Permanently Failing Organizations

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In this volume, the authors closely examine performance and draw on both sociology and economics to explain why some organizations perform well and others perform badly. They first separate the concept of organizational performance from that of organizational persistence. Then they develop a provocative theory of why - and how - organizations tend towards failure and how they survive in spite of it. Meyer and Zucker contend that management plays a critical role in the movement towards or away from poor performance, yet persistence is determined by the often competing interests of owners, managers, workers and the public.