Hierarchies and Clans: A New Perspective on Organizational Development

Some recent articles suggest that current approaches to organizational development are less successful than expected. These approaches are based on theories of the psychology of healthy organizations. In this paper, we present a compatible but different sociological view of such organizations which suggests that current views may be incomplete. The paper begins with a review of the basic ideas which underlie humanistic organizational psychology by evaluating the work of Mayo, Argyris, McGregor, and Likert. These views are compared to a more explicitly sociological approach. The sociological approach to humanistic organization is illustrated through a recent empirical study. The implications of this approach for current theory and practice are considered.