ABSTRACT
We should not underrate the function of "ideas" in regard to industrial organization, nor should we underrate the influence which a certain attitude of mind may have on the actual development of this or that organization. While we should be very careful before attributing certain organizatory tendencies in industry to psychological conditions, there can be no doubt that "ideas" or conceptions may be active in pushing forward existing structural tendencies, just as they may be active and more or less successful in trying to check them. It would probably not be difficult to discover that in most cases of "new" organization the "idea" has followed practical events and has by no means created new structural conditions of organization. On the contrary, there are plenty of examples to show that "ideas" or "movements" have overstated their case. We must therefore reject the contention that the principle of competition was "wrong" and that the new "idea" of coalition or "organization" is right.
