Information and Organizations / Edition 1

by Arthur L. Stinchcombe

Overview

An ambitious new work by a well-respected sociologist, Information and Organizations provides a bold perspective of the dynamics of organizations. Stinchcombe contends that the "information problem" and the concept of "uncertainty" provide the key to understanding how organizations function. In a delightful mix of large theoretical insights and vivid anecdotal material, Stinchcombe explores the ins and outs of organizations from both a macro and micro perspective. He reinterprets the work of the renowned scholars of business, Alfred Chandler, James March and Oliver Williamson, and looks in depth at corporations like DuPont and General Motors. Along the way, Stinchcombe explores subjects as varied as class consciousness, innovation, contracts and university administration. All of these analyses are distinguished by incisive thinking and creative new approaches to issues that have long confronted business people and those interested in organizational theory.

A tour de force, Information and Organizations is a must-read for business people and scholars of many stripes. It promises to be a widely discussed and debated work.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520067813
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	06/11/1990
Series:	California Series on Social Choice and Political Economy , #19
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	404
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Arthur L. Stinchcombe is Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University and author of a number of books, including Stratification and Organization: Selected Papers (1989) and Theoretical Methods in Social History (1978).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments xi
1. INFORMATION, UNCERTAINTY, STRUCTURE, AND FUNCTION IN ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY
Rationality 
Uncertainty 
Uncertainty About What? 
Information 
Structure and Function 
The Plan of the Book 
2. INDIVIDUALS' SKILLS AS INFORMATION PROCESSING:CHARLES F. SABEL AND THE DIVISION OF LABOR 
Introduction 
Relations Between Routines and Skills 
Two Relations Between Routines and Human Decisions 
Complexity of the Routine 
Artisans at the Beginning of the Industrial Revolution 
The Division of Skill Between Workers and Professionals 
Three Organizations for Learning Routines and Decision Skills 
Earnings Curves for Craftsmen, Professionals, and Managers 
Jurisdictions of Occupations 
The Determinants of the Division of Labor Between Engineers and Skilled Workers 
Manufacturing Artisans in the Early Industrial Revolution 

Economic and Technical Threats to Artisan Organization 
Authority Reorganization and Artisan Skill 
The Ideology of Mass Production Management 
Scientific Management Authority in Practice 
Conflict over the New Authority System 
"Fordism" 
The Impact of Certainty and Uncertainty on Fordism 
Sources of Uncertainty in the Market 
Conclusion 
3. MANUFACTURING INFORMATION SYSTEMS:SOURCES OF TECHNICAL UNCERTAINTY AND THE INFORMATION FOR TECHNICAL DECISIONS 73
Introduction 
People Driving versus Information Systems in Management 
Some Data on Manufacturing Information Systems 
Operating Characteristics of Information Systems 
Types of Operating Information Systems 
Summary of Dimensions That Differentiate Operating Information Systems 
Conclusion 
4. MARKET UNCERTAINTY AND DIVISIONALIZATION:ALFRED D. CHANDLER'S STRATEGY AND STRUCTURE 
Introduction 
The Concepts of Centralization and Decentralization 
A Definition of Methodological Individualism 
Individuals in Du Pont: Organizing Information Flows 
Individuals in Du Pont: Organizational Theory 
Individuals in Du Pont: Responsibility for Inventing and Adopting a Remedy 
Individuals in Du Pont and HUD: How Decentralization Works 
Is It Still Sociology? 
The Causes of Divisionalization 
General Motors Creates a Multidivisional Structure by Centralizing 
The Centralization Revolution at General Motors 
The Theoretical Problem of Sears 
Regional Information in Merchant Wholesaling and Sears 

