Modern Organization

2013 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In this classic study Thompson presents a general theory of modern organization by virtue of which one can account for the behavior commonly observed in modern bureaucracies. Organizational behavior, he maintains, is in large part institutional in nature and is to be explained not by theories of individualistic psychology, but rather by an analysis of the system of order in which the behavior occurs. It is Thompson’s thesis that modern bureaucratic behavior organization is a composite of the traditional and the new. Upon the hierarchy of arbitrary authority have been superimposed increasingly technical and instrumental forms of specialization. This poses unprecedented circumstances and challenges.