The comparative analysis of organizational forms: Considering field and ecological approaches

Abstract

The “first generation” (Lammers, 1978, p. 486) of comparative analysis of organizations in sociology (e.g., Blau, 1965; Stinchcombe, 1959) focused on the “nuts and bolts” of organizational structure as the key criterion with which to derive organizational typologies (Perrow, 1967; Pugh, Hickson, & Hinings, 1969). This initial cohort of analysts saw the intrinsic features – or “organizational attributes” (Blau, 1965, p. 326) – constitutive of the “technical core” of the organization, such as features related to the organization of the production process (Perrow, 1967) or the structure of allocation of discretion and authority (e.g., Etzioni, 1961), as the royal road to the development of a cogent approach to comparative analysis of organizations.

Citation

Lizardo, O. (2009), "The comparative analysis of organizational forms: Considering field and ecological approaches", King, B.G., Felin, T. and Whetten, D.A. (Ed.) Studying Differences between Organizations: Comparative Approaches to Organizational Research (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 26), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-151. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2009)0000026007