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born 1925 United States
Charles B. Perrow (born February 9, 1925) is an American Emeritus Professor of sociology at Yale University and visiting professor at Stanford University.
United States Academics Business theorists Sociologists Also known as: Charles B. Perrow
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44 quotes
Technology is a technique or complex of techniques employed to alter “materials” (human or nonhuman, mental or physical) in an anticipated manner.
For many purposes of organizational analysis technology might not be an independent variable but a dependent one.
Charles Perrow (1967)
People's attitudes are shaped at least as much by the organization in which they work as by their pre-existing attitudes.
The essence of the normal accident [is] the interaction of multiple failures that are not in a direct operational sequence.
Apparent leadership problems are often problems of organizational structure.
Once a definition is embedded in a program, the opinions of personnel who remain at the institution become congruent with it.
Most normal accidents have a significant degree of incomprehensibility.
Unambiguous pursuit of official goals is not likely to be common.
Two aspects of this work process are of critical importance.
Since organizations are established to do something, to perform work directed to some end, all organizations have goals – some implied, some explicit.
Where and how will official goals be subverted?
I once believed that if organizations had a better fit between their technology and their structure, they would be more efficient and thus more profitable.
Organisations are viewed as systems which utilise energy in a patterned, directed effort to alter the condition of basic materials in a predetermined manner.
One test of good theory is that it have practical implications.
The power structure will generally dictate the operative goals of the organization.
Charles Perrow (1963)
Barnard comes close to joining Roethlisberger and Dickson in their assumption that management behavior is mainly rational and workers' behavior nonrational.
People do not exist just for organizations. They track all kinds of mud from the rest of their lives into the organization, and they have all kinds of interests that are independent of the organization.
In research terms, the issue is to examine and explain the variations within and among residential institutions.
The burning cry in all organizations is for “good leadership,” but we have learned that beyond a threshold level of adequacy it is extremely difficult to know what good leadership is.
Organizations are seen primarily as systems for getting work done, for applying techniques to the problem of altering raw materials - whether the materials be people, symbols or things.
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