cost of war Essay -- essays research papers fc

The total cost of the war in Iraq is now above 161 billion dollars and is still rising. That is an incredible amount of money that is organism put forth to fight an ongoing war against insurgents in Iraq. This money could potentially be put toward finding a solution to some of the Statess more personal issues, such as the declining amount of government money in schools, the increasing number of people being diagnosed with AIDS, and the increasing pauperism level. Putting money towards finding solutions to these issues would make America a better place to live. Many schools are being closed down every course of instruction due to the drop of money being put into those schools. Some of the money spent on the war could be allocated for these schools in order to keep them open. For example, by and by the Board of Education announced that thirty-four public schools would close by next fall the executive vice-president, Virginia Cantrell, of the Detroit Federation of Teachers said, W e are in a crisis (Rummel rack up 2). Cantrell said the loss of more than half of the citys population in the past thirty years and the growth of charter schools leaves fewer students in the public school system (Rummel par 2). In addition to keeping the schools open, the money would also help stop other problems such as the lack of teachers and poor teacher-student ratios. In November of 2000, students at Guy Benjamin Elementary School were sent home after the teachers who showed up left(McCracken par 1). The school closed at 1130 when the principal had only three staff members remaining to supervise more than 100 students (McCracken par 2). The teachers were striking because of inadequate pay. The Territorial judicial system Judge ended the three week strike by ordering the teachers to come back to work (McCracken par 3). The money used for the war could be allotted to pay teachers more money to keep the people who currently are teachers and as an incentive to get more people to become teachers. This would hand the problem of people not wanting to become teachers solely because teachers do not make enough money. Furthermore, the money could be used to buy inevitable supplies. Many schools do not have sufficient amounts of books or computers, if any, that are in good condition. The money could also be used to renovate grey schools that are in bad condition. Stu... ... such as the budget and social security could benefit from money used for the war in Iraq. Devoting money to closure these problems would not only help solve these problems but would have an effect on Americas overall well being. The bottom line is that on that point is an enormous amount of money being used to fight this war and if the money was used more efficiently, it could not only be used for the war but also be used for the wars that Americans currently battle everyday at home.Works CitedJeanie Lerche Davis. CDC HIV/AIDS Statistics Up in America. WebMDHealth. 28July, 2003. WebMD. 1 4 April 2005. McCracken, David. Benjamin School closes for lack of teachers. World HistoryArchives. 8 November 2000. Hartford Web Publishing. 14 April 2005. .Rummel John. Devastating school closings hit Detroit. Peoples Weekly World. 14April 2005. Peoples Weekly World Newspaper. 14 April 2005. .Siddiqi, Samana. Statistics on poverty & food wastage in America. SoundVision.com.26 April 2004. Islamic selective information & Products. 14 April 2005. .The War in Iraq Costs. Cost of War. April, 2003. National Priorities Project. 14 April2005. .

Love and Death :: Essays Papers

Love and Death Love and closing are often associated with each new(prenominal) in artistic depictions of human existence. In movies love is sometimes said to be the only thing worth living for. In Christian literature death has been prophesized as the release from this hard world and the gateway to a world of ultimate peace and love. Sherwood Anderson in his book Winesburg, Ohio, changes the expected metaphor or connection between death and love. In both stories Tom Willard plays a minimal part. He does however give an example of the connection between death and love in his own distorted manner. Tom prides himself, falsely, on the notion that he is an important man around town. He has always envisioned himself acclivitous up in the political scene in Winesburg, or even becoming Governor. His wife, Elizabeth Willard is like death to him. In his mind, she looms over his dreams casting a rear that he blames for his meager existence. In the story mother, he describ es her presence to be ghostly and when he thinks of her he swears angrily (39). Sometimes when he is out in the street he turns to look behind him suddenly as if her ghost and the spirit of the hotel were their casting their shadow on him even in the streets. Tom connects Elizabeth and the hotel to his softness to find success. His life is dominated by the affairs of the shabby hotel. The hotel is a legacy of Elizabeths fathers she walks around in the hotel like its her coffin. So for Tom their presence is a reminder of his uneventful life. They are represent the death of his hopes and dreams. He at one point says, Damn such a life, damn it (39), in a context that places blame on Elizabeth and the hotel. It is as if with the death of Elizabeth you might see Tom picturing himself selling the hotel, and sledding to Ohios capital to become serious statesman.In Mother, Elizabeth is looking for a different kind of liberation. Elizabeths dreams for her own life have long past died. Yet she clings to life for the sake of one thought. She is trying to ensure that her son (George Willard) does not become a lifeless thing like herself.

Television and Media - Family Life With, and Without TV :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Family Life With, and Without TVJust intimately everyone in the United States owns and watches television. Consequently, weve become accustomed to a fairly predictable and dull home life. both working day, we come home, pick up the mail, switch on the TV. Every night, we cook dinner, clean up the kitchen, watch some TV. Every week break, we do the shopping, finish the chores, and settle in to watch a movie. And why not? Its relaxing to hunker down on the sofa at the end of a tiring day and it doesnt generate any energy to flip through the channels with the remote control in one hand and a bowl of buttered popcorn in the other. In my family, we grew up with the TV on. Every weekend, we watched Gunsmoke and Bonanza together as a family. Every year, we made special treats for the wiz of Oz. I wouldnt have developed my love for cooking if I hadnt watched Graham Kerr as the Galloping Gourmet every day after school. I was hooked on Drawing With John Nagy and years later grad uated from Kendall College of Art and Design. Television isnt all bad. It placates us and creates a comfortable background while we take bang of business at home and when were tired it lulls us to sleep. TV is a companion for the elderly and a convenient babysitter for the young. It makes burglars think were home when were not. It entertains us cheaply with live action sports, incomparable performing arts and singular events of the world all in living color. It educates us about everything from the cells in our be to the galaxies in the universe. Besides, what would life be like without TV? Could we stand the silence? How would we relax? What would we do with so much time on our hands? Lets take a look at how the average American family might react in a sudden shift to life without TV. Mr. and Mrs. Jones decide to unplug the TV and put it in the garage starting Monday night. They want the family to spend more quality time together. No one takes Mom and Dad seriously an d the family jokes about it all weekend. Theres a little tension in the air Monday night.

