Zhongyuan Sun

Reading lists Stream 2Search all readings

Classical foundations

Bureaucracy, rational, natural and open systems, and the early classics of organization theory.

Of its 69 readings, 16 are assigned in two or more sources and listed first, with the number of sources beside each (in bold for the core readings, in 4 or more); the 53 listed in only one source are folded under each heading.

In the theory tree: leads to 3 Contingency and configurational theory, 15 Behavioral theory of the firm and organizational learning and 21 Organizational economics.

Drawn from: Dobbin (Harvard); Pollock (Tennessee); Anteby (Boston University); Fiss (USC); Peng (UT Dallas); Maoret (IESE); Sullivan (HKUST); Yue (USC); Clough (UBC); Lounsbury & Zhao (Oxford Bibliographies); Cameron (Wharton); Martin (Berkeley); Kogut & Keum (Columbia). Full details of the sources are on the reading lists page.

By decade

Before 1950: 6 readings<19501950s: 6 readings1950s1960s: 5 readings1960s1970s: 17 readings1970s1980s: 19 readings191980s1990s: 12 readings1990s2000s: 2 readings2000s2010s: 1 reading2010s2020s: 0 readings2020s
Most date from the 1980s; half were published in 1980 or later.

Core readings

In 4 or more sources.

  1. Barnard, C. I. (1938). The Functions of the Executive. Harvard University Press.4
  2. Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, W. J. (1939). Management and the Worker. Harvard University Press.4

Also assigned

In 2 to 3 sources.

  1. Taylor, F. W. (1911). The Principles of Scientific Management. W.W. Norton and Co.3
  2. Chandler, A. D., Jr. (1962). Strategy and Structure. MIT Press.3
  3. Weber, M. (1978). Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology. University of California Press.3
  4. Scott, W. R., & Davis, G. F. (2007). Organizations and organizing: rational, natural, and open systems perspectives. Pearson Prentice Hall.3
  5. Selznick, P. (1943). An Approach to a Theory of Bureaucracy. American Sociological Review, 8(1), 47. https://doi.org/10.2307/20854482
  6. Roy, D. F. (1959). “Banana Time”: Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction. Human Organization, 18(4), 158–168. https://doi.org/10.17730/humo.18.4.07j88hr1p40746052
  7. Braverman, H. (1974). Labor and monopoly capital; the degradation of work in the twentieth century. Monthly Review Press.2
  8. Williamson, O. E. (1985). The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. Free Press.2
  9. Chandler, A. D. (1990). Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjz80xq2
  10. Barley, S. R., & Kunda, G. (1992). Design and Devotion: Surges of Rational and Normative Ideologies of Control in Managerial Discourse. Administrative Science Quarterly, 37(3), 363. https://doi.org/10.2307/23934492
  11. March, J. G., & Simon, H. A. ([1993] 1958). Organizations. Blackwell.2
  12. Weick, K. E. (1993). Sensemaking in Organizations: Small Structures with Large Consequences. In J. K. Murnighan (Ed.), Social Psychology in Organizations: Advances in Theory and Research (pp. 10–37). Prentice Hall.2
  13. Feldman, M. S., & Pentland, B. T. (2003). Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48(1), 94–118. https://doi.org/10.2307/35566202
  14. Bernstein, E. S. (2012). The Transparency Paradox: A Role for Privacy in Organizational Learning and Operational Control. Administrative Science Quarterly, 57(2), 181–216. https://doi.org/10.1177/00018392124530282

