“Under norms of rationality, organizations seek to smooth out input and output transactions.”

— James D. Thompson

Proposition 2.3
Organizations in Action, 1967

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James D. Thompson 11

American sociologist 1920–1973

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Source: Organizations in Action, 1967, p. 20; Proposition 2.2

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“The more sectors in which the organization subject to rationality norms is constrained; the more power the organization will seek over remaining sectors of its task environment… many constraints and unable to achieve power in other sectors of its task environment will seek to enlarge the task environment.”

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Context: The '60s was really stupid … It was a type of merchandising, Americans had this hideous weakness, they had this desire to be OK, fun guys and gals, and they haven't come to terms with the reality of the situation: we were not created equal. Some people can do carpentry, some people can do mathematics, some people are brain surgeons and some people are winos and that's the way it is, and we're not all the same. This concept of one world-ism, everything blended and smoothed out to this mediocre norm that everybody downgrades themselves to be is stupid. The '60s was merchandised to the public at large... My pet theory about the '60s is that there is a sinister plot behind it... The lessons learnt in the '60s about merchandising stupidity to the American public on a large scale have been used over and over again since that time.

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“Hayek was making us think of the productive process as a process in time, inputs coming before outputs.”

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Source: Classics and Moderns, (1983), p. 359

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