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The Sociology of Organizations
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The Sociology of Organizations
Classic, Contemporary, and Critical Readings

Edited by:


September 2002 | 552 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"Michael Handel has assembled an authoritative and wide-ranging collection of key articles in the organizations field, and complements these papers with a terrific critical survey of the literature. His introductory essays will benefit both students and researchers alike. This collection is a real service to the field."

                                                                    - Walter W. Powell, Stanford University  

"A unique reader and commentary with broad coverage of the classics, combined with a healthy skepticism about received theories and an emphasis on the impact of organizations on society. The lucid commentary brightens the field."

                                                                             - Charles Perrow, Yale University  

For the first time, a single volume offers a comprehensive selection of primary readings and companion overview essays on the sociology of organizations. These readings and essays provide incisive and guided coverage of the subjects normally included in a one-semester sociology of organizations course.  

The Sociology of Organizations covers the full range of theoretical perspectives and substantive topics through readings that are either classics in the field or widely discussed and debated "new classics."  

Section introductions explain key terms and concepts, provide illustrations, and summarize related debates and research in clear prose. The depth of these overview essays makes this book ideal for use as either as a stand-alone text or a supplementary reader. After reading this book, students will have a thorough understanding of central concepts and an appreciation of the primary texts that are the foundation of the field.  

Scholars and students in the fields of sociology, management, organizational behavior, and organizational psychology and those within political science and economics who are interested in how organizations function will find this work a welcome, invaluable resource.

 
Preface
 
Introduction
Michael J. Handel
Organizations as Rational Systems I: Classic Theories of Bureaucracy and Administration
A. Early Definitions of Organization and Management

 
Max Weber
Bureaucracy and Legitimate Authority
Critique

 
B. Scientific Management and the Treatment of Labor

 
Frederick W. Taylor
The Principles of Scientific Management
Critique

 
Harry Braverman
The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century
Michael J. Handel
Organizations as Rational Systems II: Contingency Theory and the Discover of Organizational Variation
Tom Burns / G.M. Stalker
The Management of Innovation
Joan Woodward
Technology and Organization
D.S. Pugh
The Measurement of Organization Structures
Michael J. Handel
Organizations as Human and Social Systems I: The Impulse to Reform Work
A. The Early Human Relations Movement

 
George C. Homans
The Hawthorne Experiments
Critique

 
Dana Bramel / Ronald Friend
Hawthorne, the Myth of the Docile Worker, and Class Bias in Psychology
B. Humanistic Management and Contemporary Employee Involvement

 
Douglas McGregor
The Human Side of Enterprise
Richard E. Walton
From Control to Commitment in the Workplace
Saul Rubinstein
A Differnt Kind of Company: From Control to Commitment in Practice
Critique

 
Laurie Graham
Inside a Japanese Transplant: A Critical Perspective
Michael J. Handel
Organizations as Human and Social Systems II: Informal Organizations as Shadow Structure
Melville Dalton
Conflicts Between Staff and Line Managerial Officers
Robert Jackall
The World of Corporate Managers
Michael Burawoy
Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Market Capitalism
Michael J. Handel
Rationality and Non-Rationality in Organizational Decision Making
Graham Allison
Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis
Michael J. Handel
Power Inside Organizations
Robert Michaels
Organizations and Oligarchy
Michael J. Handel
Organizations as Open Systems: Organizations and Their Environments
A. Resource Dependency Theory

 
Jeffrey Pfeffer / Gerald R. Salancik
The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective
B. Institutional Theory

 
Paul DiMaggio / Wlater Powell
The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields
Organizational Ecology

 
Glenn R. Carroll / Michael T. Hannan
Density-Dependent Processes
Michael J. Handel
Economic Theories of Organizations
Michael C. Jensen /William H. Meckling
Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs, and Ownership Structure
Oliver E. Williamson
The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach
Critique

 
Charles Perrow
Markets, Hierarchies and Hegemony
Michael J. Handel
The Evolution of Modern Business Organization: From Big Business to Post-Fordism
A. Alfred Chandler's Account of the Rise of Big Business

