Sociology

The study of institutions has a long history, but recent efforts stress the significance of symbolic elements in shaping social life. Although institutional processes and structures operate from the most micro interpersonal level to the most macro transocietal level, most research during the past few decades has concentrated on higher levels, such as the organization field. Institutional scholarship has been strongly influenced by structuration theory and, as a consequence, has given increasing attention to processes of institutional reinforcement and change. Directions of development showing promise include attention to intermediaries in fields, social movement processes, instituted modes of change, and transnational institution-building.

The study of institutions has a long history, but recent efforts stress the significance of symbolic elements in shaping social life. Although institutional processes and structures operate from the most micro interpersonal level to the most macro transocietal level, most research during the past few decades has concentrated on higher levels, such as the organization field. Institutional scholarship has been strongly influenced by structuration theory and, as a consequence, has given increasing attention to processes of institutional reinforcement and change. Directions of development showing promise include attention to intermediaries in fields, social movement processes, instituted modes of change, and transnational institution-building.

This report investigates how administrative complexity in funding and personnel of American public school districts varies depending on local, state, and federal funding environments. The analysec are based on a data set integrated from several national data sources describing school districts in the 1970s. As hypothesized in the study, dependence on federal funding, which takes the form of complex and fragmented programs, generates more administrative positions and expenditures than do the other levels. State funding, which reflects legitimated and integrated state control over public education, creates the least administrative intensity. High levels of local funding, reflecting dependence on an environment that is complex but not highly formally organized, generates intermediate levels of administrative staffing and funding. Twenty-one references, an "Overview of Categorical Educational Programs" chart and five tables are appended. (21 (Author/CJH)

Organizations and Movements Doug McAdam and W. Richard Scott Introduction There is little question that two of the most active and creative arenas of scholarly activity in the social sciences during the past four decades have been organizational studies (OS) and social ...

Note: We wish to thank John McNutt, Mary Bourdette, and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund and the Spencer Foundation for their gen- erous support of this project. Correspondence concerning this article should be ...

For the past half-century, the study of organizations has been an active area within sociology. I provide an overview of the emergence of this specialty during the second half of the twentieth century, its relation to the larger field of organization studies, and the important theoretical advances associated with the adoption of an open system framework during the 1960s. Among the recent trends I describe are changes in our conceptions of organization boundaries, strategies, and controls, and the beginning of a shift from an entity-based to a process-based view of organization. Evidence of success—the number of sociologists now employed in professional schools—simultaneously raises concerns about the source of future organizational sociologists.

More so than other types of social actors, the professions in modern society have assumed leading roles in the creation and tending of institutions. They are the preeminent institutional agents of our time. Different professions work in various ways: some attempt to create general cultural-cognitive frameworks; others to devise normative prescriptions to guide behavior; and still others to exercise coercive authority. Also, individual professionals assume varying roles within their professional community: some concentrate on devising and testing general principles, others transport these ideas to varying communities; and still others work to apply the principles to individual cases. Professions themselves adhere to an institutional model, but this model has undergone important changes over time.

The present research concerns the study of a new structure that exists in US cities. This structure is composed of institutions that have traditionally been called civil society. They are primarily voluntary, primarily concerned with the promotion of democracy, and the health of families, the common good, the public interest, and social safety net. The structure is called a broad-based organization (BBO) and seeks member groups (not individuals) from specific churches, unions, school councils, community associations, and civic groups. Primarily faith-based organizations, BBOs seek to recover the debates and forums necessary for a healthy democracy. They exist in all of the major 25 cities in the US, and most of the second largest cities. Some cities have more than one BBO, such as Los Angeles, San Antonio, and New York City. There is one forming in Edmonton, Canada, and several in the UK and Germany. Each city-wide organization has a minimum of twenty institutional members and as many as 200 in Chicago. Presently there are sixty-five BBOs primarily in the US. All of the organizations contract for leadership development and training with the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), a training institute that has existed in the US for approximately 50 years.

Extensive literature supports the correlation between surgical volume and improved clinical outcome in the management of various cancers. It is this evidence that has catalysed the creation of centres of excellence. However, on closer inspection, many of these studies are poor quality, low weight and use vastly heterogenous end points in assessment of both volume and outcome. We critically appraise the English language literature published over the last ten years pertaining to the volume outcome relationship in the context of cancer care. Future balanced unbiased studies may enable equipoise in planning international cancer management strategies.

