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John Van Maanen introduces qualitative research through examples of its application in organizational research. Each article serves as an exemplar of well-written, substantively focused and theoretically relevant qualitative research. The articles represent a broad range of research styles, methods, topics and level of analysis, and the studies cover four areas of research: organizational process; groups in organizations; organizational identity and change; and the societal and institutional environment. Organizations studied include factories, churches, universities, engineering groups, fisheries, voluntary organizations, basketball teams and pop music recording firms.
List of contents
Foreword - Christine Oliver and Linda Johanson
Different Strokes - John Van Maanen
Qualitative Research in the
Administrative Science Quarterly from 1956 to 1996
PART ONE: STUDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES
The Role of Expectations in Business Decision Making - R M Cyert,W R Dill and J G March
Intense Loyalty in Organizations - Patricia A Adler and Peter Adler
A Case Study of College Athletics
In Search of Rationality - Ann Langley
The Purposes behind the Use of Formal Analysis in Organizations
PART TWO: STUDIES OF GROUPS IN ORGANIZATIONS
The Macropolitics of Organizational Change - Robert E Cole
A Comparative Analysis of the Spread of Small-Group Activities
Tightening the Iron Cage - James R Barker
Concertive Control in Self-Managing Work Teams
Status Degradation and Organizational Succession - Robert P Gephart Jr
An Ethnomethodological Approach
PART THREE: STUDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY AND CHANGE
The Organizational Saga in Higher Education - Burton R Clark
The Reluctant Organization and the Aggressive Environment - John Maniha and Charles Perrow
From Evangelism to General Service - Mayer N Zald and Patricia Denton Wallace
The Transformation of the YMCA
The Creative-Destructive Process of Organizational Change - Nicole Woolsey Biggart
The Case of the Post Office
PART FOUR: STUDIES OF THE SOCIETAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT
Organizational Effectiveness and the Institutional Environment - Paul M Hirsch
Authority,Organization and Societal Context in Multinational Churches - Reed E Nelson
The Dynamics of Institutionalization - Petter Holm
Transformation Processes in Norwegian Fisheries
About the author
Van Maanen holds a BA in political science from California State University, Long Beach, as well as an MS in social administration and a PhD in sociology from the University of California, Irvine.
Summary
This text is the first in a series sponsored by the "Administrative Science Quarterly", designed to focus and stimulate thinking on those areas of administrative science which have most profoundly shaped the development of organizational theory and behaviour.