 
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.
The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism
B. Post-Bureaucratic Alternatives to Big Business

 
Walter W. Powell
Neither Market Nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization
Critique

 
Bennett Harrison
Lean and Mean: The Changing Landscape of Corporate Power in an Age of Flexibility
Michael J. Handel
Organizational Culture
Gideon Kunda
Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation
Michael J. Handel
Organizations and Society: Gender, Race, Class, and Politics
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Men and Women of the Corporation
Sharon Collins
Black Mobility in Corporations: Up the Corporate Ladder but Out on a Limb
Richard Edwards
Segmented Labor Markets
Dan Clawson Alan Neustadtl, and Denise Scott
The Access Process: Loopholes as a System
Michael J. Handel
Organizational Deviance
Charles Perrow
Normal Accidents: Living With High-Risk Technologies
Diane Vaughan
Rational Choice, Situated Action, and the Social Control of Organizations:; The Challenger Launch Decision
Michael J. Handel
Democratic Alternatives to Capitalist Bureaucracy: Worker Ownerships and Self-Management
Joyce Rothschild-Whitt
The Collectivist Organization: An Alternative to Rational Bureaucratic Models
William Foote/Joseph R. Blasi/Douglas Lynn Kruse
Worker Ownership, Participation, and Control: Toward a Theoretical Model
Michael J. Handel
Government, Nonprofit Agencies, and Voluntary Associations
Michael Lipsky
Street-Level Bureaucracy
 
References
 
Index

"Michael Handel has assembled an authoritative and
wide-ranging collection of key articles in the organizations field, and
complements these papers with a terrific critical survey of the literature. His
introductory essays will benefit both students and researchers alike. This
collection is a real service to the field."

Walter W. Powell
Stanford University

"A unique
reader and commentary with broad coverage of the classics, combined with a
healthy skepticism about received theories and an emphasis on the impact of
organizations on society. The lucid commentary brightens the field."

 

Charles Perrow
Yale University

good book. fundamental to the study of organizations. accessible and easy to understand. well organized.

Professor Antonio Abrantes
Departamento Sociologia, Universidade Algarve
December 10, 2014

Excellent book will use again next semester. Only problem is students are complaining about the cost.

Dr Veronica Manlow
Finance and Business Management, Brooklyn College
April 12, 2013

A useful text to assist students in meeting module learning outcomes. Helpful chapters on heirarchies, Fordism & post-fordism, Taylorism and cultures supports learning. The section on democratic alternatives and local government structure further supports learning and provides background to the emergence of mutuals in social care settings.

Mr Dave Mason
Faculty of Health, Staffordshire University
November 8, 2011

A collection of classic and 'must-read' articles about organisations, for a non-sociologist teaching management and organisational theory, this text is eye-opening and informative - it offers a new perspective to the world of management and organisations that will certainly help transform my teaching and my students' learning.

Mr Simon Moralee
Health Studies, De Montfort University
August 3, 2011

Handel has edited a book with the most important readings of organisational theory in such a way that it is the right material for first year undergraduates to learn about the theories and their existence, through the introductions, but made it also a classical handbook which have to be found in the shelves of every teacher lecturing organisational theory courses.

Mr Tom Dijkhuizen MPhil LLB
Department of Public Administration, Leiden University
February 15, 2011

I think this is a great handbook and I use some articles from it in my courses but the cost is prohibitive for an undergraduate course. If it was less expensive I would use as a required text (I do use as a recommended text).

Dr Christopher Oliver
Sociology Dept, University of Kentucky
January 24, 2011
Key features
Unique features of this book include its comprehensive coverage, clarity, sophistication, and parsimony. The primary source readings and accompanying explanatory text (section introductions) cover all the material expected in a one-semester sociology of organizations course at a high level of sophistication, in clear, accessible language, and within a brief space. The primary readings have been condensed, making them easier to read, and the section introductions present context and cover many additional issues in concise fashion using many concrete examples.

There is no other book in this field that has these virtues. Most textbooks are long, dry, and abstract. The only other readers in this field are either long out of date or otherwise difficult to obtain in this country.

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