There is More to Vikings than Violence Essay -- essays research papers

History typically describes the Vikings as the fiercest, most brutal of all the barbarian groups that invaded Europe. Historians agree that the Vikings were fierce, but was there more to them than that.The word Viking has been used to unwrap people who lived in Sweden, Norway and Denmark in early medieval times. In the language Old Norse, Viking means pirate. Sometimes they were kn give birth as Northmen or Danes. The Vikings shared a similar heritage as the Saxons, a group of people who had previously invaded Britain. The Vikings sailed to separate foreign countries because they werent able to do galore(postnominal) profitable things in their own homes. The soil was infertile, and the land was rocky and covered in ice and snow for most of the year. The Vikings also wanted to leave their homes because they marvelled at the prospect of adventure, trade and plunder. umpteen simply sailed to foreign lands for the summer, raiding villages and killing those within them and them return ing home for the rest of the year. However, some chose to settle in the lands that they raided. The Vikings travelled extensively across the Baltic, erosive and Mediterranean Seas. The Vikings of Denmark and Norway sailed England, Ireland, France, Greenland, Iceland and North America (Vinland) and some settled there. The Vikings of Sweden resettle in Russia. There was a lot more to the Vikings than their reputation would suggest. For example, Vikings had their own beliefs and religion. Before the Vikings resettled in other countries, they had their own religious beliefs and worshipped many different gods. The stories they told are known as ?Norse Myths?. The majority of them are about competitions among the gods and giants. The god of thunder, Thor, who was also ... .... There is clear evidence to suggest that Vikings were not purely bloodthirsty. The Vikings contained some passion and a feeling of ?servant-ness?, as they worshipped many gods. Thor was the most popular Viking g od, but some Vikings converted to Christianity after resettling in Britain. The Vikings enjoyed being well dressed but images of bloodthirsty villains don?t a great deal look elegant. Vikings hardly had enough food, so they had to be very frugal with it. If they were so bloodthirsty, they would probably just go and steal the food from their neighbours.This substantial get along of evidence obviously shows that Vikings were seen as bloodthirsty outside their homeland and acted viciously towards foreigners. However, at home, they led normal lives like people living in Britain and other countries in that era and loved and cared for each other as we still do today.

Hamlet as Antihero in Shakespeares Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet as Antihero By literary definition, an antihero is the hero of the play or novel, but has negative attributes that separate him or her from the classic hero such as Superman. Such negative aspects whitethorn include a violent nature, use of coarse language, or self-serving interests which may inadvertently depict the protagonist as a hero since the result of serving those interests may be the betterment of society or an environment. In William Shakespeares Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, is interpret as an antihero. One factor contributing to Hamlets status as antihero is that he draws sympathy, as well as admiration, from the reader since Hamlet feels the torture of losing his father along with the burden and obstacles in avenging his murder. Act four places a special emphasis on Hamlets intelligence. In scene two, Hamlet is very flip and rude towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with such phrases as, That I can keep your counsel and not, mine own. Beside, to be deman ded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king (IV, ii, 12-14)? The reference to the sponge reflects the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are easily ordered by the king and do not have minds of their own. Hamlet does not bid Rosencrantz and Guildenstern since they are servants of the Claudius, Hamlets mortal enemy. The reader does not like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern either which causes the reader to side with Hamlet. Another incident of Hamlets high intelligence is shown when he Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I am glad of it a knavish sleeps in a foolish ear (IV, i, 24-25). This statement leaves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern more or less confused. Hamlet is clearly more clever than the two of them combined and is able to toy with them. Hamlet has an excellent command of the language and because of it, can use words to the point that those around him entrust not understand and may label him as crazy. Hamlet shows another example of hi s cleverness, this time towards Claudius, when he says, I see a cherub that sees them. But, come for England Farewell, sound mother (IV, iii, 49-50). The cherub, or the angel, gives Hamlet a sense of superiority over Claudius. Having an angel at ones side would be a definite sign of power, which is on the dot what Hamlet tries to maintain over Claudius in their constant power struggle.

Hamlet as Antihero in Shakespeares Hamlet :: GCSE Coursework Shakespeare Hamlet

Hamlet as Anti zep By literary definition, an antihero is the hero of the play or novel, but has negative attributes that separate him or her from the classic hero such(prenominal) as Superman. Such negative aspects may include a violent nature, use of coarse language, or self-serving interests which may inadvertently read the protagonist as a hero since the result of serving those interests may be the betterment of society or an environment. In William Shakespeares Hamlet, the protagonist, Hamlet, is depicted as an antihero. whizz factor contributing to Hamlets status as antihero is that he draws sympathy, as well as admiration, from the reader since Hamlet feels the pain of losing his father on with the burden and obstacles in avenging his murder. Act four places a special emphasis on Hamlets intelligence. In scene devil, Hamlet is very insolent and rude towards Rosencrantz and Guildenstern with such phrases as, That I can keep your counsel and not, mine own. Beside, to be demanded of a sponge, what replication should be made by the son of a king (IV, ii, 12-14)? The course credit to the sponge reflects the fact that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are easily ordered by the king and do not have minds of their own. Hamlet does not like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern since they are servants of the Claudius, Hamlets soulfulness enemy. The reader does not like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern either which causes the reader to side with Hamlet. Another incident of Hamlets high intelligence is shown when he Hamlet tells Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, I am flag of it a knavish sleeps in a foolish ear (IV, i, 24-25). This statement leaves Rosencrantz and Guildenstern more or less confused. Hamlet is clearly more clever than the two of them combined and is able to toy with them. Hamlet has an excellent command of the language and because of it, can use words to the point that those around him will not get a line and may label him as crazy. Hamlet shows another example of his cleverness, this time towards Claudius, when he says, I see a cherub that sees them. But, come for England Farewell, dear mother (IV, iii, 49-50). The cherub, or the angel, gives Hamlet a sense of superiority over Claudius. Having an angel at ones side would be a definite sign of power, which is exactly what Hamlet tries to contain over Claudius in their constant power struggle.

