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

这是一个关于新型部门在企业中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分化的水平，都指向功能原因，如规模、经济绩效和技术复杂性。这些理论能很好地预测横截面变化，但不能很好地预测纵向变化。在过去的三十年里，从环境保护到全面质量管理，许多新型的部门在美国公司中出现并扩散。已建立的部门，如人事和应付帐款，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引起的：联邦就业权革命和以效率为导向的管理运动。20世纪70年代早期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，《职业安全和保健法》和《养恤金改革法》与社会运动没有联系。因此，一个关键问题是联邦政府新确立的权利与领导企业建立平等就业和环境保护部门的社会运动的重要性。1965年至1996年期间一系列注重效率的管理运动规定设立新的内部部门；其中最主要的是战略规划、质量管理和人力资源管理。许多公司为此设立了新的部门。其他运动，如重组和核心竞争力运动，规定大规模取消内部部门。因此，第二个问题涉及到这些运动在引起变化方面的重要性。这些问题和有关问题的答案，在于分析具体的部门是在什么地方、什么时候出现的，以及大规模取消部门是在什么地方、什么时候发生的。在1965年至1996年期间，500家大公司的副总裁级办公室的年度数据将从标准普尔的目录中收集。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取消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。内部部门分化水平的汇集时间序列分析将用于评估有关广泛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美国公司的组织效率和更好地利用人力资本资源。

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.