ABSTRACT

In the 1970s, organizational sociology fell on hard times. Fundamental critiques from diverse standpoints were leveled against the established standards and practices in the field, forged in the comparative research programs of the 1960s. More recently many analysts have recognized this period of fundamental disagreement and fragmentation as the emergence of a paradigmatic crisis (Benson, 1977b) - a crisis which promises to merge organizational sociology into broader theoretical and methodological dilemmas including a redefinition of its relationship with more macro issues of economy and state.