Presentation and Role of Religion in Chronicle of a Death Foretold Essay

Chronicle of a Death Foretold is set in Columbia, where the extreme theocentricity means every characters actions are per se affected by theology. Whilst Marquez also explores much deeper religious issues, the action of the novel centres on the God-fearing townsfolkspeople allowing the murder of capital of Chile Nasar, which clearly contradicts the messiahian formula Thou shalt not decimate1 Since female virginity is so venerated in the Catholic faith, when Santiago is accused of taking Angela Vicarios virginity, her life would be unsatisfying without it, and Angelas brothers are charged with redeeming her honour.The novel can boil down to the assertion that a objet dart died because of the teaching of both the Catholic Church, and the engraft paganistic values that are subliminally prioritised. The novel presents characters using religion to give meaning to their lives, and Marquez satirises this affair accordingly2. Evidence of Marquezs satire of religions malfunctioning role is If God hadnt rested on Sunday, he would have had time to finish the world. 3There is a subtle sense that Marquez hopes to probe and get the indorsers opinions on religion by displaying both sides of the argument in his characters those that are superstitious, and those who are religious. In practice, most characters are of both camps, which points to a mockery of religion. The theme of mockery is perhaps the strongest idea relating to religion to be conveyed by the novel. As an atheist, Marquez appears dedicated to accentuating the hypocrisies of the Catholic Church, saying himself, Fiction was invented the day Jonas arrived category and told his wife he was three days late because he had been swallowed by a whale.4 This satirical quote highlights Marquezs belief in the fraud of the Church, even from its conception strongly suggesting the whole business is fraudulent. Marquezs use of Christian references and symbolism lend a deeper meaning to the text, implicating the characters and events at a subtextual level. The majority of the characters names are theological, however it is more than revealing to note some of the names that do not hold religious connotations, such(prenominal) as Placida Linero5, who is a well known (dream) interpreter6, and Luisa Santiaga, a notorious precognitive.These are two older members of the community who prioritise superstition and the paranormal everywhere religion therefore indicating a revival of paganism. Perhaps Marquez is suggesting that paganism is constantly just beneath the surface of South American culture, since honour is a last of paganism which has survived colonisation and the introduction of Catholicism. That religious authorities were powerless to stop Santiagos murder (even if they had wanted to) indicates that the underlying pagan culture is the stronger.A fascinating double standard is the town prostitute, Maria Alejandrina Cervantes, in whom Marquez has chosen to represent the Virgin Mary, the most pure and chaste woman. This character maternally mourns Santiagos death. In fact, Marias role extends far beyond prostitution. Although she did away with our (Santiagos) generations virginity7, she is described as apostolic, and is repeatedly reported as having taught the young males crucial lessons about marriage, love and life. The character that ran about the town minutes onward Santiagos death, attempting to warn him is Cristo Bedoya.Cristo means bearer of Christ in a sense, Cristo bears the burden of Santiagos death. Santiagos ranch, the Divine Face is almost a pun, cosmos a derivation of the verbiage Divine Countenance, which means the Face of God. Perhaps a further mockery of Catholicism is the idea that the Face of God was passed on by an Arab (who, presumably, was not Christian). The significance of these Biblical names is to enable the reader, especially a Western reader, a reference point, since they will already be familiar with the theological implications, but unfamiliar with the South American culture.The reader will also discern the scores of parallels able to be drawn between Santiago and savior Christ, making Santiago a literary Christ-figure. Both were somewhat outcast, in Santiagos case because he was not a native Columbian. This makes it easier for the town to allow Santiagos death, and make him the scapegoat. The towns unwillingness to save Santiago is similar to the Jews choosing to have Jesus killed rather than a murderer. In both cases, those who had the chance to save the innocent man felt terrible afterwards.Jesus had foretold his own death, and although Santiago was blissfully unaware of his demise until it befell him, the narrator states never was there a death more foretold. In dying for the sake of Angela Vicarios honour, Santiago is sacrificed for the sins of others, which was also Jesus purpose in dying. In addition, the sevensome fatal wounds Santiago suffers probably represent the Seven Deadly sins. Even the way i n which Santiago was murdered is akin to the Romans killing of Jesus. The knife went done the palm of his right hand and then sank into his side up to the hilt.8 The Romans ensured their victims were dead by stabbing them in the side, their hands having been pierced by being nailed to the crucifix. Incidentally, the Vicarios knives kept coming out clean9, which denotes Santiagos innocence. This is amplified by his Christ-like appearance that day, dressed in white. Finally, since Santiago eventually dies in the kitchen, this could reflect the come across of eating the body of Christ in the Catholic mass. Since the chronicle is written twenty-seven years after Santiagos death, the reader is able to key out with a degree of objectivity the affect it had on the townspeoples lives.One in particular is the town mayor, Colonel Lazaro Aponte, who as a result of the contingency became a spiritualist. 10 His faith was not the only characters to falter under the strain of justifying murder . In fact, the faith of the older generation seemed already to have dwindled, as is notable in Placida and Luisa. The younger generation, including the narrator and Angela follow suit, as Angela states The only thing I prayed to God for was to give me the courage to kill myselfbut he didnt give it to me.11 She also resents the gluttony of the Church12, asserting that she didnt want to be blessed by a man who only cut off the combs for soup and threw the rest of the rooster in the garbage. 13 Angelas radical discontent with the Church is presumably Marquezs prompting of a wider disillusionment with religion, line to seep through the more contemplative members of the novels characters, and perhaps even the real South American people. The mean waste that Angela refers to is part of a much wider hypocritical routine.This includes the mechanical14 blessing the Bishop bestows upon the town as he passes by, not bothering even to stop the sauceboat to greet his flock. This event indicate s the Church has long-since ceased to be a charitable establishment, and is now effectively a totalitarian state. One under the directive of the Bishop was the narrators sister My sister the nun, who wasnt going to wait for the bishop because she had an eighty-proof hangover. 15 In addition, the juxtaposition of the Virgin Marys name with the local prostitute, who lives in a house with open doors16 presents an appalling blasphemy.These two representations go beyond mockery of Catholicism, and enter into sacrilege. Finally, Father Amador says plainly that the Vicario twins are perhaps (innocent) before God17. This embodies the ultimate corruption of the values of the Church to condone murder and to profess the twins innocence directly contradicts the word of the Bible, and critically impairs his pastoral role. The non-linear vogue of the novel revolves constantly around Santiagos death, (Theyve already killed him. 18 and whose sentence has always been written.19) With each revoluti on of the spiral story, more detail is displayed and more characters recollections revealed. This constant reminder to the reader that Santiago will die, as opposed to a linear story with a final climax, simulates the nature of the killing, with the entire town aware. By placing the reader in the position of those who share in the guilt for Santiagos death (who (pour) in to testify without having been summoned20), Marquez succeeds in making the reader uneasy, and therefore challenge the morality of the culture and the religion that dictates it, as well as their own nature.The guilty conscience the reader develops cannot be laid to rest, due(p) to the unresolved and ever-present death achieved by the non-linear style. Marquez uses characters to present arguments regarding attitudes towards life, and the religion that presides over them. In particular the rejection of religion in favour of the more traditional paganism, which is beginning to seep through the Columbian society, despit e religions stranglehold. By Marquezs characters sharing their opinions, the reader in turn considers his own stance and questions religions role, which is no doubt Marquezs objective.It can be assumed that any reader of the novel would also reach Marquezs satirical perceptiveness of the role of religion. Bibliography The Bible. King James Version. 1769 Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Chronicle of a Death Foretold. London, Penguin Books, 2007 http//www. goodreads. com/quotes. 2012 Goodreads Inc. Mar G. Berg, Repitions and Reflections in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, atomic number 20 Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California. http//authors. library. caltech. edu/18939/1/HumsWP-0110. pdf

Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth

Institutionalized Organizations baronial Structure as allegory and ceremony Author(s) John W. Meyer and Brian rowan Re put oned work(s) Source Ameri dismiss Journal of Sociology, Vol. 83, No. 2 (Sep. , 1977), pp. 340-363 published by The University of Chicago Press Stable URL http//www. jstor. org/stable/2778293 . Accessed 25/01/2012 1410 Your do of the JSTOR archive indic consumes your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http//www. jstor. org/page/info/about/policies/terms. jspJSTOR is a non-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discoer, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For to a greater bound information about JSTOR, please contact emailprotected org. The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and cover access to Ameri enkindle Journal of S ociology. http//www. jstor. orgInstitutionalized Organizations Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremonyl John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan Stanford University Many starchy physical compositional structures vacate as reflections of rationalized institutional rules. The expanding upon of such rules in advanced(a) states and societies accounts in take a intermit for the expansion and increased labyrinthianness of musket ball organisational structures. Institutional rules function as myths which arrangingsincorporate,gaining legitimacy, re writers, stability, and deepen survival prospects.Organizations whose structures become isomorphic with the myths of the institutional environment-in contrast with those earlier structured by the demands of technical production and step in-decrease inwrought coordination and control in order to follow legitimacy. Structures argon decoupled from to each one different and from ongoing activities. In place of coordination, limited review, and evaluation, a logic of confidence and good faith is employed. Formal organizations atomic be 18 generally lowstood to be systems of prep ard and controlled activities that arise when work is embedded in complex ne bothrks of technical transaction and boundary-spanningexchanges.But in recent societies semiformal organizational structures arise in extremely institutionalize contexts. Professions, policies, and programs be crapd on with the products and services that they atomic number 18 understoodto producerationally. This permits more than new organizations to spring up and forces going ones to incorporatenew practices and procedures. That is, organizations atomic number 18 driven to incorporate the practices and procedures defined by familiar rationalizedconcepts of organizationalwork and transfer in caller.Organizationsthat do so increase their legitimacy and their survival prospects, independent of the immediate efficacy of the acquired practices and procedures . Institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs function as powerful myths, and umteen organizations adopt them honoringly. But conformity to send rules often conflicts sharply 1 Work on this paper was conducted at the Stanford Center for research and Development in Teaching (SCRDT) and was supported by the National Institute of Education (contract no. NE-C-00-3-0062). The views expressed here do not, of course, reflect NIE positions.Many colleagues in the SCRDT, the Stanford Organizations Training Program, the American sociological Associations work group on Organizations and Environments, and the NIE gave help and encouragement. In grammatical constituenticular, H. Acland, A. Bergesen, J. Boli-Bennett, T. Deal, J. Freeman, P. Hirsch, J. G. March, W. R. Scott, and W. Starbuck made helpful suggestions. 340 AJS Volume 83 Number 2 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony with energy criteria and, conversely, to coordinate and control activity in order to p romote efficiency undermines an organizations notice conformityand sacrificesits support and legitimacy.To maintain ceremonial conformity, organizationsthat reflect institutional rules tend to buffer their formal structures from the uncertainties of technical activities by becoming loosely coupled, building gaps amongst their formal structures and actual work activities. This paper argues that the formal structures of just about(prenominal) organizations in industrial society (Bell 1973) dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environments instead of the demands of their work activities.The first part describes rife theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem the theories confront. The second part discusses an alternative source of formal structuresmyths embeddedin the institutional environment. The third part develops the argument that organizations reflecting institutionalise environments maintain gaps surrounded by their formal structure s and their ongoing work activities. The final part summarizes by discussing rough researchimplications. Throughout the paper, institutionalized rules atomic number 18 distinguished sharply from prevailing social behaviors.Institutionalized rules are classifications built into society as reciprocated typifications or interpretations (Berger and Luckmann 1967, p. 54). such(prenominal)(prenominal) rules whitethorn be simply taken for granted or may be supported by common opinion or the force of justness (Starbuck 1976). Institutions inevitably involve normative obligations but often enter into social life primarily as facts which moldiness be taken into account by actors. Institutionalization involves the shapeesby which social processes, obligations, or actualities come to take on a rulelike status in social thought and action.So, for example, the social status of twist is a super institutionalized rule ( twain normative and cognitive) for managing illness as well as a socia l role made up of particular behaviors, sexual congresss, and expectations. Research and growth is an institutionalized category of organizationalactivity which has meaning and value in some(prenominal) sectors of society, as well as a collection of actual research and development activities. In a smaller counselling, a No Smoking sign is an institution with legal status and implications, as well as an attempt to regulate bullet behavior.It is fundamental to the argument of this paper that institutional rules may have effectuate on organizational structures and their implementationin actual technical work which are very various from the effects contractd by the networks of social behavior and relationshipswhich compose and surrounda given organization. PREVAILING THEORIES OF FORMAL STRUCTURE A sharp distinction should be made between the formal structure of an organization and its actual day-to-day work activities. Formal structure is 341American Journal of Sociology a blu eprint for activities which includes, first of all, the table of organization a listing of offices, departments, positions, and programs. These elements are linked by explicit goals and policies that stain up a rational theory of how, and to what end, activities are to be fitted together. The essence of a modern bureaucratic organization lies in the rationalized and impersonal character of these morphologic elements and of