“Whatever the ultimate outcome, it is evident that modern society has already moved rather far into the age of control. It is an age marked by widening efforts to master a refractory industrial system.”

Thus begin Philip Selnick’s classic 1949 book, TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization. TVA — the Tennessee Valley Authority — was formed as one attempt by the U.S. to foster recovery from the Great Depression. Encompassing territory in seven U.S. states, the TVA was formed as a federally-owned corporation through Congressional charter, part of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Its early focus was on improving quality of life, but as World War II approached it would lead one of the largest hydropower construction projects in the U.S.

It was during this time, 1942-1943, that Selznick conducted his research for the eventual book. The two years were a watershed moment for the TVA, whose very existence was controversial as it sat uncomfortably between the public and private sector spheres, and between the federal and state levels of government. Selznick’s book demonstrated the challenges of what he called “decentralized administration,” in which the people supported (the “grass roots” in the title) were required to be active participants in the TVA’s activities. Although loosed from the typical centralized control in public sector bureaucracies, Selznick showed that TVA faced significant persistent tensions in the conduct of its routine activities. These included between abstract and universal “doctrine” and local concrete “action,” revealing the recalcitrance of organizations—or how these are human tools that take a life of their own as they operate. Navigating this complex environment, TVA coopted local groups which helped it advanced its goals, but also co-shaped them as its global mandate translated in actions that privileged some constituents over others.

The work of Selznick is foundational for both the fields of management science and public administration. It both advanced the structural functionalism paradigm and ideas from Robert Merton, most notably, the origins and nature of unintended consequences, such as how leaders’ narrow focus on the end goals may preclude them from appreciating or acting on the unexpected outcomes of their actions.

However, Selznick also seeded the origins of institutional theory in organization studies. He brought attention to the symbolic aspects of administration, such as when organizational tools and processes assume an importance beyond their concrete technical value—what he labelled institutionalization. And showed the influence of TVA social context in its operation, thus pre-dating discussion about the influence of the environment in organizations. In particular, the “cooptative mechanism” he identified, whereby power or the burdens of power are shared and co-evolve, showed the relevance of political relations in the legitimacy that organizations—particularly public ones—strive for in order to operate.

Read with us:

Selznick, P. (1953). TVA and the grass roots: A study in the sociology of formal organization (Vol. 3). Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

To Learn More:

Besharov, M.L. & Khurana, R. (2015). Leading amidst competing technical and institutional demands: Revisiting Selznick’s conception of leadership (pp. 53-88). In Kraatz, M. S. (ed.), Institutions and ideals: Philip Selznick’s legacy for organizational studies, (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 44). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Haveman, H. A. (2010). The Columbia School and the Study of Bureaucracies. In The Oxford Handbook of Sociology and Organization Studies.

Merton, R. K. (1949). Social theory and social structure. Simon and Schuster.

Selznick, P. (1948). Foundations for the theory of administration. American Sociological Review, 13(1), 25-35.

Selznick, P. (1996). Institutionalism “old” and “new.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 41(2), 270-277.

Stivers, C. (2009). Postcards from the past: Messages from TVA and the Grassroots. Public Administration Review, 69(6), 1196-1199.

Other Talking About Organizations Podcast episodes referenced:

Episode 49. Engineered Culture and Normative Control – Gideon Kunda