DEMOCRACY, AUTOCRACY, AND INTERMEDIATE ASSOCIATIONS IN ORGANIZATIONS: FLEXIBILITY OR UNRESTRAINED CHANGE?

Organizational participation has often been treated as a matter of securing the involvement of individuals in a more 'democratic' structure. Organizational responsiveness has often been sought in increasing ease and rate of change. These parallel approaches are criticized in this paper as...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sociology (Oxford) 1980-08, Vol.14 (3), p.345-361
Main Author: Calhoun, C. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Autocracy/Autocratic/Autocrat/Autocrats
Coercion
Collective action
Collective/Collectives/ Collectivism/ Collectivist
Communities
Community associations
Community relations
Democracy
Democracy/Democracies/Democratic/ Democrats/ Democratization
Formal organization
HEAVILY EMPHASIZES METHODOLOGY OR TECHNIQUE OF STUDY
Individualism
Literature
METHODOLOGICAL CONCEPTS
NETWORK THEORY
ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR
ORGANIZATION THEORY
Organization/Organizations/ Organizational/ Organize/ Organizers/ Organized/ Organizing
Organizational communication
Participate/Participatory/ Participation/ Participative
PARTICIPATION
SMALL GROUPS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
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Summary:Organizational participation has often been treated as a matter of securing the involvement of individuals in a more 'democratic' structure. Organizational responsiveness has often been sought in increasing ease and rate of change. These parallel approaches are criticized in this paper as overreactions to a myth of autocratic organization. They give inadequate attention to formal factors which constrain or encourage participation. Both extreme individualism and extreme centralism are shown to overlook the importance of intermediate associations. Arguments based on collective goods, small group and network theories are used to show how intermediate associations could increase the effectiveness of collective participation in organizational action and the stability of organizational structure.
ISSN:0038-0385
1469-8684
DOI:10.1177/003803858001400301