The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2d ed.

Abstract

The book is generally well written, the study is well documented, and the authors have a sound grasp of the fundamentals and of the agencies involved. Still, it is essentially limited to the Canadian experience. The book could have been enhanced if greater efforts had been made to compare findings within a larger bureaucratic theory to results in other governments. Generally, however, the book contributes to the scientific understanding of administration in that it is a solid, well-based, and well-carried out empirical study of the major agencies of an important government. In this sense, although some of the implications may be limited to Canadian institutions, others are certainly available as a basis for formulating theoretical questions which might be applied to institutions in other governments. The appendix contains a thorough description of the research approach, including the questions used. An additional appendix also summarizes information gathered by the research questionnaire fromr the various agencies, valuable for the development of further research efforts. Because of its relatively successful attempts to relate empirical evidence to bureaucratic theory and the depth with which it examines certain agencies, the book is valuable reading for serious students of the bureaucratic phenomenon and of government function in general.