Commodity Line Rationality versus Store Inventory Rationality 
The General Problem of Wholesaling 
Organizational Problems of the Service Sector 
What Is Chandler's Independent Variable? 
Conclusion 
5. TURNING INVENTIONS INTO INNOVATIONS: SCHUMPETER'S ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY MODERNIZED 
Introduction 
Innovation, the Learning Curve of Cost Reduction, and Monopoly 
Cases in Which the Follower and Innovator Have Learning Curves of Different Shape 
Innovation, the Marketing Network, and Monopoly 
The Theory or Doctrine of an Innovation 
A "Zero Resources Innovation" Described in Detail 
The Multidivisional Structure of Chandler as an Innovation 
Social Predictors of Success in Introducing Innovations 
Technological Utopianism 
Investment Approval 
Cost Reduction and Manufacturing Improvements 
Markets and Innovation Success 
The Division of Benefits 
Examples of Incentives for Innovation 
Divisionalization and Innovation 
Conclusion 
6. ORGANIZING INFORMATION OUTSIDE THE FIRM:CONTRACTS AS HIERARCHICAL DOCUMENTS 
Introduction 
An Extended Definition of Hierarchy 
Prediction of Performance Requirements and Performance Measurement 
Elements of Hierarchy in Contract Contents 
Theoretical Conclusion 
Notes 
7. SEGMENTATION OF THE LABOR MARKET AND INFORMATION ON THE SKILL OF WORKERS 
The Fundamental Uncertainty of the Labor Contract 
Institutional Substitutes for Measurement of Productivity 

Types of Information About Work Performance 
A General Theory of Certification 
The Great Segmenting Factor Is Who Holds the Job Now 
Segmentation by Internal Labor Markets: Promotions Go to Those Now Employed by Big Firms and Government 
Worker-Controlled Recruitment in Professional and Craft Occupations 
Family Recruitment in Small Firm Sectors 
Union Membership as a Certificate of Productivity 
The Secondary Labor Market 
Conclusion 
8. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY: E. P. THOMPSON APPLIED TO CONTEMPORARY CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 
Introduction 
Unity in Diversity: Why Are Societies with Factories So Much Alike? 
E. P. Thompson's Conception of Working-Class Consciousness 
Cross-national Variation in Class Consciousness 
Class Consciousness in Soviet Societies 
Class Consciousness in Corporatist Capitalism 
The Culture in Which Class Consciousness Grew 
The Cultural Perception of Exploitation,Oppression, and the Wage Bargain 
Constitutionalism in Modern Organizations 
Debureaucratization, or Individualizing the Labor Contract 
Low Unionization of the Modern Service Sector:Theory 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: Demography 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: Selling Status Symbols 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: The Small Firm Effect 
Conclusion 
9. UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION OF RESEARCH SPACE AND TEACHING LOADS: MANAGERS WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEIR WORKERS ARE DOING

Types of Information About Work Performance 
A General Theory of Certification 
The Great Segmenting Factor Is Who Holds the Job Now 
Segmentation by Internal Labor Markets:Promotions Go to Those Now Employed by Big Firms and Government 
Worker-Controlled Recruitment in Professional and Craft Occupations 
Family Recruitment in Small Firm Sectors 
Union Membership as a Certificate of Productivity 
The Secondary Labor Market 
Conclusion 
8. CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY: E. P. THOMPSON APPLIED TO CONTEMPORARY CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS 
Introduction 
Unity in Diversity: Why Are Societies with Factories So Much Alike? 
E. P. Thompson's Conception of Working-Class Consciousness 
Cross-national Variation in Class Consciousness 
Class Consciousness in Soviet Societies 
Class Consciousness in Corporatist Capitalism 
The Culture in Which Class Consciousness Grew 
The Cultural Perception of Exploitation,Oppression, and the Wage Bargain 
Constitutionalism in Modern Organizations 
Debureaucratization, or Individualizing the Labor Contract 
Low Unionization of the Modern Service Sector:Theory 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: Demography 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: Selling Status Symbols 
Service-Sector Class Consciousness: The Small Firm Effect 
Conclusion 
9. UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION OF RESEARCH SPACE
AND TEACHING LOADS: MANAGERS WHO DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEIR WORKERS ARE DOING