Organization Theory
Reading List
Compiled by:
Professors Mary Tschirhart,
Steve Walston
Professor Roger Parks, 2000
(modest additions)
Doctoral-level Texts
Covering a
S. R. Clegg and C. Hardy (Eds.)
(1996) Studying Organization: Theory and Method, London: Sage.
Clegg, Hardy, and Nord (Eds.)
(1996) Handbook of Organizational Studies, London: Sage (longer version
of Clegg and Hardy book above).
W. R. Scott (1987) Organizations:
Rational, Natural, and Open Systems, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
G. Morgan (1986) Images of
Organizations, Beverly Hills: Sage.
C. Perrow (1986) Complex
Organizations: A Critical Essay, New York: Random House.
J. Pfeffer (1982) Organizations
and Organizational Theory, Boston: Pitman.
Systems Theory
Thompson, J. (1967) Organizations
in Action. New York: McGraw Hill.
Pondy, L. R. and Mitroff, I.
I. (1979) Beyond open systems models of organization. In L. L. Cummings and B. M. Staw (Eds. ) Research
in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 1. , Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Ashmos, D. and Huber, G. P.
(1987) The systems paradigm in organization theory: Correcting the record and
suggesting the future. Academy of
Management Review. 12: 607-621.
Contingency Theories
Laurence, P. R. and J. W.
Lorsch (1967) Organization and Environment, Boston: Division of
Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University..
Drazin, R. and A. Van de Ven
(1985) Alternative forms of fit in contingency theory. Administrative
Science Quarterly. 30: 514-531.
Schoonhoven, C.B. (1981).
Problems with contingency theory: Testing assumptions hidden within the
language of contingency theory. Administrative Science Quarterly 26:
349-377.
Resource Dependence
Theory
Pfeffer, J. and G. Salancik (1978) The External
Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. New York:
Harper and Row.
Institutional Theory
Meyer, J.W., and Rowan, B.
(1976) Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American
Journal of Sociology, 83: 340-363.
DiMaggio, P. and Powell, W.
(1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective
rationality in organizational fields. American
Sociological Review, 2: 147-160.
Scott, W.R. (1987) The
adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Science Quarterly,
32: 493-551.
Oliver, C. (1991) Strategic
responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16:
145-179.
Galaskiewicz, J. and S.
Wasserman (1989) “Mimetic processes within an interorganizational field: A
empirical test”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol 34.
Institutional Analysis
and Design
Kiser, Larry, and Elinor
Ostrom (1982) “The Three Worlds of Action: A Metatheoretical Synthesis of
Institutional Approaches.” In Elinor Ostrom, ed. Strategies of Political
Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 179-222.
Ostrom, Elinor (1999)
“Institutional Rational Choice: An Assessment of the Institutional Analysis and
Development Framework.” In Theories of the Policy Process, ed. Paul A.
Sabatier, 35-71. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Ostrom, Elinor, Roy Gardner,
and James Walker (1994) Rules, Games, and Common-Pool Resources. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press
Ostrom, Vincent (1999). “A
Forgotten Tradition: The Constitutional Level of Analysis.” In McGinnis,
Michael D., ed. Polycentric Governance and Development: Readings from the
Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press, 151-165
Ostrom, Vincent. 1987. The
Political Theory of a Compound Republic: Designing the American Experiment.
2d rev. ed. San Francisco, CA: ICS Press.
North, Douglass C. 1990. Institutions,
Institutional Change and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Oakerson, Ronald (1992)
“Analyzing the Commons: A Framework.” In Daniel W. Bromley, et al., eds. Making
the Commons Work: Theory, Practice, and Policy. San Francisco, CA: ICS
Press, 41-62.
Population Ecology
Hannan, M.T. and Freeman, J.
(1977) The population ecology of organizations. American Journal of
Sociology, 82: 929-964.
Hannan, M.T. and J. Freeman
(1984) Structural inertia and organizational change. American Sociological
Review. 49: 149-154.
Wholey, D.R. and J.W.
Brittain (1986) Organizational ecology: Findings and implications Academy of
Management Review, 11: 3, 513-533.
Astley, W.G. (1985) The two
ecologies: Population and community perspectives on organizational evolution. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 30: 224-241.
Transaction Costs and
Agency Theory
Williamson, O. (1981) The
economics of organization: The transaction cost approach. American Journal
of Sociology, 87: 548-577.
Ouchi, W. (1980) Markets,
bureaucracies and clans. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25: 129-141.
Eisenhardt, K. (1989) Agency
theory: An assessment and review. Academy of Management Review, 14:
57-74.
Powell, W.W. (1990) Neither
market nor hierarchy: Network forms of organization. In B.M. Staw and L.L. Cummings (Eds.) Research
in Organizational Behavior, 12: 295-336.