The paper begins with a summary of Alberts and Hayes's concept of edge organizations, noting its distinguishing features. Limitations and shortcoming are identified. The critique broadens to include a discussion of the limited perspective on organizations utilized, the neglect of attention to edge forms in nonmilitary settings, inattention to the relevance of the institutional environment within which the military operates, and the failure to consider the difficulties of inducing radical change in existing, entrenched organizations.

The use of public-private partnerships (PPPs) for infrastructure development has received significant scholarly attention of late, but there remains a need for more work at the programme level. Specifically, there is a need for work that recognizes the way that PPP programmes are implemented differently in different regions, thereby progressing beyond an effectively 'one size fits all' view of PPP programmes. In response, this paper offers a comparative analysis of the historical development trajectories of three contemporary PPP programmes: in British Columbia (BC) (Canada), Victoria (Australia) and South Africa. We begin by recognizing the role played by the UK's private finance initiative as a programme model, and then show how this model was adapted and modified in each of our cases, leading to very different field structures. The study uses a grounded theory building approach and draws heavily on theories of institutional change and structuration. There are two main contributions from this study: (1) we draw attention to the need for a context-specific approach to explain and predict PPP field development and (2) we develop arguments relating to institutional systems and processes that can guide future studies of these and similar fields.

Late in the 1950s an important transition occurred in sociological research on organizations. Prior to that time, studies had been predominantly of two types. First, many studies were conducted in which organizations were treated as contexts affecting individual behavior. Structural variables, such as centralization, type of control system, and use of assembly line technology, were analyzed as independent variables affecting a variety of individual behaviors and conditions, including satisfaction, productivity, and decisionmaking (cf. Katz and Kahn, 1952; Walker and Guest, 1952; Worthy, 1950). Second, a smaller number of studies focused on the interrelation of structural characteristics within a single organization or on the impact of environmental factors on these structural features. Studies by Blau (1955), Clark (1956; 1960), Gouldner (1954), and Selznick (1949) exemplify this type of case ,

Integrated project delivery (IPD), an emerging form of project organization for North American construction projects, offers a compelling case study to understand how new innovative infrastructure project delivery models can emerge and institutionalize. This article frames the early stages of IPD through the actions of an institutional entrepreneur—Sutter Health—working to construct a new arrangement for the delivery of its large healthcare projects. The resulting account uses Suchman’s (1995) multistage model of institutionalization to understand the early-stage actors, processes, conditions, and actions present for creation of an innovative delivery model within a fragmented, project-based industry context.

Globally, public-private partnerships (PPPs) have increased in popularity as an alternative procurement model for infrastructure development projects. While PPPs have been widely researched and remain subject to extensive debate, the process of PPP institutionalization has been largely overlooked. To address this knowledge gap, we utilize a combination of both Johnson et al.’s (2006) four phases of institutionalization—innovation, local validation, diffusion, and general validation—and Mrak’s (2014) three models of PPP institutionalization—centralized, decentralized, and mixed—to examine the current state of the U.S. PPP market. Using data on 368 U.S. PPP projects from Inframation’s global transactions database, our case analysis indicates America’s PPP institutionalization process is strongly decentralized and currently in a state of diffusion. Our analysis also suggests general validation of PPPs in the U.S. will likely be predicated on shifting to a mixed PPP institutionalization...

Beyond analyzing the institutional and political challenges of global projects, this book demonstrates academic skill in theory building and development-transporting one established, dominant framework (institutional theory) in organization and management theory into new empirical settings, contributing to theory development in the fields of international business and project management. Through a process of bricolage (or some might argue colonization), a theoretical framework that is well understood in one field, is made novel and innovative in another. In writing this book the authors also address, albeit indirectly, concerns over organizational and institutional theory's relevance and future (for example see Walsh, Meyer, & Schoonhoven, 2006; Suddaby, 2010) in showing its applicability and value as a framework in analyzing global projects-projects that are now commonplace in today's business environment. Global projects, as an organizational phenomenon, are defined by the author's as "a temporary endeavor where multiple actors seek to optimize outcomes by combining resources from multiple sites, organizations, cultures and geographies through a combination of contractual, hierarchical and networkbased modes of organization" (page 17). Scott opens the volume with an articulate, historical review of projects as a form of organising, positioning 'projects' as something that has always been present yet perhaps peripheral in the broader organizational and institutional literature. He thus situates this study of global projects from an organizational perspective as a legitimate and well reasoned