Goal Ambiguity and Conflicting Standards: An Approach to the Study of Organization

The approach to the study of organization which is advanced in this paper is based on the explicit assumption of ambiguity among the goals, and conflict among the standards of conduct for members, of the social system studied.1 As such, the present analysis differs from traditional approaches to the study of organization which, explicitly or implicitly, incorporate assumption of single or non-ambiguous system goals and non-conflicting member standards into their analysis. The plan of the paper is as follows: The process of decisionmaking and managerial conduct in Soviet industry is described first. Then, regarding Soviet industry as a separate social system, a formal analysis of aspects of that system's organization follows. Finally, that analysis is used to suggest hypotheses about organization which, it is hoped, will be fruitful in the study of other social systems. Not the examination of Soviet industrial organization, but the development of what might be called