ABSTRACT
Most studies on business organizations have tended to adopt either a “market” or “cultural” perspective. The main concern of the “market” perspective is to understand how economic interests shape organizational structure and behavior. Chandler (1984) and Williamson (1985), for example, place emphasis on the efficient adaptation of organizations to market pressures. These approaches presuppose that entrepreneurial responses to environmental pressures are economically rational and geared towards producing maximum profits. Blau et al. (1976), in particular, has shown how size, technology and differentiation of the task environment shape organizational structures (see also Pugh and Hickson 1976). Contingency theorists such as Donaldson (1987), though advocating that there are various “ideal” organizational types contingent upon the environment, still emphasize the concern for economic efficiency to be a congruence between environmental factors, and organizational structures and processes. Though important, the above perspectives reflect an “undersocialised” concept of human action (Granovetter 1985).
