Organisatiesociologie in de jaren zeventig en tachtig

Samenvatting

A review essay on books by (1) L. Donaldson, American Anti-Management Theories of Organization. A Critique of Proliferation (Cambridge: Cambridge U Press, 1996); & (2) C. J. Lammers, A. A. Mijs, & W. J. Van Noort, Organisaties vergelijkenderwijs: ontwikkeling en relevantie van het sociologisch denken over organisaties (Comparing Organizations: Development and Relevance of Sociological Thought about Organizations, 1997). Donaldson's critical discussion of the premises, development, & applications of organizational ecology, neoinstitutional theory, resource dependence theory, & organizational economics is deemed informative & insightful, & his efforts to demonstrate each theory's inadequacies by an analysis of its own empirical foundations are lauded; however, his attempt to integrate these "anti-management" theories is considered a failure. Lammers, Mijs, & Van Noort's seventh edition of Lammers's classic work is more general & less empirically thorough than Donaldson's work, resulting in a more positive outlook on the present state & future of organizational sociology. Although its attempt to elaborate the action model implied in the contingency approach is deemed only partly successful, the book is judged an excellent reference work & student manual. S. Paul