Works
- The dynamics of bureaucracy: a study of interpersonal relations in two government agencies, University of Chicago Press, 1955
- The hierarchy of authority in organizations, American Journal of Sociology 73(4), 453 to 467, 1968
- A formal theory of differentiation in organizations, American Sociological Review 35(2), from p. 201, 1970
In Organizational Structures
Known for
The comparative study of formal organizations
Ideas
Qualified staff and tall, decentralized hierarchies. Government agencies that required higher qualifications were more decentralized and had more supervisors, through narrower first-line spans and more levels; self-regulating operations turn squat, centralized structures into tall, decentralized ones. Caveat: Public agencies only; correlational.
Formal theory of differentiation. Blau proposed that increasing size raises structural differentiation at a declining rate and that differentiation enlarges the administrative component. Caveat: Inferred from research on United States employment security agencies and their subunits.