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Blau's Theory of Structural Differentiation Revisited: A Theory of Structural Change or Scale?

John B. Cullen
,
Kenneth S. Anderson

Univ. of Nebraska

Research Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

The major objective of this study was to determine if Blau's (1970) theory of structural differentiation better captures differences in scale between organizations or structural changes within organizations. Data gathered on 134 Ph.D.-granting universities over nine years permitted us to compare results of within-organizations tests of Blau's theory with those from both cross-sectional and longitudinal between-organization tests. The findings suggest that the theory's power lies in explaining structural differences between organizations rather than in explaining structural change.

Access to documents

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/managementfacpub/199/

Final published version

License:Free to Read

Bibliographic Information

Output type

Research Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Original language

American English

Pages from-to (Number of pages)

Pages 203-229

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Academy of Management Journal (Volume 29, Issue 2)

Publication milestones

Published - 1986

Publication status

Published - 1986