“When buffering, leveling, and forecasting do not protect their technical cores from environmental fluctuations, organizations under norms of rationality resort to rationing.”

— James D. Thompson

Proposition 2.5
Organizations in Action, 1967

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James D. Thompson 11

American sociologist 1920–1973

James D. Thompson (1920–1973) American sociologist

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

“Under norms of rationality, organizations seek to anticipate and adapt to environmental changes which cannot be buffered or leveled.”

James D. Thompson (1920–1973) American sociologist

Proposition 2.4
Organizations in Action, 1967

“Under norms of rationality, organizations seek to seal off their core technologies from environmental influences.”

James D. Thompson (1920–1973) American sociologist

Source: Organizations in Action, 1967, p. 19; Proposition 2.1

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

James D. Thompson (1920–1973) American sociologist

Proposition 2.3
Organizations in Action, 1967

“What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as afield, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes—coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.”

Paul DiMaggio (1951) American sociologist

Source: "The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields," 1983, p. 147; abstract

“People do not consciously and rationally choose the form of their society. Societies develop through processes of social evolution that are not under rational human control.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Some Principles of History", paragraph 106
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“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.”

James D. Thompson (1920–1973) American sociologist

Source: Organizations in Action, 1967, p. 36-37; As cited in: Christopher A. Simon (2001). To Run a School: Administrative Organization and Learning, p. 40