From the Rights Revolution to Reengineering: The Construction of Corporate Departments

这是一个关于公司中新型部门的出现和扩散的研究。 关于公司结构的主流理论，无论是针对特定部门的存在，还是内部差异化的程度，都指向功能性原因，如规模、经济绩效和技术复杂性。这些理论很好地预测了横截面的变化，但是它们根本不能很好地预测纵向变化。 在过去的三十年里，许多新的部门出现并在美国公司中扩散，从环境保护到全面质量管理。已设立的部门，如人事和应付账款部门，已被取代或完全取消。 制度主义者认为，这些变化是由两种环境力量促成的：联邦的就业权利革命和效率导向的管理运动。 20世纪70年代初的就业权利革命与民权运动、妇女运动和环境运动同时发生。 相反，《职业安全和健康法》和《养恤金改革法》与社会运动无关。 因此，一个关键问题是，在领导企业创造平等就业和环境保护部门方面，联邦政府新确立的权利与社会运动的重要性。 1965年至1996年间，一系列以效率为导向的管理运动规定了新的内部部门的创建;其中主要是战略规划，质量管理和人力资源管理。 许多公司通过建立新的部门来应对。其他运动，如再造和核心竞争力运动，规定大规模消除内部部门。 因此，第二个问题涉及这些运动在引起变革方面的重要性。 这些问题和相关问题的答案在于分析特定部门在何时何地出现，以及部门在何时何地大规模消失。 1965-1996年期间，将从标准普尔公司的名录中收集500家大公司副总裁一级办公室的年度数据。这些数据将与年度财务数据和企业网络数据合并，并使用动态方法进行分析。对特定部门的采用和消除的事件历史分析将用于评估新结构如何在公司中出现和扩散的政治，经济和制度理论。 内部部门差异水平的汇总时间序列分析将被用来评估广泛的结构变化如何发生的竞争理论。 该项目的目标是提高对公司环境变化影响公司内部部门组成的过程的理解。 因此，研究结果将有助于提高组织效率和更好地利用人力资本资源的美国公司。

This is a study of emergence and diffusion of new kinds of departments in corporations. Prevailing theories of corporate structure, whether they address the presence of particular departments or the level of internal differentiation, point to functional causes such as size, economic performance, and technical complexity. These theories predict cross-sectional variation well, however they do not predict longitudinal variation at all well. Over the past three decades, many new kinds of departments emerged and diffused among American corporations, from environmental protection to total quality management. Established departments, such as personnel and accounts payable, have been replaced or eliminated entirely. Institutionalists suggest that these changes were brought about by two kinds environmental forces: the federal employment rights revolution and efficiency-oriented management movements. The employment rights revolution of the early 1970s coincided with the civil rights, women's, and environmental movements. In contrast, the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Pension Reform Act were not associated with social movements. Thus one key question is the significance of new federally established rights versus social movements in leading firms to create equal employment and environmental protection departments. A series of efficiency-oriented management movements between 1965 and 1996 prescribed the creation of new internal departments; chief among them were strategic planning, quality management, and human resource management. Many corporations responded by establishing new departments. Other movements, such as the reengineering and core competence movements, prescribed large-scale elimination of internal departments. A second question, therefore, concerns the significance of these movements in causing change. The answers to these and related questions lie in analysis of where and when particular departments appeared and where and when the wholesale elimination of departments oc curred. For the period 1965-1996, annual data on the vice presidential-level offices of 500 large corporations will be collected from Standard and Poor's directories. These data will be merged with annual financial data and data on corporate networks and analyzed using dynamic methods. Event-history analyses of the adoption, and elimination, of particular departments will be used to evaluate political, economic, and institutional theories of how new structures emerge and diffuse across corporations. Pooled time-series analyses of the level of internal departmental differentiation will be used to evaluate competing theories of how broad structural changes come about. The goal of this project is to improve understanding of the processes by which changes in the corporate environment affect the composition of departments within firms. Thus the findings will contribute to increased organizational effectiveness and better use of human capital resources by American corporations.