Further readings

53 more, listed in one source
  1. Weber, M. (1922). Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. J. C. B. Mohr.
  2. Durkheim, E. (1933). The Division of Labor in Society. Free Press.
  3. Gouldner, A. W. (1954). Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. Free Press.
  4. Parsons, T. (1956). Suggestions for a Sociological Approach to the Theory of Organizations.II. Administrative Science Quarterly, 1(2), 225. https://doi.org/10.2307/2390988
  5. Simon, H. A. (1957). Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. Free Press.
  6. Merton, R. K. (1957). Bureaucratic Structure and Personality. In Social Theory and Social Structure (pp. 195–206). Free Press.
  7. March, J. G., & Simon, H. A. (1958). Cognitive Limits on Rationality. In Organizations. John Wiley and Sons.
  8. Blau, P. M. (1963). Critical Remarks on Weber's Theory of Authority. American Political Science Review, 57(2), 305–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/1952824
  9. Marx, K. (1964). Alienated Labor. In Karl Marx: Early Writings. Translated and Edited by T.B. Bottomore (pp. 120–134). McGraw-Hill.
  10. Crozier, M. (1964). The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. Tavistock.
  11. Kolko, G. (1965). Railroads and Regulations, 1877-1916. Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400878741
  12. Smith, A. (1970 [1776]). Of the Division of Labor. In The Wealth of Nations (pp. 109–21). Penguin.
  13. Doeringer, P. B., & Piore, M. J. (1971). Internal Labor Markets and the Manpower Analysis. Heath.
  14. Perrow, C. (1973). The short and glorious history of organizational theory. Organizational Dynamics, 2(1), 3–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(73)90007-7
  15. Wallerstein, I. (1974). The Modern World-System. Academic.
  16. Braudel, F. (1977). Capitalism and Dividing Up the World. In Afterthoughts on Material Civilization and Capitalism (pp. 79–117). Johns Hopkins University Press.
  17. Chandler, A. D., Jr. (1977). Middle Management: Function and Structure. In The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (pp. 381–414). Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctvjghwrj.20
  18. Weber, M. (1978 [1968]). Bureaucracy. In Chap. 11 in Economy, Society: An Outline of Interpretative Sociology, G. Roth, & K. Wittich (Eds.), Berkeley: University of California Press (pp. 976–1005).
  19. Franke, R. H., & Kaul, J. D. (1978). The Hawthorne Experiments: First Statistical Interpretation. American Sociological Review, 43(5), 623. https://doi.org/10.2307/2094540
  20. Burawoy, M. (1978). Toward a Marxist Theory of the Labor Process: Braverman and Beyond. Politics & Society, 8(3-4), 247–312. https://doi.org/10.1177/003232927800800301
  21. March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1979). Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations. Universitetsforlaget.
  22. Edwards, R. (1979). Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. Basic.
  23. Cardoso, F. H., & Faletto, E. (1979). Dependency and Development in Latin America. University of California. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520342118
  24. Jelinek, M. (1979). Institutionalizing Innovation: A Study of Organizational Learning Systems. Praeger.
  25. Weick, K. E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing.
  26. Burawoy, M. (1979). Thirty Years of Making Out. In Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process under Monopoly Capitalism. University of Chicago Press.
  27. Stark, D. (1980). Class struggle and the transformation of the labor process: A relational approach. Theory and Society, 9(1), 89–130. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00158894
  28. Channon, G. (1981). A. D. Chandler's ‘Visible Hand’ in Transport History: A Review Article. The Journal of Transport History, 2(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/002252668100200104
  29. Taylor, F. W. (1981 [1911]). Scientific Management. In O. Grusky & G. A. Miller (Eds.), The Sociology of Organizations: Basic Studies (2nd ed., pp. 54–66). Free Press.
  30. Ouchi, W. G. (1981). Theory Z: How American Business Can Meet the Japanese Challenge. Avon.
  31. Johnson, C. (1982). MITI and the Japanese Miracle: The Growth of Industrial Policy, 1925-1975. Stanford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9780804765602
  32. Locke, E. A. (1982). The Ideas of Frederick W. Taylor: An Evaluation. Academy of Management Review, 7(1), 14. https://doi.org/10.2307/257244
  33. Voss, K. (1983). The Making of American Exceptionalism: The Knights of Labor and Class Formation in the Nineteenth Century. Cornell University Press.
  34. Halle, D. (1984). America's Working Man: Work, Home, and Politics Among Blue Collar Property Owners. University of Chicago. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226229362.001.0001
  35. Mayo, E. (1984 [1949]). Hawthorne and the Western Electric Company. In D. S. Pugh (Ed.), Organization Theory: Selected Readings (2nd ed., pp. 279–292). Penguin.
  36. McCraw, T. K. (1984). Prophets of Regulation. Harvard University Press.
  37. Lincoln, J. R., & Kalleberg, A. L. (1985). Work Organization and Workforce Commitment: A Study of Plants and Employees in the U.S. and Japan. American Sociological Review, 50(6), 738. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095502
  38. Morgan, G. (1986). Images of organization. Sage.
  39. Cohen, M. D., & March, J. G. (1986). Leadership and Ambiguity: The American College President (2nd ed.). Harvard Business School Press.
  40. Wellman, B. (1988). Introduction: Studying social structures. In B. Wellman & S. D. Berkowitz (Eds.), Social Structures: A Network Approach (pp. 1–14). Cambridge University Press.
  41. Garson, B. (1988). The Automated Social Worker. In The electronic sweatshop: how computers are transforming the office of the future into the factory of the past. Simon & Schuster.
  42. Tirole, J. (1988). The Theory of Industrial Organization. MIT Press.
  43. Chandler, A. D., Jr. (1988 [1980]). The United States: Seedbed of Managerial Capitalism. In F. Hearn (Ed.), The Transformation of Industrial Organization (pp. 35–45). Wadsworth.
  44. Cole, R. E. (1989). Strategies for Learning: Small-Group Activities in American, Japanese, and Swedish Industry. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520330818
  45. Berlanstein, L. R. (1991). Big Business and Industrial Conflict in Nineteenth-Century France: A Social History of the Parisian Gas Company. University of California Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/jj.8501202
  46. Scott, W. R. (1992). Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems.
  47. Fallows, J. (1993). Looking at the Sun. The Atlantic Monthly.
  48. Coleman, J. S. (1994). Foundations of social theory. Harvard University Press.
  49. Smelser, & Swedberg (1994). Handbook of Economic Sociology (2nd ed.). in 2005.
  50. Follett, M. P. (1995 [1926]). The giving of order. In P. Graham (Ed.), Mary Parker Follett Prophet of Management: A Celebration of Writings from the 1920s (pp. 121–140). Harvard Business School Press.
  51. Fukuyama, F. (1995). Trust. Free Press.
  52. Shenhav, Y. (1999). Manufacturing Rationality. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250004.001.0001
  53. Keum, D., & Liu, L. (n.d.). Managerial Prosocial Concerns, Exit Thresholds, and Risk-Taking in Firm Investments. Working paper.