Some recent research suggests that profit making organizations have `tighter' structures than nonprofit making organizations. Using data on the relations between profits and administrative intensity in U.S. manufacturing industry this paper attempts to show that even within profit making organizations, there are grounds for thinking that under appropriate conditions, organizational structures that get adopted are likely to deviate significantly from the requirements of optimal performance.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AVERITT, ROBERT T. (1968). The Dual Economy: The Dynamics of American Industrial Structure. New York: W. W. Norton .
2.
BAUMOL, W. J. (1959). Business Behaviour, Value and Growth. New York: Macmillan .
3.
BLAU, PETER M. (1963). The Dynamics of Bureaucracy: A Study of Inter-personal Relations ill Two Government Agencies. Rev. Ed.Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
4.
BLAU, PETER M. , WOLF v. HEYEDBRAND and ROBERT STAUFFER . (1966). `The structure of small bureaucracies.'American Sociological Review31: 179-191 .
5.
CHANDLER, ALFRED D. (1962). Strategy and Structure: Chapters in the History of the American Industrial Enterprise. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT .
6.
CHANNON, DEREK F. (1973). Strategy and Structure of British Enterprise. London: Macmillan .
7.
CHILD, JOHN . (1973). `Parkinson's progress: Accounting for the number of specialists in organizations.'Administrative Science Quarterly18: 328-348 .
8.
COLLINS, NORMAN R. , and LEE E. PRESTON . (1968). Concentration and Price-Cost Margins in Manufacturing Industries. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press .
9.
CYERT, RICHARD M. , and JAMES G. MARCH . (1963). A Behavioural Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall .
10.
EVANS, PETER B. (1975). `Multiple hierarchies and organizational control.'Administrative Science Quarterly20: 250-259 .
11.
FLORENCE, P. SARGENT . (1972). The Logic of British and American Industry: A Realistic Analysis of Economic Structure and Government. 3rd ed.London: Routledge and Kegan Paul .
12.
FREEMAN, JOHN HENRY and MICHAEL T. HANNAN . (1975). `Growth and decline processes in organizations.'American Sociological Review40: 215-228 .
13.
GALBRAITH, JOHN K. (1967). The New Industrial State. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin .
14.
GOODE, WILLIAM. J. (1957). `Community within a community: The professions,'American Sociological Review22: 194-200 .
15.
HENDERSHOT, JERRY E. , and THOMAS F. JAMES . (1972). `Size and growth as determinants of administrative-production ratios in organizations.'American Sociological Review37: 149-153 .
16.
LAWRENCE, PAUL R. and JAY W. LORSCH . (1967). Organization and Environment. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard Business School .
17.
MARCH, JAMES G. and HERBERT A. SIMON . (1958). Organizations. New York: Wiley .
18.
MARRis, ROBIN . (1964). The Economic Theory of Managerial Capitalism. New York: Free Press .
19.
PARKINSON, C., NORTHCOTE . (1958). Parkinson's Law, or the Pursuit of Progress. London: Murray .
20.
PELZ, D. C. and ANDREWS, F. M. (1964). `Detecting causal priorities in panel study data.'American Sociological Review22: 836-848 .
21.
PERLO, VICTOR. (1973). The Unstable Economy: Booms and Recessions in The United States since 1945. New York: International Publishers .
22.
PONDY, Louis R. (1969). `Effects of size, complexity and ownership on administrative intensity.'Administrative Science Quarterly14: 47-60 .
23.
PUGH, D. S. , et al. (1969). `The Context of Organizational Structures.'Administrative Science Quarterly14: 91-114 .
24.
RUSHING, WILLIAM. (1974). `Differences in profit and non-profit organizations: A Study of effectiveness and efficiency in general short-stay hospitals.'Administrative Science Quarterly19: 474-484 .
25.
RUSHING, WILLIAM . (1976). `Profit and nonprofit orientations and the differentiations- co-ordination hypothesis for organizations: A study of small general hospitals.'American Sociological Review41: 676-691 .
26.
SHONFIELD, ANDREW . (1965). Modem Capitalism: The Changing Balance of Public and Private Power. New York: Oxford University Press .
27.
SIMON, HERBERT A. (1945). Administrative Behaviour: A Study of Decision Making Processes in Administrative Organization. New York: Free Press .
28.
SIMON, HERBERT A. (1954). `The Compensation of Executives.'Sociometry20: 32-35 .
29.
SIMON, HERBERT A. (1959). `Theories of decision making in Economics and Behavioural Science.'American Economic Review49: 253-283 .
30.
VEBLEN, THORNSTEIN . (1904). The Theory of Business Behaviour. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons .
31.
WILLIAMSON, OLIVER E. (1970). Corporate control and business behaviour. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall .