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In this paper I explore the ramifications of charismatic sensitivity, i.e., the propensity to impute charismatic qualities to actions, persons, institutions and cultural objects. My analysis takes its point of departure in Max Weber's analysis of charismatic authority, in trying to analyze charismatic authority more systematically than Weber was able to do, I have concluded that he was dealing with one particular variant of the charismatic propensity, which has more far-reaching, more permeative manifestations than his analysis has hitherto led us to believe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous investigations on the subject of social classes have dealt largely with occupational aspiration in absolute terms; that is, a monolithic definition of occupational success has been imposed upon the occupational hierarchy, and the aspirations of lower-class people have been compared with those of upper-class people. Almost without exception, the absolute occupational aspirations of the upper classes have been found to be "higher" in the economic structure than those of the lower class. Because the lower classes are less inclined to aspire to professional and managerial occupations, such findings have supported the idea that they do not desire to "get ahead." But there is reason to believe that relative positions should be taken into account, that is, some attention should be paid to the class level from which the individual begins in deciding whether or not he desires to get ahead. The present paper is devoted to further study on this matter. It is based on the responses of male high school seniors to a questionnaire dealing with their occupational plans and aspirations.

This paper is divided into three parts. In the first part, the present stage of development of management science in the United Kingdom is briefly discussed; in the second part are given a few "case histories," stressing the methodology; the third part discusses a few recent features of management science in the United Kingdom which seem to be interesting. Management science in the United Kingdom grew out of the military uses of operational research on the one hand, and psychological techniques applied to problems in personnel selection and related fields on the other. This historical background has influenced the way in which management science has progressed. One of the major problems in the United Kingdom at present is, I think, to find optimum conditions for creative work in applied sciences. In the United Kingdom there has been less experience of the research team than in the U.S.A. Often, top administration attempts to fit management research into the traditional hierarchy, with a resultant authoritarian structure. Also, it is rare in the United Kingdom to find a sociologist in a management research unit. This may be due to the nature of the development of management sciences or it may be due to some features of the British schools of sociology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a participant observation study carried out at Stateville Penitentiary, a maximum security prison, during the summer of 1972. The social organization of the prison has been a topic of frequent sociological attention. Efforts have been made to explain "inmate culture" and the often referred to "inmate code." Contrary to the traditional structural-functional explanation for inmate organization which focuses upon situational variables, this analysis supports the Irwin-Cressey (1964) position that much of what has been termed inmate culture is actually imported from outside the prison. The most significant reality behind Stateville's walls is the existence of four lower class Chicago street gangs which have brought into the prison their street activities, hierarchies, rivalries, and ideologies. The purpose here is to describe the social organization which has emerged as a result of this phenomenon and to relate this development to the traditional literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variations in structure within organizations were studied using the bureaucratic model. It was demonstrated that organizational segments, both vertical and horizontal, varied significantly in their degree of bureaucratization. This variation existed along six selected dimensions of bureaucracy, which were measured by questionnaires completed by employees. The type of task performed by the organizational segment was found to be an important determinant of the variation. It was suggested that the use of the bureaucratic model in this manner simplifies the approach to intraorganizational variation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis focuses upon the control aspects of organizations. Organizations are characterized as orderly arrangements of individual human interactions, in which control is an essential ingredient. A major assumption is that the total amount of control or influence in an organization is not a constant, fixed amount but that it may vary. Increasing the influence of one group (e.g., the workers) in an organization does not necessarily imply decreasing that of others (e.g., supervisors and managers). Some evidence is presented to suggest that increased control exercised by all levels of the organization hierarchy is associated with increased organizational effectiveness. A relatively high level of total control may reflect increased participation and mutual influence throughout the organization and a greater degree of integration of all members. This is likely to result in the enhancement of ego-involvement, identification, motivation, and job satisfaction of members. Some of the psychological costs of increased control and responsibility on the part of workers and management are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on sources of role conflict in complex organizations. Principles of organizational authority include chain of command, unity of command and direction, and single accountability. Organizations structured on hierarchies are based on the chain-of-command principle, which has a single flow of authority from top to bottom. Multiple chains of command can occur in professional organizations where employees are accountable to more than one person, in hospitals where authority is represented by administrators and physicians, and in line and staff organizations where there is project and department supervision. Research about job satisfaction, resolution of role ambiguity, prevention of role conflict, and criteria for successful problem-solving meetings is discussed.

