Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 1988"
4,839Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present evidence from a survey of 872 employees of four firms that ethical work climates are both multidimensional and multidetermined, and that there is variance in the ethical climate within organizations by position, tenure, and workgroup membership.
Abstract: This research was funded through the Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Ethics, College of Law, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, by a grant from the Peter Kiewit Sons, Inc. Foundation and the Peter Kiewit Foundation. The authors gratefully acknowledge the valuable guidance and insights provided by Marshall Meyer and four anonymous ASQ reviewers. We would also like to thank Tomoaki Sakano and Daniel Ganster for their helpful comments during the formative stages of this manuscript. Using a modification of a recently developed measure of ethical climates, this paper presents evidence from a survey of 872 employees of four firms that ethical work climates are both multidimensional and multidetermined. The study demonstrates that organizations have distinct types of ethical climates and that there is variance in the ethical climate within organizations by position, tenure, and workgroup membership. Five empirically derived dimensions of ethical climate are described: law and code, caring, instrumentalism, independence, and rules. Analyses of variance reveal significant differences in ethical climates both across and within firms. A theory of ethical climates is developed from organization and economic theory to describe the determinants of ethical climates in organizations. In particular, the sociocultural environment, organizational form, and organization-specific history are identified as determinants of the ethical climates in organizations. The implications of ethical climate for organizational theory are also discussed.'
1,757Â citations
TL;DR: The Leader as Social Architect I: Making Bureaucracy Behave as discussed by the authors : Motivating people to change the way they behave. The Leader as social Architect II: Motivating People.
Abstract: The Themes, The Protagonists, The Transformational Drama. RECOGNIZING THE NEED FOR REVITALIZATION. The Gathering Storm. Overcoming the Resistance to Change. CREATING A NEW VISION. Diagnosing the Problem. Creating a Motivating Vision. Mobilizing Commitment: Getting People Signed on to the Mission. INSTITUTIONALIZING CHANGE. Creative Destruction: Reweaving the Social Fabric. The Leader as Social Architect I: Making Bureaucracy Behave. The Leader as Social Architect II: Motivating People. EPILOGUE. History Repeats Itself. Notes. References. Index.
1,421Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated the characteristics of the concepts of threat and opportunity used by organizational decision makers to describe and understand issues and found that managers are more sensitive to issue characteristics associated with threats than to those associated with opportunities.
Abstract: Support for this research was provided by New York University's Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. The authors thank James W. Dean, Jr., Janet Dukerich, William D. Guth, Ian C. MacMillan, Gerald R. Salancik, Charles Stubbart, and three anonymous ASQ reviewers for their valuable assistance and comments. This paper presents the results of two studies designed to investigate the characteristics of the concepts of threat and opportunity used by organizational decision makers to describe and understand issues. The first study identified the issue characteristics that managers associate with the concepts of threat and opportunity, and the second used an experimental design to demonstrate that the characteristics of issues lead to their being perceived as threats or opportunities. The results suggest the presence of a threat bias, which results in managers being more sensitive to issue characteristics associated with threats than to those associated with opportunities. The implications of the results for understanding how threats and opportunities are identified are discussed, and future research directions are indicated.'
949Â citations
913Â citations
TL;DR: In this article, a study of 57 large bankruptcies and 57 matched survivors examined the dynamics of major corporate failure and found that a downward-spiral model was used to guide selection of four major constructs studied: domain initiative, environmental carrying capacity, slack and performance.
Abstract: This project was sponsored by Columbia University's Strategy Research Center. Warren Boeker, Syd Finkelstein, Jim Fredrickson, Mark Sharfman, and Mike Tushman made helpful comments on earlier drafts. Special gratitude is owed to Ian MacMillan for his substantial help in the matched-pair selection process. This exploratory study of 57 large bankruptcies and 57 matched survivors examined the dynamics of major corporate failure. Prior research was used to guide selection of the four major constructs studied: domain initiative, environmental carrying capacity, slack, and performance. What emerges is a clear portrayal of a protracted process of decline, aptly portrayed by prior theorists, and modeled here, as a downward spiral. In the firms studied, significant features of the downward spiral included early weaknesses in slack and performance, extreme and vacillating strategic actions, and abrupt environmental decline. An elaboration of the last two stages of decline is also presented, based on the findings from this study. The downward-spiral model is then illustrated with a case example. The study sheds light on major debates and dilemmas in the fields of organization theory and strategy regarding why major firms fail.'
774Â citations
683Â citations
Abstract: The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful criticisms and comments of Glenn Carroll, Ron Ehrenberg, Edward Lazear, David Levine, George Milkovich, Jeffrey Pfeffer, and Frances Van Loo on an earlier version of this manuscript. We also acknowledge the help of Jim Wade in data collection and analysis and the Institute of Industrial Relations for research support. Obviously, all errors in the paper remain those of the authors. This study examined economic and psychological factors that may influence the setting of CEO compensation levels and tested both a tournament model and a social comparison model. Using data from 105 Fortune 500 firms, conventional economic determinants such as size and profitability were found to be only weakly related to CEO compensation. A test of a tournament model examined the difference in compensation between the top executive and those in the next hierarchical level. Controlling for other potential economic determinants, no support was found for this theory. Consistent with social comparison theory, however, strong associations were found between CEO compensation and the compensation level of outside members of the board of directors, especially those who serve on the compensation committee."
678Â citations
677Â citations
TL;DR: McNeil traces the poor quality of high school instruction to the tensions between the social control purposes of schooling and the schools' educational goals as discussed by the authors, and concludes that high school students suffer from poor instruction.
Abstract: McNeil traces the poor quality of high school instruction t the tensions between the social control purposes of schooling and the schools' educational goals.
535Â citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a method for assessing whether members of two subcultures, in this case academics and practitioners, have influenced each other's interpretations of organizational culture by specifying changes in the language that members of different sub-cultures use to frame a topic or issue.
Abstract: Culture of cultures: Academics, practioners and the prgmatics of normative control - This paper presents a method for assessing whether members of two subcultures, in this case academics and practitioners, have influenced each other’s interpretations. Conceptual and symbolic influence are seen as special instances of acculturation, and their occurrence can be studied by specifying changes in the language that members of different subcultures use to frame a topic or issue. Models of academic- and practitioner-oriented discourse on organizational culture were derived from early papers on the topic. The texts of 192 articles on organizational culture written between June 1975 and December 1984 were then examined for evidence of acculturation. The data strongly suggest that those who wrote for practitionere and academics initially conceptualized organizational culture differently. Over time, however, academics appear to have moved toward the practitioners’ point of view, while the latter appear to have been little influenced by the former. Besides showing that it is possible to study acculturation by investigating language use, the analysis raises important questions about the links between theory and practice m organizational behavior.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explored the relationship between participants using different styles of upward influence in formal organizations and their performance evaluations, salaries, and reported stress, and found that gender moderated the relation between subordinates' upward influence styles and superiors' evaluation of their performances.
Abstract: We gratefully acknowledge the many helpful comments and criticisms of Gerald Salancik and three anonymous reviewers and the professional editing of this manuscript by Linda Pike. Three studies explored the relationship between participants using different styles of upward influence in formal organizations and their performance evaluations, salaries, and reported stress. In studies of workers, supervisors, and chief executive officers, the following four upward-influence styles were identified through cluster analysis: Shotgun, Tactician, Ingratiator, and Bystander. Male subordinates using a Shotgun style of upward influence were evaluated less favorably by their superiors, earned less, and reported more job tension and personal stress than Tactician subordinates. There was evidence that gender moderated the relation between subordinates' upward-influence styles and superiors' evaluation of their performances.-
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used the techniques of event-history analysis to examine empirically the duration of dyadic interorganizational attachments through a study of auditor-client relationships and found that relationships in which the task was more complex tended to be of longer duration.
Abstract: The order of authorship is randomly assigned. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the TIMS/ORSA meetings, May 1987, Academy of Management, August 1987, and the Law, Economics and Organization Workshop at Yale University. We gratefully acknowledge support from a Faculty Development Grant from Carnegie-Mellon. We have benefited from conversations with Bill Baber, Robert Kaplan, Jody Magliolo, and Jim Noel and appreciate their help in understanding the nature of the audit relationship. We also thank Linda Argote, Alison Davis-Blake, Jack Brittain, John Freeman, Jerry Ross, Jerry Salancik, Mark Seabright, Kathryn Shaw, and three anonymous ASQ reviewers for their comments on a prior draft. We used the techniques of event-history analysis to examine empirically the duration of dyadic interorganizational attachments through a study of auditor-client relationships. These attachments were found to have positive duration dependence. In the early stages of these attachments the rate at which these interorganizational relationships ended increased with time. After this early "honeymoon" period, the rate at which relationships ended decreased with time, consistent with notions that assets specific to the relationship develop over time. Furthermore, we found that relationships in which the task was more complex tended to be of longer duration.'
