Changing Organizations: Business Networks In The New Political Economy

by Knoke,David

• ISBN13: 9780813334530
• ISBN10: 0813334535
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2001-01-05
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Understanding organizational change requires viewing the American political economy as a system where money and power intimately intertwine at every level. Network relations are indispensable for analyzing continual transformations of organizational structures and actions. A comprehensive explanation of changing necessitates blending the concepts, theories, and data from the many disciplines comprising organization studies: sociology, business management, economics, law, political science, public administration, social psychology, history, and journalism. A multidisciplinary approach helps us to understand how corporations changed over the twentieth century, and where they may be headed in the new one.

Author Biography

David Knoke is a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	xi
List of Acronyms	xv
Preface	xvii
Acknowledgments	xxi
Generating Change	1	(36)
What Happened to Big Blue?	2	(3)
Organizational Structures and Environments	5	(2)
Forces Driving Changes	7	(28)
Plan of the Book	35	(2)
Theorizing About Organizations	37	(37)
Theoretical Elements	38	(3)
Five Basic Organization Theories	41	(32)
Conclusions	73	(1)
Resizing and Reshaping	74	(46)
How Many Business Organizations?	76	(7)
Organizational Size	83	(4)
Entries and Exits	87	(3)
Which Organizations Create New Jobs?	90	(2)
What Forms of Organizations?	92	(8)
Why Did the Multidivisional Form Spread?	100	(10)
Corporate Merger Waves	110	(7)
Refocused Organizations	117	(2)
Conclusions	119	(1)
Making Connections	120	(44)
Varieties of Interorganizational Relations	121	(7)
Varieties of Alliance Networks	128	(22)
Trust Relations	150	(6)
Alliance Formation and Outcomes	156	(7)
Conclusions	163	(1)
Changing the Employment Contract	164	(40)
The Traditional Employment Contract	166	(4)
Eroding Firm Attachments	170	(7)
The New Employment Contract	177	(2)
High-Performance Workplace Practices	179	(11)
Penetration Problems	190	(4)
Automotive Lean Production	194	(2)
High-Performance Impacts	196	(4)
The Trouble with Teams	200	(3)
Conclusions	203	(1)
Investing in Social Capital	204	(40)
Networked Organizations	205	(9)
Mentoring Proteges	214	(3)
Networking Fundamentals	217	(6)
A Small Firm Example	223	(4)
Network Outcomes	227	(4)
Social Capital	231	(11)
Conclusions	242	(2)
Governing the Corporation	244	(43)
Power and Authority	245	(3)
A Political-Organization Model	248	(1)
Legal Theories of Corporate Governance	249	(3)
Nexus of Contracts and Stakeholder Theories	252	(4)
Board Rules and Realities	256	(5)
Executive Pay Politics	261	(15)
Farewell to the Chief	276	(3)
Institutional Investors Are Revolting	279	(6)
Conclusions	285	(2)
Struggling in the Workplace	287	(32)
Social Movements Inside Organizations	289	(6)
Eroding Unionization	295	(8)
Legalization of the Workplace	303	(12)
Employee Ownership	315	(3)
Conclusions	318	(1)
Influencing Public Policies	319	(43)
Power Structure Theories	321	(3)
Proliferating Political Organizations	324	(8)
Mobilizing Member Resources	332	(2)
Influencing Public Policies	334	(27)
Conclusions	361	(1)
Learning to Evolve	362	(33)
Chaos and Complexity Thwart Predictability	364	(4)
Evolutionary Alternatives	368	(4)
National Innovation Systems	372	(5)
Organizational Learning	377	(5)
Population-Level Learning	382	(3)
Innovator Organizations	385	(4)
A Vision, Instead of a Conclusion	389	(6)
Appendix: Basic Network Concepts	395	(8)
Notes	403	(4)
References	407	(54)
Index	461