Formal Organization and Promotion in a Pre-Industrial Society

Finally, laboratory experimentation is also feasible. Implicit in our analysis is the hypothesis that there is a negative correlation between the degree of objectivity of criteria for evaluating performance and the tendency to conform to a superior's expectations and preferences. Does this hypothesis hold true under an experimentally-manipulated condition involving a mechanism of procedural due process of law, e.g., when subjects are granted the right to appeal the decision of a superior? This hypothesis is now being tested in a laboratory experiment simulating a set of relevant organizational properties.39