This text is the first in a series sponsored by the "Administrative Science Quarterly", designed to focus and stimulate thinking on those areas of administrative science which have most profoundly shaped the development of organizational theory and behaviour.

Foreword - Christine Oliver and Linda Johanson Different Strokes - John Van Maanen Qualitative Research in the Administrative Science Quarterly from 1956 to 1996 PART ONE: STUDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESSES The Role of Expectations in Business Decision Making - R M Cyert,W R Dill and J G March Intense Loyalty in Organizations - Patricia A Adler and Peter Adler A Case Study of College Athletics In Search of Rationality - Ann Langley The Purposes behind the Use of Formal Analysis in Organizations PART TWO: STUDIES OF GROUPS IN ORGANIZATIONS The Macropolitics of Organizational Change - Robert E Cole A Comparative Analysis of the Spread of Small-Group Activities Tightening the Iron Cage - James R Barker Concertive Control in Self-Managing Work Teams Status Degradation and Organizational Succession - Robert P Gephart Jr An Ethnomethodological Approach PART THREE: STUDIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY AND CHANGE The Organizational Saga in Higher Education - Burton R Clark The Reluctant Organization and the Aggressive Environment - John Maniha and Charles Perrow From Evangelism to General Service - Mayer N Zald and Patricia Denton Wallace The Transformation of the YMCA The Creative-Destructive Process of Organizational Change - Nicole Woolsey Biggart The Case of the Post Office PART FOUR: STUDIES OF THE SOCIETAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENT Organizational Effectiveness and the Institutional Environment - Paul M Hirsch Authority,Organization and Societal Context in Multinational Churches - Reed E Nelson The Dynamics of Institutionalization - Petter Holm Transformation Processes in Norwegian Fisheries