the goals that link them.One of the central problems in organization theory is to describe the conditions that give rise to rationalized formal structure. -In conventional theories, rational formal structure is assumed to be the most effective trend to coordinate and control the complex relational networks involved in modern technical or work activities (see Scott 1975 for a review). This assumption derives from Webers (1930, 1946, 1947) discussions of the historical emergence of bureaucraciesas consequencesof scotch markets and centralized states. Economic ma rkets place a premium on rationality and coordination.As markets expand, the relational networks in a given domain become more complex and variousiated, and organizationsin that domain essential manage more congenital and boundary-spanning interdependencies. such factors as size (Blau 1970) and technology (Woodward 1965) increasethe complexity of internal relations, and the division of labor among p organizationsincreasesboundary-spanning roblems (Aiken and Hage 1968 Freeman 1973Thompson 1967). Because the need for coordinationincreases under these conditions, and because formally coordinated work has warlike advantages, organizations with rationalized formal structures tend to develop.The formation of centralized states and the penetration of societies by political centers in any case contribute to the rise and spreadof formal organization. When the relational networks involved in economic exchange and political managementbecome extremely complex,bureaucraticstructuresare th ought to be the most effective and rational means to standardize and control subunits. Bureaucratic control is in particular effectual for expanding political centers, and standardizationis often demanded by some(prenominal) centers and peripheral units (Bendix 1964, 1968).Political centers organize layers of offices that manage to extend conformity and to displace traditional activities throughout societies. a The problem. revailingtheoriesassumethatthe coordination nd controlof P h activityare the criticaldimensionson whichformal organizations avesucceeded in the modern world. This assumption is based on the view that organizations function according to their formal blueprints coordination is routine, rules and proceduresare followed, and actual activities conform to the prescriptions of formal structure. But much of the empirical research on organizations casts doubt on this assumption.An earlier generation of researchers concluded that there was a great gap between the formal and the sluttish organization (e. g. , Dalton 1959 Downs 1967 Homans 1950). A related 342 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony observation is that formal organizations are often loosely coupled (March and Olsen 1976 Weick 1976) geomorphological elements are only loosely linked to each other and to activities, rules are often violated, decisions are often unimplemented, or if implemented have uncertain consequences, technologies are of problematic efficiency, and evaluation and inspection systems are ubverted or renderedso vague as to provide little coordination. Formal organizations are endemic in modern societies. at that place is need for an explanation of their rise that is uncompletely free from the assumption that, in practice, formal structures truly coordinate and control work. Such an explanation should account for the elaboration of purposes, positions, policies, and procedural rules that characterizes formal organizations, but must do so without supposingthat these structuralfeatures are implemented in routine work activity. INSTITUTIONAL SOURCES OF FORMAL STRUCTUREBy focusing on the management of complex relational networks and the exercise of coordination and control, prevailing theories have neglected an alternative Weberian source of formal structure the legitimacy of rationalized formal structures. In prevailing theories, legitimacy is a given arguments about bureaucratization rest on the assumption of norms of rationality (Thompson 1967). When norms do meet causal roles in theories of bureaucratization,it is because they are thought to be built into modern societies and personalities as very general values, which are thought to facilitate formal organization.But norms of rationality are not simply general values. They exist in much more specific and powerful ship canal in the rules, understandings, and meanings attached to institutionalized social structures. The causal importance of such institutions in the process of bureaucratizatio nhas been neglected. Formalstructures are not only creaturesof their relationalnetworksin the social organization. In modern societies, the elements of rationalizedformal structure are deeply ingrained in, and reflect, widespreadunderstandingsof social reality.Many of the positions, policies, programs, and proceduresof modern organizations are compel by public opinion, by the views of important constituents, by knowledge legitimated through the educational system, by social prestige, by the laws, and by the definitions of negligence and prudence used by the courts. Such elements of formal structure are manifestations of powerful institutional rules which function as highly rationalized myths that are binding on particular organizations. In modern societies, the myths generatingformal organizationalstructure have two key properties.First, they are rationalized and impersonal prescriptions that identify various social purposes as technical ones and specify in a rulelike way the appro priatemeans to stick to these technical purposes 343 American Journal of Sociology rationally (Ellul 1964). Second, they are highly institutionalized and thus in some measure beyond the discretion of any various(prenominal) participant or organization. They must, therefore,be taken for granted as legitimate, apart from evaluations of their jolt on work outcomes. Many elements of formal structure are highly institutionalized and function as myths.Examplesincludeprofessions,programs,and technologies Large numbers of rationalized professions emerge (Wilensky 1965 Bell 1973). These are occupations controlled, not only by direct inspection of work outcomes but in any case by social rules of licensing, certifying, and schooling. The occupations are rationalized, being understood to control impersonal techniques rather than moral mysteries. Further, they are highly institutionalized the delegation of activities to the appropriate occupations is socially expected and often legally obli gatory over and above any calculations of its efficiency.Many formalized organizational programs are likewise institutionalized in society. Ideologies define the functions appropriateto a business-such as sales, production, advertising, or accounting to a university-such as instruction and research in history, engineering, and literature and to a hospital-such as surgery, internal medicine, and obstetrics. Such classifications of organizational functions, and the specifications for conducting each function, are prefabricated formulae available for use by any given organization. Similarly, technologies are institutionalized and become myths binding on organizations.Technical procedures of production, accounting, personnel selection, or entropy treat become taken-for-granted means to accomplish organizational ends. Quite apart from their possible efficiency, such institutionalized techniques establish an organization as appropriate, rational, and modern. Their use displays responsi bility and avoids claims of negligence. The impact of such rationalized institutional elements on organizations and organizing situations is enormous. These rules define new organizing situations, redefineexisting ones, and specify the means for coping rationally with each.They enable, and often require, participants to organize along prescribedlines. And they spread very quick in modern society as part of the rise of postindustrial society (Bell 1973). crude and extant domains of activity are codifiedin institutionalizedprograms,professions,or techniques, and organizationsincorporatethe packaged codes. For example The hold in of psychology creates a rationalized theory of personnel selection and certifies personnel professionals. Personnel departments and functionaries appear in all sorts of extant organizations, and new surplusized personnel agencies also appear.As programs of research and development are created and professionals with expertise in these fields are