Complex Social Organization: Multiple Organizing Modes, Structural Incongruence, and Mechanisms of Integration

This article conceptualizes and analyses a type of complex social organization consisting of heterogeneous organizing modes and social relationships, combining, for instance, relationships making up markets and hierarchies as well as various types of informal networks. Each mode is constituted and regulated on the basis of a system of social rules making up a particular normative order and operates in terms of its own particular rationality or social logic. When modes are combined or integrated into multi-institutional complexes or organizations, the resultant structure entails zones of incongruence and tension at the junctures or interfaces of the different organizing modes and social relationships. The article identifies a number of such incongruent organizing modes that are common in complex social organizations or inter- institutional complexes. It goes on to identify several of the institutional strategies and arrangements including rituals, non-task-oriented discourses, and mediating roles that actors develop and institutionalize in dealing effectively with incongruences and potential conflicts in complex, heterogeneous organizations. The article suggests that problems of structural incongruence - and the tensions and conflicts that arise in connection with it as well as responses to these - are major features of complex organizational and inter-institutional arrangements. Moreover, it suggests that social order - the shaping of congruent, meaningful experiences - in these complex organizations as in most social life builds on non-rational foundations such as rituals and non-instrumental discourses. These contribute to maintaining social order and to providing a stable context, even for rational decision-making and action.     

Public Attitudes About Land Use Policy and Their Impact on State Policy-Makers

Results from a study in Ohio, and replicated in six additionalstates, show public opinion toward state land use regulationto be aggregated around two major attitudes: the Environmentalistsstress the impact of negative developmental externalities andfavor broader review of land use decisions; the Localists areconcerned with accountability and local control of decision-making.An intensive analysis of the Ohio Land Use Work Group revealsthe policy-making elite in basic sympathy with the Environmentalists,but constrained by intra-agency rivalries and apprehensionsabout public reaction. Discussion focuses on the shifting publicconsensus toward greater land use control, and the implicationsfor state policy-making. ^*Originally read at a meeting of the Midwest Political ScienceAssociation, Chicago, 1975. The authors gratefully acknowledgefinancial assistance from the Academy for Contemporary Problems,Columbus, Ohio, and from the Ohio Office of Budget and Management.Special appreciation is expressed to the Academy's president,Ralph R. Widner, and to Dean Clark and Paul Goesling who, atthe time of the study, were affiliated with OBM. Gratitude alsoto individuals who facilitated the national-regional interviewing:David Gillespie, Brij Khare, Michael Obrey, Michael Shay, JosephThomas, and Hugh Winebrenner.     

Screening for barbiturates in vitreous humor by the EMIT-st serum enzyme immunoassay

In 16 medical examiner's cases, which were found to be barbiturate-positive by thin-layer chromatographic screening of the liver, blood barbiturate concentrations were determined by gas chromatography. The corresponding vitreous humor samples were screened by the enzyme multiplied immunoassay technique, the EMIT-st serum barbiturate assay. By using the recommended dilution for detecting serum barbiturates, it was possible to detect barbiturates in vitreous humor at a toxic concentration. By using one fourth the amount of diluent, the barbiturates could be detected also at a therapeutic concentration. The EMIT-st assay proved to be useful in the screening for barbiturates in vitreous humor, a material that is readily available in forensic toxicology.     

Congressional Performance,Incumbent Behavior,and Voting in Senate Elections

Conventional wisdom suggests that individual members of Congress have no real incentive to act in ways that might improve public evaluations of their collective body. In particular, the literature provides no clear evidence that public evaluations of Congress affect individual races for Congress, and little reason to expect that voters would hold specific individuals responsible for the institution's performance. We suggest that this conventional wisdom is incorrect. Using multiple state‐level exit polls of Senate voting conducted by Voter News Service in 1996 and 1998, we arrive at two key findings. First, we find that evaluations of Congress do have a significant effect on voting within individual U.S. Senate races across a wide variety of electoral contexts. Second, we find that punishments or rewards for congressional performance are not distributed equally across all members, or even across members of a particular party. Instead, we find that the degree to which citizens hold a senator accountable for congressional performance is significantly influenced by that senator's actual level of support for the majority party in Congress, as demonstrated on party votes.     

Underwriters' counsel as gatekeeper or turnstile: an empirical analysis of law firm prestige and performance in IPOs

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. Key points

• The article investigates the relationship betweenpricing in an initial public offering (IPO) and the prestigeof the participating underwriters’ law firm.
• The hypothesisof the article is that law firm quality affects how law firmsperform their obligations in IPOs—more prestigious lawfirms acting more independently. Consistent with this hypothesis,the authors find a negative relationship between pre-IPO priceadjustment and the participation of prestigious underwriters’counsel, and a negative relationship between the participationof prestigious underwriters’ counsel and initial return,which is consistent with market trading reflecting the decreasedrisk associated with offerings involving prestigious underwriters’counsel.
• Finally, it is found that certain observable characteristicsindicating diminished likelihood of undisclosed negative information(venture backing and quality of the issuer's counsel) are associatedwith an increased likelihood that prestigious underwriters’counsel is used.