【英文选读】第1期：组织学结构过程与结果（第十版）前言
欲求自由的前途，必有自由的组织，列宁斯大林式的布尔什维克红色恐怖专制组织显然不是我们想要的答案，如何组织？组织学能为我们带来什么启示？今日荐读组织学英文教材《组织学：结构、过程与结果》的前言部分，概览组织学的基本情况。
组织学 结构、程序与结果（第十版）
Organizations
Structures, Processes,and Outcomes
Tenth Edition
Pamela S. Tolbert
Professor
School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Cornell University
Richard H. Hall
Distinguished Service Professor
University at Albany
State University of New York
Preface 前言
This edition of Organizations: Structures, Processes, and Outcomes has undergone yet another major revision.
The changes that we’ve made were guided by three aims:
(1) to provide readers with a better sense of the historical development of ideas and concerns that underpin contemporary arguments and debates on the
topics that we cover, (2) to update our coverage of research and theorizing on these topics, and (3) to discuss
some new lines of research and theory on organizations that we view as especially provocative and promising.
Examples of these changes are provided in Chapters 2 and 3, discussing theory and research on formal
structure, an area of organizational studies with a long, venerable tradition. We provide more background on
that tradition, tracing its roots to the theoretical concerns of Max Weber with the new form of organization
he saw coming to dominate society at the turn of the twentieth century, the pragmatic concerns of the set of
analysts prominent in the 1920s and 1930s known as Managerial Theorists, and the empirical concerns of
sociologists in the post–World War II years, devising ways to examine the validity of functionalist theory.
Moreover, we review some of the more recent explorations of this tradition as manifested in research on high-
performance work systems and work that goes under the banner of institutional theory, and consider the links
between an institutional theoretic approach and current research on cross-national differences among
organizations.
Similarly, in Chapters 8 and 9, addressing research on organizational environments, we discuss factors
that led organizational researchers to move their focus from a closed-systems to an open-systems approach
and the way in which they wrestled with difficulties inherent in conceptualizing the vast array of factors
encompassed in the notion of “the environment.” We also examine various strands of research that reflect
focalizations on different aspects of the environment as well as broader general paradigms that emerged out of
efforts to systematically conceptualize the nature of organizational environments.
The concluding chapter addresses two broad outcomes: (1) assessment of organizational performance and
(2) efforts to bring about changes in ongoing organizations. We include in our discussion of organizational
performance both a review of the older line of work that was driven by concerns with assessing effectiveness
and a critical consideration of economists’ standard of “
maximizing shareholder value” as a performance
criterion. In considering the problem of organizational change, we review two broad streams of research: (1)
organizational learning and (2) organizational transformation. In all of our revisions, then, we have sought to give readers a sense of the historical development of sociological studies of organizations along with a systematic overview of contemporary macro-oriented research on organizations, with the goal of facilitating readers’ grasp of this very complex and evolving body of research.
As always, we are very grateful to the following reviewers for providing us with helpful comments and suggestions: Issam A. Ghazzawi, University of La Verne; Musa D. Ilu, Central Missouri State University;11Kenne J. Mietus, Western Illinois University; and Patrick Withen, University of Virginia at Wise. And also,
as always, we thank our spouses, our own life-long strategic alliances, Steve Carver and Sherry Hall.
组织学 结构、程序与结果（第十版）
Organizations
Structures, Processes,and Outcomes
Tenth Edition
Pamela S. Tolbert
Professor
School of Industrial and Labor Relations
Cornell University
Richard H. Hall
Distinguished Service Professor
University at Albany
State University of New York
Preface 前言
This edition of Organizations: Structures, Processes, and Outcomes has undergone yet another major revision.
The changes that we’ve made were guided by three aims:
(1) to provide readers with a better sense of the historical development of ideas and concerns that underpin contemporary arguments and debates on the
topics that we cover, (2) to update our coverage of research and theorizing on these topics, and (3) to discuss
some new lines of research and theory on organizations that we view as especially provocative and promising.
Examples of these changes are provided in Chapters 2 and 3, discussing theory and research on formal
structure, an area of organizational studies with a long, venerable tradition. We provide more background on
that tradition, tracing its roots to the theoretical concerns of Max Weber with the new form of organization
he saw coming to dominate society at the turn of the twentieth century, the pragmatic concerns of the set of
analysts prominent in the 1920s and 1930s known as Managerial Theorists, and the empirical concerns of
sociologists in the post–World War II years, devising ways to examine the validity of functionalist theory.
Moreover, we review some of the more recent explorations of this tradition as manifested in research on high-
performance work systems and work that goes under the banner of institutional theory, and consider the links
between an institutional theoretic approach and current research on cross-national differences among
organizations.
Similarly, in Chapters 8 and 9, addressing research on organizational environments, we discuss factors
that led organizational researchers to move their focus from a closed-systems to an open-systems approach
and the way in which they wrestled with difficulties inherent in conceptualizing the vast array of factors
encompassed in the notion of “the environment.” We also examine various strands of research that reflect
focalizations on different aspects of the environment as well as broader general paradigms that emerged out of
efforts to systematically conceptualize the nature of organizational environments.
The concluding chapter addresses two broad outcomes: (1) assessment of organizational performance and
(2) efforts to bring about changes in ongoing organizations. We include in our discussion of organizational
performance both a review of the older line of work that was driven by concerns with assessing effectiveness
and a critical consideration of economists’ standard of “
maximizing shareholder value” as a performance
criterion. In considering the problem of organizational change, we review two broad streams of research: (1)
organizational learning and (2) organizational transformation. In all of our revisions, then, we have sought to give readers a sense of the historical development of sociological studies of organizations along with a systematic overview of contemporary macro-oriented research on organizations, with the goal of facilitating readers’ grasp of this very complex and evolving body of research.
As always, we are very grateful to the following reviewers for providing us with helpful comments and suggestions: Issam A. Ghazzawi, University of La Verne; Musa D. Ilu, Central Missouri State University;11Kenne J. Mietus, Western Illinois University; and Patrick Withen, University of Virginia at Wise. And also,
as always, we thank our spouses, our own life-long strategic alliances, Steve Carver and Sherry Hall.
