Comparative studies in organizational behavior / edited by William K. Graham and Karlene H. Roberts

Includes index.

Part 1. Intra-organizational Research: Comparative Studies across Levels and Subunits within Organizations -- Part 2. Interorganizational Research: Comparative Studies across Two or More Organizations -- Part 3. Interorganizational Research: Comparative Studies of Organizations in Different Environments.

This book is an introduction to recent field research in the relatively new and rapidly growing area of organizational behavior. The studies we have chosen are grouped into three main sections. Each section is preceded by an introduction in which we provide a modest guide to the research articles that follow. The first section is concerned with intra-organizational studies in which comparisons are made across levels or functional units within one organization. The second section deals with interorganizational research in which investigators collect and compare data across two or more organizations. The third and final section is devoted to cultural and environmental influences on organizational behavior. The literature on which we based our selections covered the years 1960-1969. We included a few older studies when we felt that they best represented a particular strategic approach or substantive area. Our search of the literature covered journals in anthropology, business, education, psychology, political science, and sociology. We considered for possible inclusion only those studies in which results were based on. analyses of data collected in ongoing organizations. New and developing areas of inquiry are always fraught with argument and controversy. While the area of organizational behavior is no exception, too few battles are waged in the field and too many victories are awarded on the basis of literary rather than scientific merit. We hope that students who receive their introduction to organizational behavior through the empirical literature, as opposed to literature surveys and predigested summaries, will be more inclined to test their own hunches, hypotheses, and theories through empirical research. If this book contributes toward that end, we shall have accomplished our purpose.