Towards an Array of Organizational Control Modalities

Abstract

This paper explores the proposition that environmental field properties tend to determine both the structural and behavioral aspects of the organizations resident in the fields. In what is largely a speculative exercise then, I attempt to define four ideal-type environmental fields, from which four ideal-type organizations may be derived. To lend the analysis some prescriptive or operational significance for the social theorist, I then attempt to show why there is a unique organizational control modality appropriate for each of the ideal-types. Finally, these four organizational control modalities will be shown to be potentially useful as cornerstones for a generalized theory of organizational behavior.

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