Goal Ambiguity Research Articles

Goal Ambiguity and Conflicting Standards: An Approach to the Study of Organization

The approach to the study of organization which is advanced in this paper is based on the explicit assumption of ambiguity among the goals, and conflict among the standards of conduct for members, of the social system studied.1 As such, the present analysis differs from traditional approaches to the study of organization which, explicitly or implicitly, incorporate assumption of single or non-ambiguous system goals and non-conflicting member standards into their analysis. The plan of the paper is as follows: The process of decisionmaking and managerial conduct in Soviet industry is described first. Then, regarding Soviet industry as a separate social system, a formal analysis of aspects of that system's organization follows. Finally, that analysis is used to suggest hypotheses about organization which, it is hoped, will be fruitful in the study of other social systems. Not the examination of Soviet industrial organization, but the development of what might be called "conflicting standards analysis" for the study of organization elsewhere is the primary purpose of this paper.

Women in Crime.Florence Monahan

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsWomen in Crime. Florence Monahan Eleanor R. WembridgeEleanor R. Wembridge Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by American Journal of Sociology Volume 48, Number 1Jun., 1942 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/219100 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 1Citations are reported from Crossref PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:E. C. Stazyk, H. T. Goerdel The Benefits of Bureaucracy: Public Managers' Perceptions of Political Support, Goal Ambiguity, and Organizational Effectiveness, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 21, no.44 (Aug 2010): 645–672.https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muq047