Are social structures products of human action, expressions of individual or group power? Or are they essentially external constraints on human action, necessarily analyzed at a different level? How are themes of power and constraint to be joined in a common analytic approach? These have long been central questions for sociologists. since the collapse of functionalism as a unifying paradigm, however they have often appeared as the basis for sharp divisions between competing analytic paradigms. The divide between structuralism and rational-choice theory has been one of the most prominent such splits. Yet each approach has undergone a revival in past years. The editors of this book, in honour of Peter Blau, brought together a wide range of distinguished sociologists who have taken positions on different sides of this issue and brings them into focus as parts of a common discourse on the place of social structure and concepts of strategic action in sociological explanation.

Performance measurement remains a vexing problem for business firms and other kinds of organisations. This book explains why: the performance we want to measure (long-term cash flows, long-term viability) and the performance we can measure (current cash flows, customer satisfaction, etc.) are not the same. The 'balanced scorecard', which has been widely adopted by US firms, does not solve these underlying problems of performance measurement and may exacerbate them because it provides no guidance on how to combine dissimilar measures into an overall appraisal of performance. A measurement technique called activity-based profitability analysis (ABPA) is suggested as a partial solution, especially to the problem of combining dissimilar measures. ABPA estimates the revenue consequences of each activity performed for the customer, allowing firms to compare revenues with costs for these activities and hence to discriminate between activities that are ultimately profitable and those that are not.

This book examines in detail the process of change in 240 city, county and state public bureaucracies responsible for local finance administration. Using the longitudinal method of analysis, the data show organizational structures to be much less stable than conventional stereotypes have suggested. Variables such as organizational leadership, claims to domain, and survival (as opposed to replacement or reorganization) were found to mediate environmental effects on bureaucracies. The book also discusses traditional theories of bureaucracy, theories emphasizing the importance of environment for organizational theory is possible. The concluding chapter draws extensive theoretical implications from the empirical findings of the study.

Performance measurement remains a vexing problem for business firms and other kinds of organizations. The "balanced scorecard", widely touted as a solution to problems of performance measurement and strategic planning, has no strong basis in theory. Moreover, implementation of the "balanced scorecard" may create many more problems than it solves. This text returns to the fundamentals by asking what is the performance of the firm, can this performance be measured, and what are reasonable second-best measures if the first-best measures we would like to have are not available.

This book examines in detail the process of change in 240 city, county and state public bureaucracies responsible for local finance administration. Using the longitudinal method of analysis, the data show organizational structures to be much less stable than conventional stereotypes have suggested. Variables such as organizational leadership, claims to domain, and survival (as opposed to replacement or reorganization) were found to mediate environmental effects on bureaucracies. The book also discusses traditional theories of bureaucracy, theories emphasizing the importance of environment for organizational theory is possible. The concluding chapter draws extensive theoretical implications from the empirical findings of the study.