trained and defined, organizations come under increasing pressure to incorporate R & D units. As the prerational profession of prostitution is rationalized along medical lines, bureaucratized organizations-sex-therapy clinics, massage parlors, and the like-spring up more easily. As the issues of safety and environmental pollution arise, and as relevant 344 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony i a b professions nd programs ecomeinstitutionalizedn laws, unionideologies, t nd public opinion,organizationsncorporate hese programsand profesi sions. The growth of rationalized institutional structures in society makes formal organizations more common and more elaborated. Such institutions are myths which make formal organizationsboth easier to create and more necessary. After all, the building blocks for organizationscome to be littered round the societal landscape it takes only a little entrepreneurialenergy to assemble them into a structure. And because these building blocks are considered proper , adequate, rational, and necessary, organizations must incorporate them to avoid illegitimacy.Thus, the myths built into rationalized institutional elements create the necessity, the opportunity, and the impulse to organize rationally, over and above pressures in this direction created by the need to manage proximate relational networks Proposition 1. As rationalizedinstitutionalrules arise in given domains of f work activity,formal organizations orm and expand by incorporatingthese rules as structuralelements. Two distinct ideas are implied here (1A) As institutionalized myths define new domains of rationalized activity, formal organizationsemerge in these domains. iB) As rationalizing institutional myths arise in existing domains of activity, extant organizationsexpand their formal structures so as to become isomorphicwith these new myths. To understandthe erectrhistorical process it is useful to personal line of credit that Proposition 2. The more modernizedthe society, the mo re extendedthe i rationalizedinstitutionalstructure n given domainsand the greaterthe number of domainscontainingrationalizedinstitutions. Modern institutions, then, are thoroughly rationalized, and these rationalized elements act as myths giving rise to more formal organization.When propositions 1 and 2 are combined, two more specific ideas follow (2A) Formalorganizationsare more possible to emergein more modernizedsocieties, even with the complexity of immediate relational networks held constant. (2B) Formal organizationsin a given domain of activity are likely to have more elaborated structures in more modernized societies, even with the complexity of immediate relational networks held constant. Combiningthe ideas above with prevailingorganizationtheory, it becomes clear that modern societies are filled with rationalizedbureaucraciesfor two reasons. First, as the prevailing theories have asserted, relational etworks become increasingly complex as societies modernize. Second, mod ern societies are filled with institutional rules which function as myths depicting various formal structures as rational means to the attainment of loveable ends. Figure 1 summarizes these two lines of theory. Both lines suggest that the postindustrial society-the society dominated by rational organization even more than by the forces of production-arises both out of the 345 American Journal of Sociology The prevalence of rationalized institutional elements The presence and elaboration of formal organizational structures Societal Societal odernization The complexity of networks of social organization and exchange FIG. 1. -The origins and elaboration of formal organizational structures complexity of the modern social organizationalnetwork and, more directly, as an ideologicalmatter. Once institutionalized, rationality becomes a myth with explosive organizingpotential, as both Ellul (1964) and Bell (1973)though with rather different reactions-observe. The Relation of Organizationsto Their Institutional Environments The observationis not new that organizationsare structuredby phenomena in their environments and tend to become isomorphic with them.One explanation of such isomorphism is that formal organizations become matched with their environmentsby technical and exchange interdependencies. This line of reasoning can be seen in the works of Aiken and Hage (1968), Hawley (1968), and Thompson (1967). This explanation asserts that structural elements diffuse because environments create boundary-spanning exigencies for organizations, and that organizations which incorporate structural elements isomorphic with the environment are able to manage such interdependencies.A second explanation for the parallelismbetween organizations and their environments-and the one emphasized here-is that organizations structurally reflect socially constructed reality (Berger and Luckmann 1967). This view is suggested in the work of Parsons (1956) and Udy (1970), who see organizations as greatly conditioned by their general institutional environments and therefore as institutions themselves in part. Emery and Trist (1965) also see organizations as responding directly to environmental structuresand distinguishsuch effects sharply from those that occur through boundary-spanningexchanges.According to the institutional conception as developed here, organizations tend to disappear as distinct and leap units. Quite beyond the environmental interrelations suggested in opensystems theories, institutional theories in their extreme forms define organizations as dramatic enactments of the rationalizedmyths pervading modern societies, rather than as units involved in exchange-no matter how complex-with their environments. 346 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony The two explanations of environmental isomorphism are not entirely inconsistent.Organizations both deal with their environments at their boundariesand imitate environmentalelements in their structures. However, th e two lines of explanation have very different implications for internal organizationalprocesses, as will be argued below. The Origins of Rational Institutional Myths Bureaucratization is caused in part by the proliferation of rationalized myths in society, and this in turn involves the evolution of the whole modern institutional system. Although the latter topic is beyond the scope of this paper, tierce specific processes that generate rationalizedmyths of organizational structure can be noted.The elaboration f complexrelationalnetworks. -As the relational networks o in societies become dense and interconnected, increasing numbers of rationalized myths arise. Some of them are highly generalizedfor example, the principlesof universalism (Parsons 1971), contracts (Spencer 1897), restitution (Durkheim 1933), and expertise (Weber 1947) are generalizedto diverse occupations, organizational programs, and organizational practices. Other myths describespecificstructuralelements. These myt hs may originatefrom narrow contexts and be applied in different ones.For example, in modern societies the relational contexts of business organizationsin a single industry are roughly equivalentfrom place to place. Under these conditions a particularly effective practice, occupationalspecialty, or principle of coordinationcan be codified into mythlike form. The laws, the educational and credentialing systems, and public opinion then make it necessary or advantageous for organizationsto incorporatethe new structures. The degree of bodied organization of the environment. The myths generated by particular organizational practices and diffused through relational networks have legitimacy based on the supposition that they are rationally effective. But many myths also have official legitimacy based on legal mandates. Societies that, through nation building and state formation, have developed rational-legal orders are especially prone to give corporal (legal) authority to institutions which legitimate particular organizational structures. The rise of centralized states and integrated nations means that organized agents of society assume legal power over large numbers of activity domains (Swanson 1971).Legislative and judicial authorities create and interpret legal mandates administrative agencies-such as state and federal governments, port authorities, and school districts-establish rules of practice and licenses and credentials become necessary in order to practice occupations. The