Contents -- Introduction: Organization Theory - A Contribution to Our Understanding of the Visible Hand -- Part I. Industrial Dynamics - Some General Problems -- 1. The World Productivity Growth Slump -- Some Explanations -- R&D, Technological Change, and Productivity -- What Went Wrong With R&D? -- Conclusion -- 2. Organizational Economy - The Politics of Unanimity and Suppressed Competition -- The Organizational Economy -- Some Systemic Phenomena -- Character Roles in the Organizational Economy -- The Politics of Unanimity and Suppressed Competition -- 3. Economic Growth and Decision-Making in Japan: The Duality of Visible and Invisible Guiding Hands -- Introduction -- Coping With Uncertainty: Behavior of Some Successful Populations in Highly Variable Environments -- Decision Processes in the Economic Domain in Japan: In Search of Basic Attributes -- Conclusion and Prognosis -- 4. Industry, Government and the Public - The Public Role of Big Corporations -- The Issue -- The Genesis of the Industrial Society -- The Response to Worker Unrest -- The Swedish Model -- Cracks in the Swedish Model -- The Collapse of the Swedish Model -- Structural Contradictions -- Government Industrial Policy -- Attempts to Salvage the Swedish Model -- Towards a New Swedish Model? -- 5. Mental Standardization and Industrial Development -- Introduction -- Theoretical Perspectives -- International Influences -- The Swedish National Level -- The Company Level -- Comment -- Part II. Industrial Development - Interrelations Between the Private and the Public Sector -- 6. Governmental Influence Upon Decision Making in Organizations in the Private and Public Sectors in Britain -- Introduction -- Sample and Data Collection -- Governmental Influence -- 7. Industrial Policy - Control and Dependence in a Systems Perspective -- Politics and Economics - Power and Efficiency.

Industrial Policy and Institutional Economics -- Society - A System Without a Power Center -- Industrial Policy - A Political Instrument of Control? -- Industrial Policy - Dependence and Control of Resources -- The Whole - Responsibility and Meaning -- 8. Industrial Policy as Implementation or Legitimation -- Society as Hierarchy -- Can the State Control Industry? -- The Will to Control - Implementation or Legitimation -- A Summary -- 9. Innovation in Industrial Policy Sectors - The Cases of Remote Sensing and Bioenergy -- Background -- An Interorganizational Approach to the Promotion of Industrial Development -- Data -- Remote Sensing -- Bioenergy -- A Comparative Analysis of the two Policy Sectors -- Conclusions -- 10. Politics in Business - The Interaction Between Environment and Strategy Formulation -- Background and Approach to Politics in Strategic Action -- Politics in Strategy - Approaches and Theories -- Empirical Background to the Analyses -- Summary and Conclusions -- Part III. Strategies for Industrial Development -- 11. Leadership for New Business Conditions -- New Business Conditions -- Implications for Business and Management -- The Role of Leadership -- Leaders -- The Dynamics of Business Development -- The Dynamics of Management Development -- 12. Innovation Management in Diversified Corporations: Problems of Organization -- Introduction -- Positioning the Firm -- Determining the Position of the Firm -- Conclusions -- 13. Strategic Product Exit - The Organizing of Product Disinvestment -- Desinvestment in the Schumpeterian World -- The Andersson Corporation -- Strategic Problems and Decision-Making -- The Phases of Corporate Development -- Stopping in Time - An Entrepreneurial Skill -- Empirical Data -- Prescriptions for Systematic Product Withdrawals -- 14. The Impact of Electronic Communications on Organizations -- Introduction.

The Design of Communications -- Communications and Human Interaction -- Electronic Communications and Power -- Conclusion -- 15. Third World, Third Wave? On the Information Society as a Model for Developing Countries -- Background -- Underdeveloped, Developing, and Industrialized Nations -- The Real Price of Oil -- Hardware, Software, Know-Ware -- Must There be a Second Wave? -- C & C and 3 W -- Brave New Third World -- Part IV. Research and Change -- 16. How We Decide and How We Act - On the Assumptions of Viking Organization Theory -- Introduction -- Managerial Practice -- Decision -- Action -- Talk -- Talk, Decision and Action -- Legitimacy, Rationality and Responsibility -- Making Sense of Viking Life -- 17. Theories of Making Choice and Making Decisions -- Rational Choice -- Uncertainty and Ambiguity -- Conflict -- Rules -- Disorder -- Symbols -- Information and Implications -- 18. A Philosophy of Rationalization - The Polish Praxiology of T. Kotarbinsky -- Introduction -- Economy Versus Production -- Elements of Efficient Action -- Values of Efficient Action -- Economization of Action -- Instruments of Action -- Organization of Action -- Meta-Values of Efficient Action -- 19. Towards a Control Theory of the Firm -- Introduction -- The Firm -- Developing the Plan -- Establishing Targets -- Comparision of Actual and Targets -- Control Actions -- Methodological Implications -- Implications of the Control Approach -- Summary -- 20. Why the World Needs Organizational Design -- Do Organizations Need to be Designed? -- Would Design Benefit Science? -- Is Design Practical Today? -- Walter Goldberg's Biography -- The Authors.