ABSTRACT
Recent work in the field of organizational analysis has shown an increasing interest in the collective or voluntary organizational form, especially as it represents an alternative to bureaucratic service organizations or to those firms in the commercial business world (Butler, 1983a). Taking efficiency and economy in transaction costs, for example, Ouchi (1980) argues that the collective is likely to be the most suitable organizational form for mediating transactions where performance measures are ambiguous and individual and
organizational interests are highly congruent. Similarly, Williamson and Ouchi (1981) and Rothschild-Whitt (1979) argue that non-profit voluntary organiza tions represent a unique combination of internal organization and external conditions which together serve to create and maintain particularistic organiza tional behaviours. Shapiro (1973, p. 124) has demonstrated such unique features specifically in the marketing and product decisions of organizations in the voluntary sector, whilst Zeitz (1980) points toward the unique qualities of voluntary associations in facilitating successful resistance to governmental agencies in the areas of mental health planning (based on data from Aiken et al. (1975)).
