Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-mx8w7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-04T18:17:08.727Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rational Choice, Situated Action, and the Social Control of Organizations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Diane Vaughan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The legal and administrative apparatus responsible for the social control of organizations relies extensively on the deterrent effects of punishment. This strategy presumes a rational choice model of organizational misconduct that decontextualizes decisionmaking, emphasizing consequences while ignoring how preferences are formed. I raise three challenges to the rational choice/deterrence model of social control: (1) research and theory on decisionmaking, (2) a sociological paradigm that situates individual action in a structure/culture/agency nexus that influences interpretation, meaning, and action at the local level, and (3) an analysis of the Challenger launch decision at NASA as situated action, showing how structure, culture, and history shaped preferences and choice. These challenges suggest a need to reorient regulatory activity toward the social context of decisionmaking. I conclude with a research agenda to explore the relationship between situated action, preference formation, and rational choice.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , 1998 , pp. 23 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Law and Society Association, 1998. All Rights Reserved

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

I am grateful for a 1996–1997 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, for the support that enabled me to write this article. Thanks also to Robert Gibbons, Michael Hechter, Robert A. Kagan, and three anonymous reviewers for comments that helped me clarify my argument.

References

Abolafia, Mitchel Y. (1996) Making Markets: Opportunism and Restraint on Wall Street Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Jeffrey C. Giesen, Bernhard, Munch, Richard, & Smelser, Neil J., eds. (1987) The Micro-Macro Link. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Allison, Graham T. (1971) The Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Anderson, Douglas D. (1980) “Who Owns the Regulators?” 4 Wharton Mag. 14–21.Google Scholar
Arendt, Hannah (1963) Eichmann in Jerusalem. New York: Viking.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian, & Braithwaite, John (1992) Responsive Regulation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Wayne E., & Faulkner, Robert R. (1993) “The Social Organization of Conspiracy: Illegal Networks in the Heavy Electrical Equipment Industry,” 58 American Sociological Rev. 837–60.Google Scholar
Bardach, Eugene, & Kagan, Robert A. (1982) Going by the Book. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Barlow, Hugh D. (1993) “From Fiddle Factors to Networks of Collusion: Charting the Waters of Small Business Crime,” 20 Crime, Law, & Social Change 319–37.Google Scholar
Bellah, Robert N., Madsen, Richard, Sullivan, William M., Swidler, Ann, & Tipton, Steven (1985) Habits of the Heart. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Bosk, Charles (1979) Forgive and Remember. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, Pierre (1977) Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1984) Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John (1985) “Taking Responsibility Seriously: Corporate Compliance Systems” in Fisse, B. & French, P. A., eds., Corrigible Corporations and Unruly Law. San Antonio, TX: Trinity Univ. Press.Google Scholar
French, P. A.-(1989) Crime, Shame, and Reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, & Geis, Gilbert (1982) “On Theory and Action for Corporate Crime Control,” 28 Crime & Delinquency 292–314.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, & Makkai, Toni (1991) “Testing an Expected Utility Model of Corporate Deterrence,” 25 Law & Society Rev. 7–40.Google Scholar
Calavita, Kitty, Pontell, Henry N., & Tillman, Robert H. (1997) Big Money Crime: Fraud and Politics in the Savings and Loan Crisis. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Clinard, Marshall B. (1983) Corporate Ethics and Crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Clinard, Marshall B., & Yeager, Peter C. (1980) Corporate Crime. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Coffee, John C. (1977) “Beyond the Shut-Eyed Sentry: Toward a Theoretical View of Corporate Misconduct and Effective Legal Response,” 63 Virginia Law Rev. 1099–1278.Google Scholar
Coffee, John C.-(1981) “No Soul to Damn, No Body to Kick: An Unscandalized Inquiry into the Problem of Corporate Punishment,” 79 Michigan Law Rev. 386–459.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. (1990a) Foundations of Social Theory. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, James S. (1990b) “Norm-Generating Structures,” in Cook & Levi, eds. 1990.Google Scholar