stronger the rational-legal order, the greater the extent to which rationalized rules and procedures and personnel become 347 American Journal of Sociology institutional requirements. New formal organizations emerge and extant organizationsacquire new structural elements. Leadershipeforts of local organizations. The rise of the state and the expansion of collective jurisdiction are often thought to pull up stakes in domesticated organizations(Carlson1962) subject to high levels of go al displacement (Clark 1956 Selznick 1949 and Zald and Denton 1963). This view is misleading organizations do often line up to their institutional contexts, but they often play active roles in shaping those contexts (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975 Parsons 1956 Perrow 1970 Thompson 1967). Many organizations actively seek charters from collective authorities and manage to institutionalize their goals and structures in the rules of such authorities.Efforts to mold institutional environmentsproceed along two dimensions. First, powerful organizations force their immediate relational networks to adapt to their structures and relations. For instance, automobile producers help create demands for particular kinds of roads, transportation systems, and fuels that make automobiles virtual necessities competitive forms of transportationhave to adapt to the existing relational context. But second, powerful organizations attempt to build their goals and proceduresdirectly into society as institutional rules.Automobile producers, for instance, attempt to create the standards in public opinion specify desirable cars, to influence legal standards defining satisfactory cars, to affect judicial rules defining cars adequate enough to avoid manufacturerliability, and to force agents of the collectivity to purchase only their cars. Rivals must then compete both in social networks or markets and in contexts of institutional rules which are defined by extant organizations. In this fashion, given organizational forms perpetuate themselves by becoming institutionalized rules.For example Schooladministrators ho createnew curricula r trainingprograms tw o a i tempt to validatethem as legitimateinnovationsn educationalheoryand t I t c governmental equirements. f they are successful, he new procedures an r o a be perpetuated s authoritatively equired r at least(prenominal) satisfactory. r w s a New departments ithinbusiness nterprises,uchas personnel, dvertise a ing, or research nddevelopment epartments, ttemptto professionalizey d a b t r c creating ulesof practiceandpersonnel ertificationhat areenforced y the b schools,prestigesystems,and the laws. Organizations nder attack in competitiveenvironments-smallfarms, a o passenger ailways, r RollsRoyce-attempt to establishthemselves s cenr tral to the culturaltraditionsof their societiesin orderto receiveofficial protection. The Impact of Institutional Environments on Organizations Isomorphismwith environmentalinstitutions has some crucial consequences for organizations (a) they incorporate elements which are legitimated impertinently, rather than in terms of efficiency (b) they employ external or 348 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony eremonialassessment criteriato define the value of structuralelements and (c) dependency on externally fixed institutions reduces turbulence and maintains stability. As a result, it is argued here, institutional isomorphism promotes the success and survival of organizations. Incorporatin gexternally legitimated formal structures increases the commitment of internal participants and externalconstituents. And the use of externalassessmentcriteriathat is, pitiable toward the status in society of a subunit rather than an independent system-can enable an organization to remain successful by social definition, bufferingit from failure.Changingformalstructures. -By designing a formal structure that adheres to the prescriptionsof myths in the institutional environment, an organization demonstrates that it is acting on together with valued purposes in a proper and adequate manner (Dowling and Pfeffer 1975 Meyer and Rowan 1975). The incorporationof institutionalized elements provides an account (Scott and Lyman 1968) of its activities that protects the organizationfrom having its conduct questioned. The organization becomes, in a word, legitimate, and it uses its legitimacy to strengthen its support and secure its survival.From an institutional perspective, then, a most imp ortant prognosis of isomorphism with environmental institutions is the evolution of organizational language. The labels of the organization chart as well as the vocabulary used to delineate organizational goals, procedures, and policies are identical to the vocabularies of motive used to account for the activities of individuals (Blum and McHugh 1971 Mills 1940). Just as jealousy, anger, altruism, and love are myths that interpret and explain the actions of individuals, the myths of doctors, of accountants, or of the assembly line explain organizationalactivities.Thus, some can say that the engineerswill solve a specific problem or that the secretaries will perform certain tasks, without knowing who these engineers or secretarieswill be or only what they will do. Both the speaker and the listeners understandsuch statements to describehow certain responsibilitieswill be carried out. Vocabularies of structure which are isomorphic with institutional rules provide prudent, rational, and legitimate accounts. Organizationsdescribed in legitimated vocabulariesare assumedto be oriented to collectively defined, and often collectively mandated, ends. The myths of personnel ervices, for example, not only account for the rationality of employment practices but also indicate that personnel services are blue-chip to an organization. Employees, applicants, managers, trustees, and governmental agencies are predisposed to trust the hiring practices of organizations that follow legitimated procedures-such as equal opportunity programs, or personality testing-and they are morewilling to participate in or to fund such organizations. On the other hand, organizations that omit environmentally legitimated elements of structure or create unique structures lack acceptable 349 American Journal of Sociology egitimated accounts of their activities. Such organizationsare more vulnerable to claims that they are negligent, irrational, or unnecessary. Claims of this kind, whether made by internal participants, external constituents, or the government, can cause organizations to incur real cost. For example With the rise of modernmedicalinstitutions,largeorganizationshat do t not arrange edical-careacilitiesfor theirworkers ometo be seenas neglim f c gent-by the workers, y managementactions,by insurers, y courtswhich b f b legallydefinenegligence, nd often by laws. The costs of illegitimacy n ina i urance remiums nd legalliabilitiesare very real. p a e Similarly, nvironmentalafetyinstitutions akeit important or organis m f zations to create formalsafety rules, safety departments, nd safety proa grams. No Smokingrules and signs, regardless f their enforcement, re o a necessary o avoidcharges f negligence nd to avoidthe extremeof illegitit o a mationthe closingof buildings y the state. b The rise of professionalizedconomicsmakesit useful for organizations e to incorporate roupsof economists nd econometric nalyses. Thoughno g a a one may read,understand, r believethem, econometric nalyseshelplegitio a ate the organizations lans in the eyes of investors,customers(as with p DefenseDepartmentcontractors), nd internalparticipants. uchanalyses a S can also providerationalaccountings fter failuresoccurmanagers hose a w plans have failed can demonstrateo investors,stockholders, nd superiors t a that procedures ere prudentand that decisionswere made by rational w means. Thus, rationalized institutions create myths of formal structure which shape organizations. Failure to incorporatethe proper elements of structure is negligent and irrational the go on flow of support is threatened and internal dissidents are strengthened.At the comparable time, these myths present organizations with great opportunities for expansion. Affixing the right labels to activities can change them into valuable services and spread the commitments of internal participants and external constituents. Adopting external assessmentcriteria. -In institutionally elaborated environments organizations also