Organizational Decision Making as a Political Process: The Case of a University Budget
Item
Title
Organizational Decision Making as a Political Process: The Case of a University Budget
Abstract/Description
The effect of subunit power on resource allocation decisions in one university is examined. Measures of departmental power in a university are found to be significantly related to the proportion of the budget received, even after statistically controlling for such universalistic bases of allocation as work load of the department, national rank, and number of faculty. Subunit power in the organization is also related to the correlation between a subunit's resources--budget and instructional staffs--and work load over time. The more powerful the department, the less the allocated resources are a function of departmental work load and student demand for course offerings. Subunit power is measured by both interviews of department heads and the analysis of archival records of departmental representation on major university committees. Intercorrelations between these measures of subunit power indicate that it is possible to obtain unobtrusive measures of organizational political systems without direct interviewing.
Author/creator
Date
In publication
Volume
19
Issue
2
Pages
135-151
Resource type
Background/Context
Medium
Print
Background/context type
Conceptual
Open access/free-text available
No
Peer reviewed
Yes
ISSN
0001-8392
DOI
Citation
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1974). Organizational Decision Making as a Political Process: The Case of a University Budget. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19(2), 135–151. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393885
Resource status/form
Published Text
Scholarship genre
Empirical
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