of data from a representative sample of 1,232 working men and women in Los Angeles County showed some support for all three theories. The complementary contributions of the three theories and their implications for organizational behavior are discussed.*


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Brockner et al. as mentioned in this paper explored the effect on entrapment of individuals' perceptions that the ineffectiveness of prior resource allocations had negative implications for their self-identity.
Abstract: The authors thank Max Bazerman, Audrey Jacobs Brockner, Jeff Greenberg, Gerald Salancik, Lance Sandelands, and three anonymous ASQ reviewers for their constructive comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are also indebted to Clotilde DiDomenico and Kiki Olivera for their competent assistance in collecting the data. The first author also expresses his gratitude to the University of Arizona for its research support. Address all correspondence to Joel Brockner, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027. 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 ineffective 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.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed and tested hypotheses about the characteristics of organizations and their environments that favor the proliferation of detailed job titles to describe work roles and found that job titles proliferate most in organizations that are large, bureaucratic, rely on firm-specific skills, have a professionalized workforce, and are in institutional sectors.
Abstract: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1985 American Sociological Association annual meeting, Washington, D.C. The authors were supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES 79-24905) and by generous research funds from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Occupational Analysis Division of the U.S. Employment Service graciously provided data and assisted us in this research. Teri Bush, Kelsa Duffy, and Ann Bucher worked wonders on the manuscript. Howard Aldrich, Glenn Carroll, Paul DiMaggio, Frank Dobbin, John Meyer, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Peter Reiss, and the ASQ editors and reviewers offered assistance and helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. This paper develops and tests hypotheses about the characteristics of organizations and their environments that favor the proliferation of detailed job titles to describe work roles. A method for measuring the proliferation of job titles is proposed and applied to a sample of 368 diverse work organizations. It is hypothesized that proliferation is linked to four main factors: technical and administrative imperatives; internal political struggles over the division of labor; the institutional environment and its role in shaping personnel practices; and the market environment. Crosssectional and longitudinal analyses indicate that job titles proliferate most in organizations that are large, bureaucratic, rely on firm-specific skills, have a professionalized workforce, and are in institutional sectors. We describe howfragmentation among job titles imposes status gradations and gender distinctions in organizations, noting some important theoretical and practical implications of the phenomenon.*

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, 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.
Abstract: The data used in this study were collected under a grant from the Spencer Foundation to Rebecca Barr and Robert Dreeben. Analyses were supported in part by the Graduate School at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. The authors are grateful for valuable advice from Rebecca Barr, Charles Bidwell, and the ASQ editors and referees. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, August 1985. 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 highlevel 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."

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the Hierarchical Form of Organization Information and Coordination Reward Systems and Incentives Summing Up to Begin Anew Bibliography Index: Nonparametric Statistical Methods
Abstract: Organization and the Research Approach Modelling the Organization Research Design and Analysis Appendix: Nonparametric Statistical Methods The Hierarchical Form of Organization Information and Coordination Reward Systems and Incentives Summing Up to Begin Anew Bibliography Index

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the early life history of an innovative bureau within a state regulatory commission (The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission) is described and analyzed using participant observation from the bureau's manipulation of symbols in myth building and the development of a "dramaturgy of exchange".
Abstract: *Authors are listed in alphabetical order and shared equally in the writing of this paper. 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.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Blau et al. as mentioned in this paper found that younger architects place a much higher value on the humanistic and creative dimensions of architecture, which could be a major reason for the now chronic crisis the profession finds itself in.
Abstract: Architecture is an art, a profession, a business. Architectural firms exist to design buildings, to serve social needs, to make profits. And many architects find that the goals of the firms that employ them run counter to the values that first attracted them to the profession. Sociologists of the professions have looked at law and medicine, but Blau is the first to make architecture the subject of an in-depth case study. This book vividly depicts the contradictions and dilemmas inherent in architectural practice, and corrects many assumptions about design professionals.While there are no easy recipes, Blau is able to identify the core ingredients of success and failure that correspond to the actual experiences of 152 Manhattan architectural firms over a five-year period. More than 400 architects were surveyed, their convictions and attitudes were assessed, and their values measured against management agendas and priorities. Whether architects agree with her conclusions or not (and there are many surprises in the book), they are strongly supported by data. Since the survey period spanned a severe economic recession, during which mere survival was an issue for many firms, the book's analysis of why some firms flounder while others flourish under the same conditions is particularly valuable.In the section called "Heroes and Rascals," Blau reveals how respondents ranked 50 wellknown architects, critics, and firms according to various standards, thereby revealing a lot about how professionals view themselves and the range of design approaches, mentors, and models available to them. The study exposes a great disparity between the attitudes of rank-and-file architects and firm heads; the clear inference is that younger architects place a much higher value on the humanistic and creative dimensions of architecture, which could be a major reason for the now chronic crisis the profession finds itself in.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an index for assessing a member's influence in subgroups of a dependency network is proposed, which is based on the concept of structural power, a situational context of dependency in a relationship, such that one party is said to be more powerful to the extent that the party controls and has discretion to allocate resources desired by the other party who has no alternate sources for acquiring them.
Abstract: For variety, the terms structural power, influence, and importance are used interchangeably to refer to the concept "structural power," which is not to be confused with operational influence. Structural power refers to a situational context of dependency in a relationship, such that one party is said to be more powerful to the extent that (1) the party controls and has discretion to allocate resources (2) desired by the other party who (3) has no alternate sources for acquiring them. Emerson's (1962) proposition about power-dependence relations says that for any two parties A and B, dAB) dBA = PBA) PAB Accurate assessments of the structural power of several interdependent parties are hampered by the fact that parties depend on one another indirectly as well as directly and that any one's dependencies are not equally important for all parties. An index overcoming both limitations is derived for dependency networks so that parties are defined as more important if others depend more on them and if the others depending on them are themselves important. The index is generalized for assessing a member's influence in subgroups of a network. Indices of both overall importance and subgroup importance are illustrated by a study of the influence of twenty-four journals within five areas of organizational research -organizations, sociology, management, applied psychology, and theoretical/experimental psychology. Among the findings; ASQ's influence was found to span several areas while the Journal ofApplied Psychology's is mainly felt in the applied psychology area.-