Michel Crozier's ideas about organizational dynamics have been avail
able in English for almost twenty years, but Americans have tended to
regard them as artifacts of the French culture and have not applied them
to organizational life in the United States. A premise of this article is that
both comparative and provincially American studies can be enhanced
through attention to the Crozierian perspective. Central elements of
Crozier's theory of "illegitimate power" are abstracted, and the applica
tions of Crozier's viewpoint to American settings are evaluated. Findings
from a study of an American university are discussed as they bear on
the theory.
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