Coleman, James W. (1987) “Toward an Integrated Theory of White-Collar Crime,” 93 American Sociological Rev. 406–39.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill (1990) Black Feminist Thought. London: Harper Collins.Google Scholar
Collins, Patricia Hill-(1991) “Learning from the Outsider within,” in Fonow, M. M. & Cook, J., eds., Beyond Methodology: Feminist Scholarship as Lived Research. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Collins, Randall (1981) “On the Micro-Foundations of Macro-Sociology,” 86 American J. of Sociology 984–1014.Google Scholar
Cook, Karen Schweers, & Levi, Margaret, eds. (1990) The Limits of Rationality. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cullen, Frank T., Maakestad, William J., & Cavender, Gray (1987) Corporate Crime under Attack: The Ford Pinto Case and Beyond. Cincinnati: Anderson.Google Scholar
Dalton, Melville (1950) Men Who Manage. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J. (1994) “Culture and Economy,” in Smelser, N. J. & Swedberg, R., eds., The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Swedberg, R.-(1997) “Culture and Cognition,” 23 Annual Rev. of Sociology 263–87.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J., & Powell, Walter W. (1991) “Introduction,” in Powell & DiMaggio, eds. 1991.Google Scholar
Diver, Colin (1980) “A Theory of Regulatory Enforcement,” 28 Public Policy 257–99.Google Scholar
Dodd, Nigel, & Hutter, Bridget (1996) “Geopolitics and the Regulation of Economic Life: The Decline of the Nation-State?” Presented at 1996 Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Douglas, Mary (1987) How Institutions Think. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Edelman, Lauren, & Suchman, Mark C. (1997) “The Legal Environment of Organizations” 23 Annual Rev. of Sociology 479–515.Google Scholar
Elias, Norbert (1993) Time: An Essay. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, Mustafa, & Goodwin, Jeff (1994) “Network Analysis, Culture, and the Problem of Agency,” 99 American J. of Sociology 1411–54.Google Scholar
Emirbayer, Mustafa, & Mische, Ann (1998) “What Is Agency?” 103 American J. of Sociology 962–1023.Google Scholar
Ermann, M. David, & Lundman, Richard J. (1978) “Deviant Acts by Complex Organizations: Deviance and Social Control at the Organizational Level of Analysis,” 19 Sociological Q. 55–67.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia (1981) “Theories of Organizational Illegality: A Reconceptotalization,” 2 Yale Working Paper Series. New Haven, CT: Department of Sociology, Yale Univ.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia (1985) “Redundant Regulation: Sanctioning Broker-Dealers,” 7 Law & Policy 421–45.Google Scholar
Ewick, Patricia, & Silbey, Susan (1998) The Common Place of Law. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Martha S. (1989) Order without Design. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Martha S., & March, James G. (1981) “Information in Organizations as Sign and Symbol,” 26 Administrative Science Q. 171–84.Google Scholar
Fine, Gary Alan (1992) “Agency, Structure, and Comparative Contexts: Toward A Synthetic Interactionism,” 15 Symbolic Interaction 87–107.Google Scholar
Finney, Henry, & Lesieur, H. R. (1982) “A Contingency Theory of Organizational Crime,” in Bacharach, S. B., ed., The Social Psychological Process (Research in the Sociology of Organizations). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Fisse, Brent, & Braithwaite, John (1993) Corporations, Crimes, and Accountability. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Fombrun, Charles (1986) “Structural Dynamics within and between Organizations,” 31 Administrative Science Q. 403–21.Google Scholar
Friedland, Roger, & Alford, Robert (1991) “Bringing Society Back in: Symbols, Practices and Institutional Contradictions,” in Powell & DiMaggio, eds. 1991.Google Scholar
Friedman, Debra, & Hechter, Michael (1988) “The Contribution of Rational Choice Theory to Macrosociological Research,” 6 Sociological Theory 201–18.Google Scholar
Geis, Gilbert (1967) “The Heavy Electrical Equipment Antitrust Cases of 1961,” in M. B. Clinard & R. Quinney, Criminal Behavior Systems. New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.Google Scholar
Giallombardo, Rose (1966) Society of Women. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Giddens, Anthony (1979) Central Problems in Social Theory. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Giddens, Anthony-(1984) The Constitution of Society. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Gilboy, Janet (1996) “Social Regulation and Business Responsibility,” Presented at 1996 Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Glasgow.Google Scholar
Goldhagen, Daniel Joshua (1996) Hitler's Willing Executioners. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Goodin, Robert E. (1990) “Comment: De Gustibus Non Est Explanandum,” in Cook & Levi, eds. 1990.Google Scholar
