On Organizations and Oligarchies: Michels in the Twenty-First Century

[Excerpt] A central problem for those interested in studying and explaining the actions of organizations is how to conceptualize these social phenomena. In particular, because organizations are constituted by individuals, each of whom may seek to achieve his or her interests through the organization, questions of how decisions are made in organizations and whose preferences drive those decisions are critical to explaining organizational actions. Although early organizational scholars spent much time wrestling with these questions (e.g. Barnard 1938; Simon 1947; Parsons 1956; March and Simon 1958), more recent work in organizational studies has tended to elide them, adopting an implicit view of organizations as unitary actors, much like individuals, and in particular, like individuals who operate with a coherent utility function that they seek to maximize (e.g. Porter 1985; Baum et al. 2005; Casciaro and Piskorski 2005; Mezias and Boyle 2005; Jensen 2006). Thus, organizational behavior is seen as reflecting efforts to achieve a specific goal, which is, presumably, that of enhancing the organizations interests. While this may be the dominant conceptualization underlying much contemporary research, other work sharply questions the validity and usefulness of this approach to organizational analysis (March and Simon 1958; Cohen, March, and Olsen 1972; Jackall 1988). Studies in this tradition suggest that it is more appropriate in most instances to conceive of organizations as battlefields, constituted by shifting factions with differing interests that vie for control of the organization; hence, organizational actions should be viewed as reflecting the preferences of a victorious coalition at a given point in time. We suspect that, although most people’s experience in organizations may make them sympathetic to the coalitional view and skeptical of the unitary actor view, the continuing predilection for the latter stems at least in part from problems of deriving systematic predictions of organizational behavior from a more chaotic, coalitional kaleidoscope perspective. A different model of organizations is represented in the work of Robert Michels (1876-1936), who, nearly a century ago, offered his now-famous, pithy summary of the fundamental nature of organizations ([1911] 1962: 365): ‘Who says organization, says oligarchy.’ Drawing on his own experiences with early twentieth-century German political party organizations, Michels presented the drift to oligarchy as an ‘iron law’, inevitably resulting in the division of even the most expressly democratic organizations into two parts: a small stable set of elites and all the other members. His analysis offered a catalog of the processes and forces that produced such a division, and he postulated that the directives of the elite, while nominally reflecting the set of interests shared by all members, in actuality are driven by their own personal interests in the organization. His provocative (and very pessimistic) arguments have served as the basis for many studies over the years, particularly of organizations specifically formed to represent the interests of groups seeking to promote change in political arenas. Much of this work has been focused on assessing the purported inevitability of the emergence of oligarchies and defining the conditions of the iron law—i.e. those that affect the realization (or suppression) of oligarchic tendencies. In this chapter, we argue that Michels’s core arguments about the nature of oligarchies in organizations, and research generated in response to his work, are not only relevant to understanding the dynamics of political organizations but can be extended as a useful framework for thinking about important aspects of contemporary economic corporations as well. In making this argument, we highlight the parallels between Berle and Means’s analysis (1932) of modern, publicly held corporations and that of Michels. Both analyses address the general organizational problem of ensuring representation of members’ interests. In political organizations, it is the rank-and-file members’ interests that leaders are charged with representing; in publicly held organizations, leaders are primarily responsible for representing the interests of stockholders, as the nominal owners’ of the firm. In this context, we consider evidence and research on problematic corporate behavior to show how Michels’s work provides a useful framework for understanding these problems and for formulating ways of addressing them

IS 501 Christian Formation: Kingdom, Church and World

Clapp, Rodney. Border Crossings. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2000. Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. New York: Oxford UP, 2007. Snyder, Howard. Kingdom, Church, and World: Biblical Themes for Today. Wipf & Stock, 2001. (Originally published as A Kingdom Manifesto, IVP, 1985.) Snyder, Howard. Models of the Kingdom. Wipf & Stock, 2001.https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/3667/thumbnail.jp

John Wesley’s Approach to Mission

John Wesley’s theology is noted for its soteriological emphasis. Most of his life was spent in England ministering among marginalized people. Much of his practical ministry, publications, prison reform, healthcare interest, education, etc., occurred while trekking through the island. Yet, Wesley’s thoughts and writings reflect the broader world. Although he was not as swift at putting Methodist missionaries abroad as Thomas Coke would have liked, Wesley had a plan in place that took in reaching those populations that claimed other religions as their faith. Thus, he wanted “Moslems,” “Hindoos,” “Hottentots,” “Native Americans,” or more inclusive of every part of the world, the “heathen,” to have an encounter with the vital gospel of Christ. This paper explores what John Wesley had to say about these groups and his approach to bringing the gospel of Christ within their reach

Salvation as healing : John Wesley\u27s missional theology

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1309/thumbnail.jp

Characterizing hydrological connectivity and channel-island processes in river deltas to inform coastal restoration

River deltas are highly dynamic environments that are made up of distributary channels and interdistributary islands. This dissertation uses field observations at the Wax Lake Delta (WLD) and numerical modeling to improve the understanding of hydrological connectivity and coupled channel-island processes in river deltas, and to inform coastal restoration strategies. The studies presented here show that channel-island hydrological connectivity is a key element of delta dynamics. In the first study, acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements show that 23-54% of the water flux entering the WLD channel network is allocated to the interiors of the deltaic islands, indicating that the islands are important elements of the hydrological network. A dye tracer experiment reveals that travel times within the deltaic islands are significantly longer than that of the distributary channels. Based on these observations, a framework for analyzing hydrological connectivity in coastal river deltas is developed. The second study is an investigation of the controls on hydrological connectivity, residence time distributions, and nitrate removal in a river delta channel-island complex using numerical modeling of the hydrodynamics and a simple model for nitrate removal. The modeling results show that channel-island hydrological connectivity and water residence time distributions are strongly controlled by hydraulic roughness due to vegetation within the islands. The modeled fractional nitrate removals range from ~0-87% depending on river discharge, hydraulic roughness, and tidal influences, which compare well with the 47-91% nitrate removal estimated from field data at WLD. In the third study, field measurements and numerical modeling results are used characterize network-scale flow partitioning and water residence time distributions at WLD. The influences of the spring-neap and daily tidal cycles are shown to have a limited influence on the partitioning of discharge through the delta network. Spatial heterogeneity in local water residence times is due to the structure of the delta network and the local channel-island hydrological connectivity. The results from the three studies presented in this dissertation have important implications for understanding the physical controls on hydrological connectivity in river deltas and the management of coastal restoration projects.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

MM 602 Parish: Outside the Walls

Hall, Ron and Denver Moore. Same Kind of Different as Me. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2008. ISBN-10: 084991910X Sider, Olson, and Unruh. Churches That Make a Difference. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002. Mentored Ministry Handbook: MM 601/602: (available as a pdf in the Virtual Classroom) Mentored Ministry Forms: (MM602 E-Forms under Mentored Ministry Resources located in the Virtual Classroom)https://place.asburyseminary.edu/syllabi/3725/thumbnail.jp