TL;DR: Mizruchi et al. as mentioned in this paper examined the creation of new interlock ties, using data on 22 large U.S. industrial corporations from 1956 to 1983 to determine factors affecting the appointment of representatives of financial institutions to the industrials' boards.
Abstract: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, New York, August 1986. Portions of this research were funded by a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award (SES-8858669) to Mizruchi. We are grateful to John Freeman, Mark Granovetter, K. Jill Kiecolt, Donald Palmer, Linda Pike, and the anonymous ASQ reviewers for comments and suggestions on previous drafts. We also thank Holly Myers for her assistance in collecting and entering the data. The present study examines the creation of new interlock ties, using data on 22 large U.S. industrial corporations from 1956 to 1983 to determine factors affecting the appointment of representatives of financial institutions to the industrials' boards. The longitudinal design enabled us to focus on the effects of the general economic environment at a particular point in time as well as on characteristics peculiar to individual firms. Employing event-history analysis, we found that declining solvency, declining profit rate, the correspondence of increased demand for capital with declining interest rates, and the correspondence of increased demand for capital with contraction stages of the business cycle are associated with the subsequent appointment of financial directors. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the general economic environment within which organizational decision making occurs.'
TL;DR: The results of a study of large retail firms in the United Kingdom, designed to overcome the methodological problems of earlier studies of leadership and performance, are presented in support of this argument as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: ? 1988 by Cornell University 0001 -8392/88/3303-0388/$1 00 This paper evaluates research on the impact of chief executive officers on corporate performance, taking Lieberson and O'Connor's pathbreaking study as its starting point Although that study is commonly regarded as the principal source of empirical support for the view that leaders have little impact on organizational performance because they are constrained by situational factors, it is argued here that the study and its derivatives have provided consistent and compelling evidence that individual leaders do make a difference The results of a study of large retail firms in the United Kingdom, designed to overcome the methodological problems of earlier studies of leadership and performance, are presented in support of this argument
TL;DR: This article argued that the current markets and hierarchies framework of transaction cost economics provides too limited a set of transactional options to account adequately for many of the organizational problems encountered in developing economies.
Abstract: The authors wish to acknowledge the helpful comments of Professor Tom Lupton and the ASO editor and anonymous reviewers. This paper argues that the current markets and hierarchies framework of transaction-cost economics provides too limited a set of transactional options to account adequately for many of the organizational problems encountered in developing economies. Focusing on the codification and diffusion of information, it provides a set of concepts designed to extend the existing framework. Applying these concepts to an analysis of the economic reforms in the People's Republic of China since 1978, the paper identifies a form of bureaucratic failure that lies beyond the markets-hierarchies typology and that highlights the important role played by culture and level of development in shaping transactional preferences.'
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the relationship between perceived departmental power and the extent to which departments appear to share important organizational values with top management and found that perceived value congruity between department members and top managers, examined from the perspectives of both groups, was found to account for unique variance in department's power when controlling for the effects of critical contingencies.
Abstract: To understand better the differences in power between subunits, this paper examines the relationship between perceived departmental power and the extent to which departments appear to share important organizational values with top management. Critical contingency perspectives on intraorganizational power are used as a catalyst for exploring similarity of organizational values as an additional determinant of power. Interview and survey data from a quick-service restaurant chain and a robotics company are used to provide support for the role of perceived similarity in values for determining power. Perceived value congruity between department members and top managers, examined from the perspectives of both groups, was found to account for unique variance in departmental power when controlling for the effects of critical contingencies. An objective measure of the similarity of values between department members and top managers, however, was unrelated to departmental power.
TL;DR: Meyer et al. as discussed by the authors explored the nature and relationship of the positions of CEO and chair of the board of directors through two related analyses, one examining CEO and board chair turnover and the other examining consolidations and separations in these two positions, using transition-rate analysis.