It is suggested that Walter's (1966) study of two municipal hierarchies falls short on methodological rigor. Specifically, the discarding of pertinent information, the use of an inadequate measure of influence, and the concealment of dyadic influence relations within gross categories lead to the conclusion that Walter could draw no conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study attempts to link the formal structure of bureaucratic organizations to decision-making processes, and in particular to centralization or decentralization of authority. Interview data were obtained from 254 city, county, and state departments of finance. These data show that, controlling for an organization's size, decision-making authority is more highly centralized as the number of subunits in an organization increases; but as the number of levels of supervision grows, there is greater decentralization and at the same time proliferation of rules that specify criteria to guide decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The association between hierarchical position, organization size, and span of control and five dimensions of managerial decision behavior--perceived influence on superiors, autonomy from superiors, reliance on subordinates, personal initiation, and final choice--is examined for 190 managers in eight different companies. Hierarchical position was found to be the most important determinant of the decision behavior that a manager reports for the decisions studied. Span of control was found to be related only to the extent to which a manager reports relying on subordinates in his decision making. There is some indication that size had a differential effect on a manager's decision behavior depending on his position in the hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The professional organization and the professional department within the larger organization are compared in terms of their organizational structures. The findings suggest that although professional departments and heteronomous professional organizations are found to be generally more bureaucratized than autonomous professional organizations, professional departments in particular are not inherently more bureaucratic. Thus the professional may not find himself necessarily in conflict with the larger organization. A higher level of bureaucratization was found among less professionalized groups, suggesting that in the absence of professional norms, organizational norms may maintain equilibrium. As a group becomes more professionalized, conflict may increase unless the level of bureaucratization is reduced. Professional departments were found to rely less on standards of technical competence in the selection and advancement of personnel, providing a possible source of conflict for the professional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These thoughts were prompted by Colonel Urwick's reaction to the following recent Academy of Management Journal articles: a. "Technology and Organizational Government: A Speculative Enquiry into the Functionality of Management Creeds" by William G. Scott (Sept., 1968). b. Comment on above by Keith Davis (Dec, 1968). c. "Success of Chain of Command Oral Communication in a Manufacturing Group" by Keith Davis (Dec, 1968). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Models that facilitate analysis of decision making in hierarchial systems, for example involving wholesalers and retailers, can ultimately be of significance not only to academic people concerned with economics, distribution and production but to others as well. The whole idea of a hierarchy of interdependent decision processes within a system may be more realistic for many purposes than some of the more widespread single decision concepts. The focus on inventory decisions, as one class of a potentially larger species, provides both a tangible beginning and a problem area where some mathematical work has been done. The purpose is to explain a relatively single model as a means of establishing the need for theory in this area and the potentially useful though unexplored generalizations from this model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although even the amateur student of labor history is aware that the administrative structure and functioning of the Knights of Labor differed considerably in practice from what it was supposed to be in theory, it is extremely difficult to piece together from existing literature a clear picture of the actual organization of the Knights. By dint of extensive research into ConVention proceedings and other records, Mr. Birdsall has succeeded in delineating the formal and informal structure of the Order. The idea that the Knights failed because its structure could not be adapted "to the practical needs of job-conscious workers" is found to be erroneous; actually, the Order seems to have been highly flexible in meeting the organizational requirements of its polyglot membership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents author's reply in response to sociologist Bruce H. Mayhew's comments on his model of system structure. The author says that Mayhew et al model of structural differentiation is formal organizations is based on an assumption which limits the model's applicability to only hierarchical organizations. The differences between Mayhew's position and the author's are more fundamental than an argument over whether their model is restricted to or even applies to a hierarchical structure. The author attempts to illustrate the basis for their disagreement by example and then discuss the source of the argument in mere general terms. The terms structural differentiation and system size are denied clearly enough by sociologist Peter Blau (1 970) that no confusion arises in their use. Blau specifies that differentiation in organizations occurs over dimensions and that his propositions hold when considering differentiation in any one dimension. The author contends that the process of differentiation, even if acting as random process, operates differently in different dimensions. The fact that some of the dimensions of differentiations differ in terms of the relationship between system parts that defines them ensures this.

The article discusses "hierarchy" and "unity of command." D.A. Specht (1973) claims that the Mayhew et al. (1972) model is shown to he based on an assumption, which limits the models applicability to only hierarchical organizations. The Mayhew et al model does not impose an assumption on hierarchy, either in the specific form Spencht discusses or in the more general form as hierarchy is conceived mathematically. The term "hierarchy" is more general than the idea of "unity of command," so that Specht is continuing a terminological error introduced by Meyer (1971) who uses them as synonyms. " The random generation of random models is not a profitable enterprise. The Mayhew et al. (. 1 972) model was constructed to model the terms of sociologist Peter Blau's first (two) major theoretical propositions on the relationship between size and structural differentiation. Since the distinction between supervisory and non-supervisory personnel is not contained in the propositions in question--they appear in only one dimension of structural differentiation-- the starting point Specht chose immediately confined his model to a special case.

