“Whereas some consequences of our actions occur as planned, others are unanticipated; social actions are not context-free but are constrained, and their outcomes are shaped by the setting in which they occur. Especially significant are the constraints on action that arise from commitments enforced by institutionalization. Because organizations are social systems, goals and procedures tend to achieve an established, value impregnated status. We say that they become institutionalized.”

— Philip Selznick

Source: TVA and the grass roots : a study in the sociology of formal organization, 1949, pp. 256-257

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Philip Selznick 20

American sociologist 1919–2010

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Source: An Organization Ontology for Enterprise Modelling (1997), p. 2-3

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