Gordon, Avery (1997) Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Grabosky, Peter N. (1989) Wayward Governance. Woden, ACT: Australian Institute of Criminology.Google Scholar
Grabosky, Peter N.-(1995) “Counterproductive Regulation,” 23 International J. of the Sociology of Law 347–69.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark (1985) “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,” 91 American J. of Sociology 481–510.Google Scholar
Granovetter, Mark (1992) “Economic Institutions as Social Constructions: A Framework for Analysis,” 35 Acta Sociologica 3–12.Google Scholar
Green, Gary (1997) Occupational Crime. Chicago: Nelson-Hall.Google Scholar
Gross, Edward (1980) “Organization Structure and Organizational Crime,” in Geis, G. & Stotland, E., eds., White-Collar Crime: Theory and Research. Newbury Park, GA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter M. (1987) “Interactionism and the Study of Social Organization,” 28 Sociological Q. 1–22.Google Scholar
Haraway, Donna (1988) “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism as a Site of Discourse on the Privilege of Partial Perspective,” 14 Feminist Studies 575–99.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Keith O. (1984) Environment and Enforcement. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Keith O., & Thomas, J. M., eds. (1984) Enforcing Regulation. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hays, Sharon (1994) “Structure and Agency and the Sticky Problem of Culture,” 12 Sociological Theory 57–72.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael (1987) Principles of Group Solidarity. Berkeley: Univ. of California Press.Google Scholar
Hechter, Michael, & Kanazawa, Satoshi (1997) “Sociological Rational Choice Theory,” 23 Annual Rev. of Sociology 191–214.Google Scholar
Heimer, Carol A. (1988) “Social Structure, Psychology, and the Estimation of Risk,” 14 Annual Rev. of Sociology 491 –519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, Everett C. (1951) “Mistakes at Work,” 17 Canadian J. of Economics & Political Science 320–27.Google Scholar
Jackall, Robert (1988) Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, Sheila (1986) Risk Management and Political Culture. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Jepperson, Ronald (1991) “Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism,” in Powell & DiMaggio, eds. 1991.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A., Axelrad, Lee, & Ruhlin, Charles (1996) “Convergence and Divergence in National Modes of Regulation: Multinational Corporations and American Adversarial Legalism.” Presented at 1996 Law & Society Association Annual Meeting, Glasgow, June.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A., & Scholz, John T. (1984) “The ‘Criminology of the Corporation’ and Regulatory Enforcement Strategies,” in Hawkins & Thomas, eds. 1984.Google Scholar
Kahneman, Daniel, Slovic, Paul, & Tversky, Amos, eds. (1982) Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, Jack (1979) “Legality and Equality: Plea Bargaining in the Prosecution of White-Collar and Common Crime,” 13 Law & Society Rev. 431–59.Google Scholar
Kelman, Herbert C., & Hamilton, V. Lee (1989) Crimes of Obedience. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Knorr-Cetina, Karen, & Cicourel, Aaron, eds. (1981) Advances in Social Theory and Methodology: Toward and Integration of Micro- and Macro-Sociologies. Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Kram, Kathy E., Yeager, Peter C., & Reed, Gary (1989) “Decisions and Dilemmas: The Ethical Dimension in the Corporate Context,” in Post, J. E., ed., 11 Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy 21–54.Google Scholar
Kramer, Ronald C. (1992) “State-Corporate Crime: The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster,” in Schlegel & Weisburd, eds. 1992.Google Scholar
Kunda, Gideon (1992) Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles (1959) “The Science of Muddling Through,” 19 Public Administration Rev. 79–88.Google Scholar
Maines, David R. (1977) “Social Organization and Social Structure in Symbolic Interactionist Thought,” 3 Annual Rev. of Sociology 235–59.Google Scholar
Mann, Kenneth, Wheeler, Stanton, & Bode, Nancy (1982) “Sentencing the White-Collar Offender: Rhetoric and Reality,” 17 American Sociological Rev. 641–59.Google Scholar
Manning, Peter K. (1986) “The Social Reality and Social Organization of Natural Decision Making,” 43 Washington & Lee Law Rev. 1291–1311.Google Scholar
March, James G., & Olsen, Johan P. (1979) Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
March, James G., & Shapira, Zur (1987) “Management Perspectives on Risk and Risk Taking,” 33 Management Science 1404–18.Google Scholar
