Author Description

The recent books by Allison (1972) and Baldridge (1972) and the set of articles by Pfeffer (1974), Hickson et al. (1974), and Patchen (1974) suggest that serious sustained consideration is being given to organizations viewed as political systems. For the purposes of this paper, politics will refer to the structure and process of the use of authority and power to effect definitions of goals, directions, and major parameters of the social system (Wamsley and Zald, 1973, p. 18). This political orientation takes power, its distribution, dynamics, and control as central organizational issues. Decision making is seen to take place among differentially powerful interest groups engaged in strategies and negotiations within mixed motive contexts.