Abstract: The authors are listed in order of age; all three authors made major contributions to this paper. We wish to thank Marshall Meyer, Jeff Pfeffer, and two anonymous ASQ reviewers for comments on an earlier draft. This paper explores the nature and relationship of the positions of CEO and chair of the board of directors through two related analyses, one examining CEO and board chair turnover and the other examining consolidations and separations in these two positions, using transition-rate analysis, in a sample of 671 large American manufacturing firms for the period from 1978 to 1980. Both turnover and structural change in the top positions were found to depend on firm performance and industry structure; turnover also depended on firm size and the structure of the positions, and structural change also depended on board structure, controlling for retirements. The results highlight the power of the CEO, the tendency to consolidate the top positions under the CEO, and the greater accountability of the person in the combined position for firm performance. The paper concludes with some implications of the findings for understanding the CEO and board chair positions, with an emphasis on top-management power, makes recommendations for research on turnover, and provides suggestions for corporate behavior, based on the results of this study.'
Abstract: The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of Hugh Arnold, Martin Evans, Bob House, Marshall Meyer, and Jitendra Singh. The author also wishes to express her appreciation to Agnes Meinhard and David Tucker for their support in using the data contained in this study and to the ASO editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This paper investigates empirically the competing predictions of three perspectives on the determinants of organizational isomorphism-population ecology, institutionalization, and strategic choice-through a collective strategy framework, which categorizes organizations in an interorganizational field by their relationships with one another. The methodological approach, based on a network analysis of multiple organizational relations in a population of voluntary social service organizations, operationalizes the collective strategy typology and links homogeneity among organizations to their location in the organizational field. The results of the investigation offer strongest support for a strategic choice perspective and suggest that the environment is not highly deterministic in shaping organizational characteristics.'
TL;DR: A resource dependence perspective on intercorporate relations Jeffrey Pfeffer and Michael Schwartz as discussed by the authors have proposed a structural approach to markets based on a structural interpretation of money in the United States.
Abstract: List of figures List of tables Introduction Mark S. Mizruchi and Michael Schwartz Part I. Theoretical Perspectives: 1. A resource dependence perspective on intercorporate relations Jeffrey Pfeffer 2. Finance capital and the internal structure of the capitalist class in the United States Michael Soref and Maurice Zeitlin 3. A structural approach to markets Eric M. Leifer and Harrison C. White 4. What is money? a social structural interpretation Wayne E. Baker 5. Corporation, class, and city system Donald A. Palmer and Roger Friedland Part II. National and International Business Structures: A Comparative Perspective: 6. The structure of class cohesion: the corporate network and its dual James Bearden and Beth Mintz 7. Intercorporate structures in Western Europe: a comparative historical analysis John Scott 8. The articulation of power and business structures: a study of Colombia Enrique Ogliastri and Carlos Davila 9. Business-government relations in modern Japan: a Todai-Yakkai-Zaikai complex? Koji Taira and Teiichi Wada 10. International bank capital and the new liberalism Meindert Fennema and Kees van der Pijl Index of authors Subject index.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined the effect of ownership patterns on corporate contributions to charity and corporate beliefs rationalizing contributions, and found that companies gave less money to charity in 1979-1981 if the CEO or some other individual owned a significant percentage of stock in the company.
Abstract: Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (SES 800 8570) and the Program on Nonprofit Organizations, Yale University. We would like to thank Denise Cobb for her assistance in typing the manuscript and an anonymous ASQ reviewer for his or her insightful comments. This paper examines the effect of ownership patterns on corporate contributions to charity and corporate beliefs rationalizing contributions. The study uses data and findings from an earlier study of the Twin Cities corporate grants economy and new data on 69 publicly held firms headquartered in Minneapolis-St. Paul to test hypotheses derived from agency theory about corporate giving. Controlling for pretax income, proximity of the company's executives to the local philanthropic elite, and the rationale used to justify contributions, we found that companies gave less money to charity in 1979-1981 if the CEO or some other individual owned a significant percentage of stock in the company. In contrast, the percentage of stock owned by a single corporate interest or family group had no effect on company contributions. Social proximity of executives to the local philanthropic activists had a positive effect on contributions, except when a family group owned more than 5 percent of the company's stock. We explore the implications of our findings from the perspective of agency theory and business policy.'