The article investigates the efficiency of an alternative set of multivariate hierarchical methods used in plant ecology, called similarity analyses. These methods, also called agglomerative-polythetic methods, of hierarchically classifying elements into set can take a large number of different forms, based on the sorting method or type of fusion strategy and the coefficient employed in measuring similarity. The authors compare the strategy and results of the most effective methods of similarity analyses with those of association-analysis. Findings show that "centroid" sorting provides better results than "nearest neighbor" sorting, but the combination of centroid sorting and information-statistic coefficient is much superior in producing clear and ecologically acceptable hierarchies.

It has been argued that expertness and bureaucratization are incompatible with one another, but few studies have considered what structural arrangements organizations devise in order to cope with this problem. Data from a study of 254 city, county, and state departments of finance show that the span of control of first-line supervisors sharply drops as the level of expertness in an organization's subunits increases. This finding suggests that the span of control in organizations reflects the need for consultation and two-way communication between hierarchical levels rather than the extent to which nonsupervisory employees require direction and control from above. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article studies the impact of status inconsistency on an individual. In this study, status consistency is defined as the degree to which an individual's rank positions on important societal status hierarchies are at a comparable level. It has been suggested that status inconsistents labor under a variety of difficulties like: unsatisfactory social relationships, unstable self-images, rewards out of line with aspirations, and social ambiguity. It may be that the basic problem underlying all these is that of conflicting expectations. The study found that the two general consequences stem from the central problem of conflicting expectations, and both in turn lead to psychological stress for an individual. The first consequence is frustration and the second consequence of conflicting expectations is the uncertainty of the inconsistent individual with respect to what he can rightfully expect of others and what they can expect of him. Inconsistent status patterns in which occupational or educational rank is superior to racial-ethnic rank are not associated with higher symptom rates.

The overall purpose of the total investigation was to determine if training in the use of abstractions, listening comprehension, and extra practice improved attainment by means of instruction designed to promote creative problem solving. Thirty filth-grade classes were assigned randomly to five treatment groups—three with a basic program in problem solving, yet with three varying additions: (1) an emphasis on abstract thinking, (2) an emphasis on development of listening skill, and (3) extra practice in problem solving. The two control groups were distinguished by presence or absence of pretests and a specific program consisting of state adopted materials. Children were given a battery of 12 pretests and (23 weeks later) postests. Experimental groups scored significantly higher than control groups according to Scheffé tests. The consistency and direction of the results appeared to indicate transfer of a trained subskill of abstract thinking mainly to performance on measures of problem solving, and of reading, especially for the low IQ level. It was implied that all three treatments may contribute to acquisition of language/thinking skills as hierarchies become sufficiently operational and modular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A complex system model is presented here as a tool for corporate manpower planning. This approach permits representation of the interrelationships between the behavior of individuals as entities, personnel policy decisions, the labor market, and a large number of individual and organizational outcomes. A computer simulation of the model in the context of a managerial and professional hierarchy is described and tested against hypotheses from the managerial and behavioral science literature. The implications of the results of these tests for the usefulness of this approach for manpower planning and other purposes are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Commentary is provided for the article "An Overview of Management Science and Information Systems," by Aharon G. Beged-Dov, published in the August 1, 1967 issue of the periodical "Management Science." The author's criticism of the article includes commentary on three main issues: the first being a recognition of the need for technological hierarchy in business, the second deals with the role of system planners in this hierarchy, the third presents the author's opinions surrounding the technocracy of the future at the time of publication.

The article proposes the "General Systems Theory." The theory seeks a level of theoretical model building which bridges the highly generalized constructions of pure mathematics and the specific content of specialized disciplines. The author asserts that science has become fragmented, and that physicists only talk to other physicists, and economists to other economists. Hybrid sciences are discussed, such as cybernetics, which is a combination of electrical engineering, neurophysiology, physics, and biology. The author identifies phenomena that are universal in their characteristics, such as the changes in human population due to birth and death. The article also describes universal hierarchies of complexity, or a "system of systems." The first two layers are "frameworks" and "clockworks."

Periodically for more than a hundred years business interests have campaigned to transform this old New England town into a city. Displaying contempt for the venerable town-meeting form of government, leaden have utilized propaganda techniques in an endeavor to succeed. Although frustrated, they have achieved "big government" through adoption of the manager system and other important policy decisions. Conflict continues, even though the alternatives for obtaining the political goal have remained the same during the past century. The local newspaper has supported the movement, but its techniques have varied widely over the century. Unorganized majorities have opposed each attempt to obtain a city charter. Now, however, a more determined minority, mostly nonnative, plans a new attempt. Behind the public hierarchy is a social elite whose zeal for reform resembles a crusade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]