The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action
01 Dec 1936-American Sociological Review (American Sociological Association)-Vol. 1, Iss: 6, pp 894-904
TL;DR: The problem of unanticipated consequences of purposive social action has been widely recognized and its importance equally appreciated, but no systematic, scientific analysis of it has as yet been effected.
Abstract: I N SOME ONE of its numerous forms, the problem of the unanticipated consequences of purposive action has been treated by virtually every substantial contributor to the long history of social thought.' The diversity of context' and variety of terms3 by which this problem has been known, however, have tended to obscure the definite continuity in its consideration. In fact, this diversity of context-ranging from theology to technology-has been so pronounced that not only has the substantial identity of the problem been overlooked, but no systematic, scientific analysis of it has as yet been effected. The failure to subject this problem to such thorough-going investigation has perhaps been due in part to its having been linked historically with transcendental and ethical considerations. Obviously, the ready solution provided by ascribing uncontemplated consequences of action to the inscrutable will of God or Providence or Fate precludes, in the mind of the believer, any need for scientific analysis. Whatever the actual reasons, the fact remains that though the process has been widely recognized and its importance equally appreciated, it still awaits a systematic treatment. Although the phrase, unanticipated consequences of purposive social action, is in a measure self-explanatory, the setting of the prob-
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: The authors explores the sources and consequences of the paradox that the guardians of trust are themselves trustees, and discovers that the resulting collection of procedural norms, structural constraints, entry restrictions, policing mechanisms, social-control specialists, and insurance-like arrangements increases the opportunities for abuse while it encourages less acceptable trustee performance.
Abstract: How do societies control trust relationships that are not embedded in structures of personal relations? This paper discusses the guardians of impersonal trust and discovers that, in the quest for agent fidelity, they create new problems. The resulting collection of procedural norms, structural constraints, entry restrictions, policing mechanisms, social-control specialists, and insurance-like arrangements increases the opportunities for abuse while it encourages less acceptable trustee performance. Moreover, this system sometimes leads people to throw good "money" after bad; they protect trust and respond to its failures by conferring even more trust. The paper explores the sources and consequences of the paradox that the guardians of trust are themselves trustees.
1,694 citations
TL;DR: This work conceptualizes the emergent process of path dependence along three distinct stages of self-reinforcing mechanisms and uses the model to explore breakouts from organizational path dependence and discuss implications for managing and researching organizational paths.
Abstract: To enable a better understanding of the underlying logic of path dependence, we set forth a theoretical framework explaining how organizations become path dependent. At its core are the dynamics of self-reinforcing mechanisms, which are likely to lead an organization into a lock-in. By drawing on studies of technological paths, we conceptualize the emergent process of path dependence along three distinct stages. We also use the model to explore breakouts from organizational path dependence and discuss implications for managing and researching organizational paths.
1,196 citations
Cites background from "The unanticipated consequences of p..."
...Moreover, their outcomes are unforeseeable consequences of purposeful action (Merton, 1936)....
[...]
01 Jan 2008
1,153 citations
Cites background from "The unanticipated consequences of p..."
...Another important effect of pluralism is to create change processes that are rife with unintended consequences (Merton, 1936; Selznick, 1949)....
[...]
TL;DR: In many cases the forms taken by decision processes, the structuring of organizational activities and even the specification of an organizational boundary are not independent of the accounting representation of them as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Accounting has come to be seen as playing a key role in organizational functioning. Concerned, as it now is, with such activities as assessing the costs and benefits of organizational actions, the setting of financial standards and norms, the representation and reporting of organizational performance, and financial planning and control, accounting has been used to cast important aspects of the functioning of the modern organization into economic terms. By offering particular economic representations of organizational activities and outcomes to both internal participants and interested external parties, it has come to be involved in the creation of a quite specific organizational order and mission. Accounting is now associated with particular ways of seeing and trying to shape organizational processes and actions, with the maintenance of certain forms of organizational segmentation, hierarchy and control, and with the furtherance of an economic rationale for action (Batstone, 1979). Indeed in many cases the forms taken by decision processes, the structuring of organizational activities and even the specification of an organizational boundary are not independent of the accounting representation of them. Modes of accounting have become not only important and valued management practices but also ones whose existence and consequences are difficult to disentangle from the functioning of organizations as we know them. Accounting, in other words, has become centrally implicated in the modern form of organizing. With accounting so intertwined with organizational functioning it is surprising that so little is known of the organizational nature of accounting practice. That, however, is the case. Although early studies of accounting in action focused on trying to understand its organizational roles and consequences, many more recent investigations have detached accounting from its organizational setting, preferring instead to study the consequences which it has at the individual rather than the organizational level.’ Admittedly such studies are providing us with many interesting and useful insights into both the interpretation of accounting information and ways of trying to facilitate its use in decision making situations. Be that as it may, they do not explicitly aim to help us to understand what is at stake in the organizational
1,090 citations
Book•
01 Dec 1995TL;DR: Transactional cost economics (TCE) as discussed by the authors is a generalization of transaction cost economics with a focus on the allocation of economic activity across alternative modes of organization (markets, firms, bureaus, etc.).
Abstract: Torganization by selectively joinin gl aw, economics, and organization theory. As against neoclassical economics, which is predominantly concerned with price and output, relies extensively on marginal analysis, an dd escribes the firm as a production function (whic hi s a technological construction), transaction cost economics (TCE) is concerned with the allocation of economic activity across alternative modes of organization (markets, firms, bureaus, etc.), employs discrete structural analysis, an dd escribes the firm as a governance structure (which is an organizational construction). Real differences notwithstanding, orthodoxy and TCE are in many ways complements—one being more wellsuited to aggregation in the context of simple market exchange, the other being more well-suited to the microanalytics of complex contracting and nonmarket organization. Ib egin by contrasting the lens of contract (out of which TCE works) with the lens of choice (orthodoxy). Vertical integration, which is the paradigm problem for TCE, i st hen examined .T he operationalization of TCE is discusse di n Section 3. Variations on a theme are sketched in Section 4. Public policy is discussed in Section 5. Concluding remarks follow.
972 citations