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a model for understanding second-order change integrating practice and theory for organizational change transformation, and present a set of transformation strategies: Transformation Strategies The "Transformation" and the "Transition" strategies The "New" and "Renew" Strategies The Top-Down" and Bottom-Up Strategies Part III.
Abstract: Preface Organizational Transformation Part I. Approaches to Transformation Changing the Organizational Paradigm "High Performance" and "Excellence" Changing the Organizational Myths Reframing Rechanneling Energy Raising and Changing Consciousness Part II. Transformation Strategies The "Transformation" and the "Transition" Strategies The "New" and "Renew" Strategies The "Top-Down" and "Bottom-Up" Strategies Part III. Research and Theory Organizational Change Transformation Theories Part IV. Summary Models for Understanding Second-Order Change Integrating Practice and Theory Bibliography Index
TL;DR: Adler et al. as mentioned in this paper examined a type of organizational loyalty, intense loyalty, that is more profound than the traditional attachment of individuals to a group, based on their satisfaction with their economic rewards, authority relations, or occupational self-fulfillment.
Abstract: We would like to thank Jean Blocker for help during the data-gathering portion of this research and Charles Gallmeier, Peter Manning, John Van Maanen, and the editors and anonymous ASO reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Address correspondence to Dr. Peter Adler, Department of Sociology, University of Denver, Denver, CO 80208. In this paper we examine a type of organizational loyalty, intense loyalty, that is more profound than the type of organizational loyalty traditionally portrayed as a rather mild attachment of individuals to a group, based on their satisfaction with their economic rewards, authority relations, or occupational self-fulfillment. Using data gathered over a five-year participant-observation study, we use the case of college athletics to illustrate this previously undiscussed form of organizational loyalty. We suggest that there are five elements essential to the development of intense loyalty in organizations: domination, identification, commitment, integration, and alignment. Through their experiences with each of these organizational dimensions, athletes develop feelings that lead to the development of intense loyalty. We conclude by contrasting the structural characteristics of organizations that generate intense loyalty with those of more ordinary work organizations.'
TL;DR: Barley et al. as mentioned in this paper show how the emotional phases that accompany market crisis can be related to an underlying cycle of actions, attributions, and regulatory reactions among participants in the market environment.
Abstract: The authors thank Steve Barley, John Forester, John Freeman, Mark Granovetter, Bob Stern, and Richard Thaler for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. This study shows how the emotional phases that accompany market crisis can be related to an underlying cycle of actions, attributions, and regulatory reactions among participants in the market environment. The action-attribution-regulation process is here called "enactment," in order to focus on how market participants create the environment that then impinges on their activity. We illustrate this process with a case study of the 1980 crisis in the silver futures market, when prices soared from $10 per ounce to $50 per ounce and fell back to $10 per ounce in seven months. The traditional mania/distress/panic model of speculative bubbles is reframed as a cycle of organizing, focusing on the strategic actions of buyers, sellers, bankers, and government agencies. The paper shows how the crisis, enacted by market participants who created speculative opportunities, was resolved through the cooperation of powerful organizations that sought to protect the solvency of insiders and the integrity of the market. This view of market process suggests a cycle of action and institutional constraint that shapes the structure of market environments.'
TL;DR: The authors examined the effect of the organization of work on wage variation within departments and found that more social contact among departmental members, more democratic and participative departmental governance, and more demographic homogeneity were associated with more equal salary distributions.
Abstract: The authors gratefully acknowlege the assistance of Alison Konrad in constructing the data files. The comments of Marshall Meyer and three anonymous ASQ reviewers were very helpful. The first author thanks the Graduate School of Business and the Robert M. and Anne T. Bass Faculty Fellowship for generous research support. This research was completed while the second author was a National Institute of Aging postdoctoral trainee in the Organizations Research Training Program at Stanford University. Data from 1,805 academic departments in 303 colleges and universities were used to examine the effect of the organization of work on wage variation within departments. Private control, larger departmental size, and a greater tendency to work alone were all associated with more dispersed wages; more social contact among departmental members, more democratic and participative departmental governance, and more demographic homogeneity were associated with more equal salary distributions. The results are consistent with social psychological theories of reward allocation that have emphasized the importance of norms, social contact, and social relations as critical factors in the allocation process."
