Carolina QuotesOnce a definition is embedded in a program, the opinions of personnel who remain at the institution become congruent with it.
Charles Perrow Connected to the Carolinas
Source
p. 34
- work
- Organizational Analysis: A Sociological View, 1970
- year
- 1970
- locator
- p. 34
Cite this record
“Once a definition is embedded in a program, the opinions of …” Charles Perrow. Carolina Quotes, record CQ-4A6455B843. https://carolinaquotes.com/quote/4a6455b843
More from Charles Perrow
[People-processing institutions are] a type of social institution in which human beings constitute both the raw materials and the products of organizational work. Although all social institutions are involved in some degree in people-processing activities, the term is properly restricted to those whose primary goal is the shaping, reshaping, removing, overhauling, retooling, reassembling, and recording the physical, psychological, social, legal, or moral aspects of human objects.
In research terms, the issue is to examine and explain the variations within and among residential institutions.
Then the works of Max Weber, first translated from the German in the 1940s — he wrote around 1910, incredibly — began to find their way into social science thought. At first, with his celebration of the efficiency of bureaucracy, he was received with only reluctant respect, and even with hostility. All writers were against bureaucracy. But it turned out, surprisingly, that managers were not. When asked, they acknowledged that they preferred clear lines of communication, clear specifications of authority and responsibility, and clear knowledge of whom they were responsible to. They were as wont to say "there ought to be a rule about this," as to say "there are too many rules around here," as wont to say "next week we've got to get organized," as to say "there is too much red tape." Gradually, studies began to show that bureaucratic organizations could change faster than non-bureaucratic ones, and that morale could be higher where there was clear evidence of bureaucracy.