Organizations. by James G. March; Herbert A.

Simon
Review by: William H. Form
Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Jun., 1959), pp. 129-131
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Johnson Graduate School of Management,
Cornell University
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 BOOK REVIEWS 129

Organizations. By James G. March and Herbert A. Simon. New

York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1958. 262 pp.
This is a much-needed work in the field of organizational study.
The book was stimulated by a desire to examine classical organization
theory and to suggest alternative directions for an organizational
science which would take into account and systematically organize the
major social science contributions. As such it is a notable effort at
systematizing theory without being eclectic. The full range of organi-
zational theories are briefly examined for their (a) internal and logical
consistency, (b) explicit and implicit assumptions, (c) empirical vali-
dlation, (d) fit with other theory, (e) research testability, and (f) prac-
tical applicability.
Two types of classical theory are briefly examined: Taylor's scien-
tific management propositions and Gulick's and Urwick's depart-
mentalization models. The limitations of these theories are explicated
as: (a) having incomplete and inaccurate motivational assumptions,
(b) neglecting intraorganizational conflict, (c) ignoring human limi-
tation in information processing, (d) giving limited attention to the
role of identification in task performance, and (e) de-emphasizing
program elaboration. These limitations become the basis of evaluating
other theories and the principles around which more adequate theory
is proposed.
Thus the bureaucratic theories of Merton, Selznick, Gouldner, and
others are reviewed as concerned with human beings who are not
passive instruments but actors who bring to bear their attitudes, values,
and goals on organizational performance, thus eliciting nonanticipated
and dysfunctional consequences. The authors suggest that these theories
are incomplete since they do not systematically explore the different
modes of influence over individual motivation in organizational behav-
iors. These must be examined in terms of two critical individual
decisions; the decision to participate in the organization and the deci-
sion to produce. On the latter the authors propose studying influence
on: (a) the evoking of action alternatives for the individual, (b) the
consequences of evoked alternatives anticipated by the individual, and
(c) the values attached to consequences by the individual. Each of
these is partly under the control of the organization but partly also
determined by extraorganizational factors. The internal and external
factors bearing on the three sources of influence are then detailed.
The decision to participate or leave the organization is explored in
terms of certain motivational constraints. With Barnard this is seen
essentially as a problem of balancing inducements to the person with
evaluations of his contributions. Most of the studies on labor turnover

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 130 ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY

bearing on this problem are systematically explored and evaluated as

partial, since they ignore the participational decisions of other groups
such as investors, suppliers, distributors, and consumers. Difficulties in
measuring inducement-contribution balances are considered, and new
propositions are offered which account for the individual's perception
of internal and extraorganizational factors in the decision to par-
ticipate.
An important variable in remaining with an organization is the
ability to change the contract. With this March and Simon temporarily
turn their attention away from semiconscious motivational factors and
focus on conscious conflict and bargaining. Intraindividual, organiza-
tional, and interorganizational conflict are considered, and the dis-
tinguishing factors in each are explicated. The possible contribution
of game theory for understanding conflict is also suggested.
Throughout the book March and Simon insist that the interrelation
between motivation and cognitive factors must be a central concern
for organizational theory. The cognitive limits of man as a decision
maker is too often ignored or misinterpreted by both classical and
revisionist (human relations) theory. Cognitive limits placed on the
rational behavior of individuals call for a "definition of the situation"
which is necessarily overly simplified. In complex organizations differ-
ences in such definitions have important consequences for subgroup
identification, communication, and short-term planning.
Finally the book focuses on the problem of how the cognitive limits
on rationality effect long-term program development. Hypotheses about
procedural and substantive planning programs as carried on by indi-
viduals and groups are then briefly summarized.
This book demands serious and concentrated study by students of
organizational theory. Although the work is logically developed, the
concepts operationally defined, and the writing lucid, it is so tightly
written that the ordinary reader will find many sections difficult. The
consideration of many tersely elaborated hypotheses and variables in
rapid succession pose genuine problems of intellectual ingestion. This
difficulty is eased somewhat by a numbering and listing of all of the
variables considered in a special index of variables. An excellent bibli-
ography and a general index are also provided.
Organizations will appeal most to social psychologists who are con-
cerned with the relevance of different models of man for organizational
behavior. Despite occasional attempts to consider interorganizational
problems in different types of social structures, the primary concern is
with the motivational-cognitive problems of individuals acting within

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 BOOK REVIEWS 131

large bureaucracies. This emphasis, along with the unnecessarily

abstracted language of operations research, will make the work less
attractive to practicing administrators and social scientists. Yet no one
seriously interested in organizational theory should ignore the work,
because it provides a virtual compendium of hypotheses worth testing
and an analytic method which, if extended, is capable of providing
new hypotheses. When models of organizations are as explicitly elabo-
rated as models of man, a general theory of organizational behavior
will be developed, and this is not far away.
WILLIAM H. FORM
Professor, Sociology and Anthropology
Research Associate, Labor and
Industrial Relations Center
Michigan State University

Participation in Union Locals. By Arnold S. Tannenbaum and Robert

L. Kahn. (Survey Research Center, University of Michigan.)
White Plains, N. Y.: Row, Peterson and Company, 1958. 269 pp.
$5.50.
The authors aim to contribute to an understanding of formal organi-
zation and, more specifically, to the problem of union participation.
Their data, based largely on questionnaires and supplemented by
observation and interviews, came firom four CIO locals ranging in size
from 350 to 850 members; the locals are comparable in respect to size,
age, location, skill levels, and ethnic characteristics but different in the
level of participation. Continuing the trend which views participation
as a complex phenomenon, the authors have sought social-psychological
determinants and syndromes of behavior which distinguish the active
union member from the inactive member, and the active union from
the inactive union. To accomplish this purpose, they have stated their
basic assumptions - largely a summary of the most widely accepted
propositions in the area of labor union research - and relied on an
excellently formulated research design, a rather wide range of hypoth-
eses, and quantification of their data.
Along with previous writers the authors distinguish between formal
and informal participation. In order to discriminate between active
and inactive union members, however, they restricted their measure-
ment of actual participation to formal activities and left the relation-
ship between formal and informal activities to be investigated later.

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