The Cultural
Perspective on Organizations
Smirchich L. (1983). Concepts
of culture and organizational analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly
28: 339-358.
Barley, S. (1983) Semiotics and
the study of occupational and organizational cultures. Administrative
Science Quarterly, 28: 393-413.
Schein, E. (1990) Defining
organizational culture. COT, 490-501.
Enactment and
Organizing
Weick, K.E. (1979) The
Social Psychology of Organizing. Second Edition. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, Selected Chapters.
Weick, K. E. (1993) The
collapse of sensemaking in organizations: The Mann Gulch disaster, Administrative
Science Quarterly, 38: 4: 628-652.
Organizational Learning
and Adaptation
Levitt, B. and March, J.G.
(1988) Organizational learning. Annual Review of Sociology, 14: 319-340.
Staw, B.M., Sandelands, L.E.
and J.E. Dutton (19810 Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A
multi-level analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26:
501-524.
Meyer A. (1982) Adapting to
environmental jolts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 27: 515-538.
Brown, J. S. and Duguid
(1991) Organizational learning and communities of practice. Organization
Science 2: 40-57.
Tushman, M. and E. Romanelli
(1985) Organizational evolution: A metamorphosis modelof convergence and
reorientation”, Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol 7.
March, J. (1991) “Exploration
and exploitation in organizational learning” Organization Science, Vol
2.
Dutton, J. and J. Dukerich, (1991) "Keeping an Eye
on the Mirror: Image and Identity in Organizational Adaptation" Academy
of Management Journal, Vol 34
Symbolic Structures and Strategic Behavior
Edelman, L. (1992) “Legal ambiguity
and symbolic structures: Organizational mediation of civil rights law”, American
Journal of Sociology, Vol 97.
Rumelt, R., Schendel, D. and
D. Teece (1991) "Strategic Management and Economics", Strategic
Management Journal, Vol 12.
Barney, J. (1991) "Firm
Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage", Journal of Management,
Vol 17.
Tushman, M. and Anderson, P.
(1986) "Technological Discontinuities and Organizational
Environments", Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol 31.
Burgelman, R. (1983) "A
Model of the Interaction of Strategic Behavior, Corporate Context, and the
Concept of Strategy", Academy of Management Review, Vol 8.
Postmodernism and
Feminist Approaches to Organizational Theorizing
Kilduff, M. (1993)
Deconstructing organizations, Academy of Management Review, 18: 13-31.
Martin, J. (1990)
Deconstructing organizational taboos: The suppression of gender conflict in
organizations, Organization Science, 1:39-359.
Some of the Most
Important Works of Organizational Theory 1947-1985
Weber, The Theory of
Social and Economic Organization, 1947
Selznick, . TVA and the
Grass Roots, 1949
Boulding, “General systems
theory: The skeleton of science”,1956
Selznick, Leadership in
Administration, 1957
Simon, Administrative
Behavior, 1957
Chandler, Strategy and
Structure, 1962
Berger and Luckman, The
Social Construction of Reality, 1967
Lawrence and Lorsch, Organization
and Environment, 1967
Garfinkel, Studies in
Ethnomethodology, 1967
Weick, The Social Psychology
of Organizing, 1969
Zald, “Political economy: a
framework for comparative analysis”, 1970
Child, “Organizational
structure, environment, and performance”, 1972
Clark, “The organizational
saga in higher education”, 1972
Galbraith, Designing Complex
Organizations, 1973
Dowling and Pfeffer,
“Organizational legitimacy”, 1975
Hannan and Freeman, “The
population ecology of organizations”, 1977
Zucker, “The role of
institutionalization and cultural persistence”, 1977
Meyer and Rowan,
“Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth...”, 1977
Pfeffer and Salancik, The
External Control of Organizations, 1978
Galaskiewicz, “The structure
of community organizational networks”, 1979
Pondy and Mitroff, “Beyond
open systems models of organizations”, 1979
Burt, “Models of network
structure”, 1980
Ouchi, “Markets ,
bureaucracies, and clans”, 1980
Williamson, “The economics of
organizations”, 1981
Schoonhoven, “Problems with
contingency theory”, 1981
Deal and Kennedy, Corporate
Cultures, 1982
Carroll & Delacroix,
“Organizational mortality in the newspaper industry”, 1982
Rowan, “Org structure and the
institutional environment”, 1982
Smirchich, “Concepts of
culture and organizational analysis”, 1983
McKelvey and Aldrich,
“Populations, natural selection, and applied org science”, 1983
DiMaggio and Powell, “The
iron cage revisited”, 1983
Meyer and Scott, Organizational
Environment’s: Ritual and Rationality, 1983
Hofstede, Culture’s
Consequences, 1984
Astley, “ The two ecologies:
Population and community perspectives on...” , 1985