This book offers a critique of recent developments in the study of organizational structure in the USA. There has been a profusion of new paradigms offered in the USA and this has fragmented the field. Many of these paradigms share an anti-management quality, painting managers in an increasingly negative light. This book examines five major, contemporary US organizational theories: population-ecology, institutional, resource dependence, agency and transaction cost economics. Each of these theories and their attendant research is critically examined and severe problems are identified in either theoretical coherence or empirical validity. Lex Donaldson argues that it is possible to reintegrate the field by taking structural contingency theory as the core theory and adding on to it selective propositions from the newer paradigms. He also offers suggestions for needed reforms in the US academic cultural and institutional system.

A unique and controversial examination of current theories of organizational structure, popular in the USA.
Reviews
"...this is a good book evevn for those who are not convinced by the structural contingency accounts of organizations....provides a well-articulated review and evaluation of diverse perspectives and points out their critical weaknesses." Huseyin Lelebici, Administrative Science Quarterly



Book Information
ISBN 9780521479172
Author Lex Donaldson
Format Paperback
Page Count 280
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 420g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 16mm