ABSTRACT
It seems to the author that the study of organizations and of organization theory is making progress, and it is not unreasonable to hope for significant advances in the near future. A summing up obviously does not break new ground. But a compact statement of this sort may suggest some associations among elements of organizational behavior simply because so many things do get juxtaposed that would be more widely separated and submerged in larger treatments. At the very least, the author trust it will serve as a convenient summary of factors in organizational change and stability that students will find useful—as a point of departure or a whipping boy. Although the discussion centers on organizational stability and change, it nowhere specifies whether it refers primarily to procedure or structure or input and output. Similarly, some illustrations come from the experience of bureaus, some from departments, some from governments as a whole, and some from societies considered as organizations.