March, James G., & Simon, Herbert A. (1958) Organizations. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Martin, Joanne (1992) Cultures in Organizations: Three Perspectives. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCurdy, Howard (1993) Inside NASA: High Technology and Organizational Change in the U.S. Space Program. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Meiksins, Peter (1988) “The Revolt of the Engineers Reconsidered,” 29 Technology & Culture 219–46.Google Scholar
Merton, Robert K. (1936) “The Unanticipated Consequences of Social Action.” 1 American Sociological Rev. 894–904.Google Scholar
Meyer, John, & Rowan, Brian (1977) “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” 83 American J. of Sociology 340–63.Google Scholar
Mileti, Dennis, Sorenson, John, & Bogard, William (1985) Evacuation Decision-Making: Process and Uncertainty. Oak Ridge, Tenn.: Oak Ridge National Laboratory.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morrill, Calvin, Snyderman, Ellen, & Dawson, Edwin J. (1997) “It's Not What You Do, But Who You Are: Informal Social Control, Social Status, and Normative Seriousness in Organizations,” 12 Sociological Forum 519–43.Google Scholar
Paget, Marianne A. (1988) The Unity of Mistakes. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Passas, Nikos (1990) “Anomie and Corporate Deviance,” 14 (2) Contemporary Crises 157–78.Google Scholar
Passas, Nikos-(1997) “The BCCI Case,” in Passas, N. & Agnew, R. M., eds., The Future of Anomie Theory. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Paternoster, Ray, & Simpson, Sally S. (1993) “A Rational Choice Theory of Corporate Crime,” in Clarke, R. V. & Felson, M., eds., 5 Routine Activity and Rational Choice: Advances in Criminological Theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Felson, M.-(1996) “Sanction Threats and Appeals to Morality: Testing a Rational Choice Model of Corporate Crime,” 30 Law & Society Rev. 549–83.Google Scholar
Petroski, Henri (1985) To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design. New York: St. Martin's.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, Jeffrey, & Salancik, Gerald (1978) The External Control of Organizations. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Porter, Theodore M. (1995) Trust in Numbers. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Powell, Walter W., & DiMaggio, Paul J., eds. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident (1986) Report to the President by the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger Accident. 5 vols. Washington, DC: GPO.Google Scholar
Punch, Maurice (1996) Dirty Business: Exploring Corporate Misconduct. London: Sage Publications.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quinney, Richard (1963) “Occupational Structure and Criminal Behavior: Prescription Violation by Retail Pharmacists,” 11 Social Problems 179–85.Google Scholar
Ragin, Charles C. (1994) Constructing Social Research. Thousand Oaks, GA: Pine Forge Press.Google Scholar
Reed, Gary E., & Yeager, Peter Cleary (1996) “Organizational Offending and Neoclassical Criminology: Challenging the Reach of a General Theory of Crime,” 34 Criminology 357–82.Google Scholar
Reiss, Albert J. Jr. (1966) “The Study of Deviant Behavior: Where the Action Is,” 32 Ohio Valley Sociologist 60–66.Google Scholar
Reiss, Albert J. Jr.-(1984) “Selecting Strategies of Social Control over Organizational Life,” in Hawkins & Thomas, eds. 1984.Google Scholar
Roethlisberger, F. J., & Dickson, William J. (1947) Management and the Worker. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Romzek, Barbara S., & Dubnick, Melvin J. (1987) “Accountability in the Public Sector: Lessons from the Challenger Tragedy,” 47 Public Administration Rev. 227–38.Google Scholar
Schlegel, Kip (1990) Just Deserts for Corporate Criminals. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Schlegel, Kip, & Weisburd, David, eds. (1992) White-Collar Crime Reconsidered. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Sewell, William H. Jr. (1992) “A Theory of Structure: Duality, Agency, and Transformations,” 98 American J. of Sociology 1–29.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Susan (1984) Wayward Capitalists. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Susan-(1987) “The Social Control of Impersonal Trust,” 93 American J. of Sociology 623–58.Google Scholar
Simpson, Sally S. (1986) “The Decomposition of Antitrust: Testing a Multi-level Longitudinal Model of Profit Squeeze,” 51 American Sociological Rev. 859–79.Google Scholar
Simpson, Sally S.-(1992) “Corporate Crime Deterrence and Corporate-Control Policies,” in Schlegel & Weisburd, eds. 1992.Google Scholar