TL;DR: Schwalbe as discussed by the authors defined natural labor as labor that yields and sustains aesthetic experience, which is derived from an ability to appreciate the means-ends relationship in human action or work, from challenges requiring problem solving, role-taking to appreciate others with a sense of self, and the ability to act in order to satisfy one's own impulses.
Abstract: tion from a potentiality\" (p. 201), concretely experienced when \"labor ceases to be an opportunity to exercise a full range of species powers through a cooperative transformation of nature\" (p. 11). In Schwalbe's analysis, the use of both is necessary for understanding workers' alienation from the product produced, the process of producing it, the self (species powers), and other human beings. Natural labor is defined, following Mead, as labor that yields and sustains aesthetic experience. That experience is derived from an ability to appreciate the means-ends relationship in human action or work, from challenges requiring problem solving, role-taking to appreciate others with a sense of self, and the ability to act in order to satisfy one's own impulses. From this concept of natural labor, Schwalbe constructs the opposite-alienation from a Meadian perspective. He then compares Mead's and Marx's concepts of alienation. The author intelligently discusses the power and limitations of his conceptual approach. Chapter 3 is devoted to discussion of methodological issues and challenges in developing what he describes as \"a phenomenological study of work experience of the acting subject\" (a program that Schwalbe sees as complementary to the work of Michael Burawoy), and, through it, better understanding of the psychological outcomes of that experience. It is refreshing to see methodology given both explicit and generally insightful attention. Schwalbe then presents and interprets survey data. The goal of his empirical research was to develop supplemental evidence for the natural labor perspective. His approach to data collection and an elaboration of results appear in appendices. The author characterizes this work as confirmation of his deductive approach, and \"a check on unrestrained theorizing\" (p. 158). One of the six conclusions of the study is that \"aesthetic work experience can and does arise within the capitalist labor process.\" Another is that \"psychologically consequential work experiences are systematically related to class position\" (pp. 125-28): the working-class ubjects in Schwalbe's empirical study had the least opportunity, relative to semi-autonomous workers, supervisors, and managers, to escape alienated labor. Later in the book, in his reassessment, Schwalbe points out that it is \"arguable that alienated labor serves largely to create humans who are less and less able to transform social reality\" (p. 155). A central question raised in Chapter 6 (\"Praxis\") is, who is to carry out the \"meta-act\" of transformation? Schwalbe's discussion of natural labor, worker-controlled production, and the transition to socialism is clearly influenced by the work of Andre Gorz. Comments on socialist pedagogy and the \"ends of natural labor\" conclude the main text. The closely maintained focus of this study is one of its strengths, but it also leaves the reader thirsting for more. The author makes clear that the workplace is not the only arena where social structure shapes experience and, in turn, psychological functioning (pp. 121-23). The implications for workplace experience of such factors as gender and education could be explored more fully. Given the workplace focus, it seems that Schwalbe could have discussed the strengths and shortcomings of labor unions as an arena within which to develop transformative skills and inclinations. I hope that in his future work Schwalbe will use the framework of analysis presented here to explore those questions, and to add muchneeded critical insight to the \"new class\" arguments of Gorz and others as well. This book provides a credible and provocative introduction to an innovative analytical approach; it effectively addresses the question of the linkage of research to social change; and it is written in a readable and accessible way. These clear accomplishments make it a valuable addition to the literature.
TL;DR: In this article, the Hungarian state shapes the organizational structure and behavior of agricultural cooperatives, leading to more elaborate interorganizational networks, greater competition among similar organizations, and larger administrative components.
Abstract: The research reported here was supported by the Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Berkeley. Part of Carroll's work on the project was conducted while he was a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford, CA. During that period, he was supported by National Science Foundation grant #BNS-8700864. We appreciate the helpful comments of James Baron, Paul DiMaggio, John W. Meyer, Marshall Meyer, Walter Powell, W. Richard Scott, and David Stark on earlier drafts. Drawing on institutional theory, this article considers some of the ways the Hungarian state shapes the organizational structure and behavior of agricultural cooperatives. Fragmentation in the structure of state decision making is hypothesized as leading to (1) more elaborate interorganizational networks; (2) greater competition among similar organizations; and (3) larger administrative components. Analysis of survey data from the managers of cooperatives provides evidence supporting the hypotheses about networks and competition but contradicting the hypothesis about administrative overhead.'