Table of Contents

1. The modern corporation and the problem of order; 2. Creating corporate order: conflicting versions of decentralization at GM, 1921–33; 3. Administrative centralization of the M-Form, 1934–41; 4. Participative decentralization redefined: mobilizing for war production, 1941–5; 5. The split between finance and operations: postwar problems and organization structure, 1945–8; 6. Consent as an organization weapon: coalition politics and the destruction of cooperation, 1948–58; 7. Consent destroyed: the decline and fall of General Motors, 1958–80; 8. Conclusion.

Promotional Information

This book examines the changes in General Motors' organization between 1924 and 1970.

About the Author

Robert F. Freeland is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin. He has published in the American Journal of Sociology and Business History Review, and is the recipient of the 1998 Social Science History Association's President's Book Prize for this book.

Reviews

'Undoubtedly, this is one of the most important books on organizations published over the last decade, one that will generate much-needed debate about a topic and a theory that should have been scrutinized a long time ago.' Mauro F. Guillen, American Journal of Sociology 'Elegantly framed within the overlapping literatures of the rise of the diversified corporate form (Alfred Chandler), transaction-cost economics (Oliver Williamson), and organizational sociology. The Struggle for Control of the Modern Corporation deftly critiques efficiency-based theories of the firm and focuses historical attention on the enduring tension between order and efficiency at the center of any business enterprise.' David Kirsh, Enterprise and Society 'A bold work of prodigious scholarship that deftly undermines orthodox accounts of the rise and the development of the largest U.S. corporation.' Walter W. Powell, Stanford University