Organization Theory: From Chester Barnard to the Present and Beyond

by Oliver E. Williamson (Editor)

Overview

This collection of papers is edited by renowned business thinker Oliver Williamson, who is currently Transamerica Professor of Corporate Strategy at the School of Business Administration at Berkeley. The fiftieth anniversary of the publication of Chester I. Barnard's remarkable and still influential book, The Functions of the Executive, was celebrated with a seminar series at the University of California, Berkeley in the Spring of 1988. Eight of those lectures are published here. The contributors include organization specialists and sociologists (Barbara Levitt and James March; W. Richard Scott; Glenn Carroll; Jeffrey Pfeffer), an anthropologist, a political scientist, and two economists (Mary Douglas; Terry Moe; Oliver Hart; Oliver Williamson). An important contribution to organization theory, this volume reports on recent progress in this field, and projects a productive research future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198022732
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/18/1995
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	550 KB

About the Author

University of California, Berkeley

Table of Contents

ContributorsIntroduction, Oliver E. Williamson1. Chester I. Barnard and the Intelligence of Learning, Barbara Levitt and James G. March2. Symbols and Organizations: From Barnard to the Institutionalists, W. Richard Scott3. On the Organizational Ecology of Chester I. Barnard, Glenn R. Carroll4. Incentives in Organizations: The Importance of Social Relations, Jeffrey Pfeffer5. Converging on Autonomy: Anthropology and Institutional Economics, Mary Douglas6. The Politics of Structural Choice: Toward a Theory of Public Bureaucracy, Terry M. Moe7. An Economist's Perspective on the Theory of the Firm, Oliver Hart8. Chester Barnard and the Incipient Science of Organization, Oliver E. Williamson9. Transaction Cost Economics and Organization Theory, Oliver E. WilliamsonIndex

Editorial Reviews

"Each essay is of high quality, offering both introspective summary and creative projection."—Choice

"First-rate people gave the lectures, and what they have to say is important to all of us concerned with the field."—Contemporary Sociology

"An intriguing array of chapters written by well-known scholars...each of which relates its message back to Barnard and forward, extending some aspect of organization theory....Perhaps the volume's most important contribution is its insistence that students of organizations become interdisciplinary scholars."—Academy of Management Review

"Organization Theory gives evidence that the study of organizations has been proceeding productively."—Journal of Economic Literature

From the Publisher