Simpson, Sally S.-(1998) Why Corporations Obey the Law. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Simpson, Sally S., & Koper, Christopher (1992) “Deterring Corporate Crime,” 30 Criminology 347–75.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A. (1957) Models of Man: Social and Rational. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Simon, Herbert A.-(1976) Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organizations. 3d ed. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Smith, Dorothy (1987) The Everyday World as Problematic. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Staw, Barry M., & Swajkowski, Eugene (1975) “The Scarcity Munificence Component of Organizational Environments and the Commission of Illegal Acts,” 20 Administrative Science Q. 345–54.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, Arthur L. (1965) “Social Structure and Organizations,” in March, J. G., ed., Handbook of Organizations. Chicago: Rand-McNally.Google Scholar
Stone, Christopher D. (1975) Where the Law Ends. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Sutherland, Edwin H. (1949) White-Collar Crime. New York: Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gresham K., & Matza, David (1957) “Techniques of Neutralization,” 22 American Sociological Rev. 667–70.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de (1969) Democracy in America, trans. Lawrence, G., ed. Thayer, J. P.. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Turner, Barry A., & Pidgeon, Nick F. (1997) Man-Made Disasters. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.Google Scholar
U.S. House of Representatives (1986) Investigation of the Challenger Accident: Hearings; Report. 3 vols. Washington, DC: GPO.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, John, & Barley, Steve (1985) “Cultural Organization: Fragments of a Theory,” in P.J. Frost et al., eds, Organizational Culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Van Maanen, John, & Schein, Edgar H. (1979) “Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization,” in Staw, B. & Cummings, L. L., eds., Research in Organizational Behavior. Greenwich CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Diane (1983) Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behavior. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Diane-(1990) “Autonomy, Interdependence, and Social Control: NASA and the Space Shuttle Challenger,” 35 Administrative Science Q. 225–57.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Diane (1992a) “The Macro-Micro Connection in ‘White-Collar Crime,‘” in Schlegel & Weisburd, eds. 1992.Google Scholar
Vaughan, Diane (1992b) “Theory Elaboration: The Heuristics of Case Analysis,” in Ragin, C. & Becker, H. S., eds., What Is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Becker, H. S.-(1996) The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Becker, H. S.-(1997) “Anomie Theory and Organizations: Culture and the Normalization of Deviance at NASA,” in Passas, N. & Agnew, R. M., eds., The Future of Anomie Theory. Boston: Northeastern Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Agnew, R. M.-(1998) “The Macro-Micro Connection, Culture, and Boundary Work: Toward the Social Control of Organizations,” in Kagan, R., Ewick, P., & Sarat, A., eds., Social Science, Legal Scholarship, and the Law. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press; New York: Russell Sage Foundation (forthcoming).Google Scholar
Sarat, A.-(1999) “The Dark Side of Organizations: Mishap, Mistake, Misconduct, and Disaster,” 25 Annual Rev. of Sociology (forthcoming).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weick, Karl E. (1979) The Social Psychology of Organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Weick, Karl E. (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Weisburd, David, Waring, Elin, & Chayet, Ellen (1995) “Specific Deterrence in a Sample of Offenders Convicted of White-Collar Crimes,” 33 Criminology 587–607.Google Scholar
Weisburd, David, Wheeler, Stanton, Waring, Elin, & Bode, Nancy (1991) Crimes of the Middle Classes. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, Mann, Kenneth, & Sarat, Austin (1988) Sitting in Judgment: The Sentencing of White-Collar Offenders. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, & Rothman, Mitchell (1982) “The Organization as Weapon in White-Collar Crime,” 80 Michigan Law Rev. 1403–27.Google Scholar
Wildavsky, Aaron (1987) “Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A Cultural Theory of Preference Formation,” 81 American Political Science Rev. 3–21.Google Scholar
Wilensky, Harold (1967) Organizational Intelligence: Knowledge and Policy in Government and Industry. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Wynne, Brian (1988) “Unruly Technology: Practical Rules, Impractical Discourses, and Public Understanding,” 18 Social Studies of Science 147–67.Google Scholar
Zerubavel, Eviatar (1997) Social Mindscapes: Toward A Cognitive Sociology. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Zimring, Frank, & Hawkins, Gordon J. (1973) Deterrence: The Legal Threat in Crime Control. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zucker, Lynn (1977) “The Role of Institutionalization in Cultural Persistence,” 42 American Sociological Rev. 726–43.Google Scholar