Works
- Dimensions of organization structure, Administrative Science Quarterly 13(1), from p. 65, 1968
- Dimensions of organization structure and their context: a replication, Sociology 5(1), 83 to 93, 1971
- The organization structure of churches: a preliminary model, Sociology 7(1), 93 to 106, 1973
- The culture-free context of organization structure: a tri-national comparison, Sociology 8(1), 59 to 80, 1974
- "P2-form" strategic management: corporate practices in professional partnerships, Academy of Management Journal 33(4), 725 to 755, 1990
- Change in an autonomous professional organization, Journal of Management Studies 28(4), 375 to 393, 1991
- Configurational approaches to organizational analysis, Academy of Management Journal 36(6), 1175 to 1195, 1993
- Merging professional service firms, Organization Science 5(2), 239 to 257, 1994
- Understanding radical organizational change: bringing together the old and the new institutionalism, Academy of Management Review 21(4), 1022 to 1054, 1996
- Sedimentation and transformation in organizational change: the case of Canadian law firms, Organization Studies 17(4), 623 to 647, 1996
- 25 years of the professional partnership (P2) form: time to foreground its social purpose and herald the P3?, Journal of Professions and Organization 4(2), 112 to 122 (July 2017), 2017
In Organizational Structures
Known for
The Aston studies and institutional change
Ideas
Replicating the Aston dimensions. With Lee, Hinings replicated Pugh and colleagues' work on nine manufacturing organizations: specialization, formalization, and standardization formed one related group, related to size, and centralization and lack of autonomy formed another, related to dependence on other organizations, closely paralleling the original findings. Caveat: Nine organizations, a very small sample. Read in its abstract only.
Sedimentation of archetypes. In large Canadian law firms the managed professional business was layered on the partnership archetype rather than replacing it, leaving sedimented structures with competing commitments. Caveat: Two firms; Pinnington and Morris (2003) contested it with a survey of 197 law firms, and Kirkpatrick and Ackroyd (2003) criticized archetype theory itself.
The structure of churches. With Foster, Hinings proposed a model in which a church's belief system sets its operational goals, which shape its membership, size, and resources and through them its organization structure. Caveat: A preliminary conceptual model; the authors note that a model from organizational sociology would weigh resources more and beliefs less.
In this section, “read” means read by the Organizational Structures series: where a line says a work, or part of one, was not read, the series did not read it.