become sensitive to, and employ, external criteria of worth. Such criteriainclude, for instance, such ceremonialawards as the Nobel Prize, endorsementsby important people, the standard prices of professionalsand consultants, or the prestige of programsor personnelin external social circles.For example, the conventions of modern accounting attempt to assign value to particular components of organizations on the basis of their contribution-through the organizations production function-to the goods and services the organization produces. But for many units-service departments, administrativesectors, and others-it is utterly unclear what is being produced that has clear or definablevalue in terms of its contribution to the organizationalproduct. In these situations, ccountants employ shadow prices they assume that given organizational units are necessaryand calculate their value from their prices in the world outside the organization. Thus modern accounting creates c eremonial production 350 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony functions and maps them onto economicproductionfunctions organizations assign externally defined worth to advertising departments, safety departments, managers, econometricians, and occasionally even sociologists, whether or not these units contribute measurably to the production of produces.Monetary prices, in postindustrial society, reflect hosts of ceremonial influences,as do economic measuresof efficiency,profitability, or net worth (Hirsch 1975). Ceremonialcriteria of worth and ceremonially derived production functions are useful to organizationsthey legitimate organizationswith internal participants, stockholders,the public, and the state, as with the IRS or the SEC. They demonstrate socially the fitness of an organization.The incorporationof structureswith high ceremonialvalue, such as those reflecting the latest expert thinking or those with the most prestige, makes the credit position of an organizationmore fav orable. Loans, donations, or investments are more easily obtained. Finally, units within the organization use ceremonial assessments as accounts of their productive service to the organization. Their internal power rises with their surgical process on ceremonial measures (Salancik and Pfeffer 1974). Stabilization. -The rise of an elaborateinstitutional environment stabilizes both external and internal organizational relationships.Centralized states, trade association, unions, professional associations, and coalitions among organizationsstandardize and stabilize (see the review by Starbuck 1976). Market conditions, the characteristics of inputs and outputs, and technological procedures are brought under the jurisdiction of institutional meanings and controls. Stabilization also results as a given organization becomes part of the wider collective system. Support is guaranteed by agreements instead of depending entirely on performance. For example, apart rom whether schools educate st udents, or hospitals cure patients, people and governmental agencies remain committed to these organizations, funding and using them about automatically year by and by year. Institutionally controlled environments buffer organizations from turbulence (Emery and Trist 1965 Terreberry 1968). Adaptations occur less rapidly as increased numbers of agreements are enacted. Collectively granted monopolies guarantee clienteles for organizations like schools, hospitals, or professional associations.The taken-for-granted (and legally regulated) quality of institutional rules makes dramatic instabilities in products, techniques, or policies unlikely. And legitimacy as accepted subunits of society protects organizationsfrom immediate sanctions for variations in technical performance Thus,American chooldistricts(likeothergovernmental nits) have near s u monopolies nd are very stable. They must conformto widerrules about a o a properclassifications nd credentials f teachers nd students,and of t opics a of study. But they are protectedby ruleswhichmakeeducationas defined 351American Journal of Sociology by these classifications compulsory. Alternative or private schools are possible, but must conform so contiguously to the required structures and classifications as to be able to generate little advantage. Some business organizations obtain very high levels of institutional stabilization. A large defense contractor may be paid for following agreed-on procedures, even if the product is ineffective. In the extreme, such organizations may be so successful as to survive bankruptcy intact-as Lockheed and Penn Central have done-by becoming partially components of the state.More commonly, such firms are guaranteed survival by state-regulated rates which secure profits regardless of costs, as with American public utility firms. Large automobile firms are a little less stabilized. They exist in an environment that contains enough structures to make automobiles, as conventionally def ined, virtual necessities. But still, customers and governments can inspect each automobile and can evaluate and even legally discredit it. Legal action cannot as easily discredit a high school graduate. Organizational success and survival. Thus, organizational success depends on factors other than efficient coordination and control of productive activities. free-lance of their productive efficiency, organizations which exist in highly elaborated institutional environments and succeed in becoming isomorphic with these environments gain the legitimacy and resources needed to survive. In part, this depends on environmental processes and on the capacity of given organizational leadership to mold these processes (Hirsch 1975). In part, it depends on the ability of given organizations to conform to, and become legitimated by, environmental institutions.In institutionally elaborated environments, sagacious conformity is required leadership (in a university, a hospital, or a business) req uires an understanding of changing fashions and governmental programs. But this kind of conformity-and the almost guaranteed survival which may accompany itis possible only in an environment with a highly institutionalized structure. In such a context an organization can be locked into isomorphism, ceremonially reflecting the institutional environment in its structure, functionaries, and procedures.Thus, in addition to the conventionally defined sources of organizational success and survival, the following general assertion can be proposed Proposition 3. Organizationsthat incorporatesocietally legitimatedrationalized elements in their formal structuresmaximize their legitimacy and a increasetheir resources nd survivalcapabilities. This proposition asserts that the long haul survival prospects of organizations increase as state structures elaborate and as organizations respond to institutionalized rules.In the United States, for instance, schools, hospitals, and welfare organizations show considerable ability to survive, precisely because they are matched with-and almost absorbed by-their institutional environments. In the same way, organizations fail when they deviate 352 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony from the prescriptionsof institutionalizingmyths quite apart from technical efficiency, organizations which innovate in important structural ways bear considerablecosts in legitimacy.Figure 2 summarizes the general argument of this section, alongside the established view that organizationssucceed through efficiency. INSTITUTIONALIZED STRUCTURES AND ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITIES Rationalized formal structures arise in two contexts. First, the demands of local relational networks encourage the development of structures that coordinateand control activities. Such structurescontribute to the efficiency of organizations and give them competitive advantages over less efficient competitors.Second, the interconnectedness of societal relations, the collective organiza tionof society, and the leadershipof organizationalelites create a highly institutionalized context. In this context rationalized structures present an acceptable account of organizationalactivities, and organizations gain legitimacy, stability, and resources. All organizations, to one degree or another, are embedded in both relational and institutionalized contexts and are therefore concernedboth with coordinatingand controlling their activities and with prudently accounting for them.Organizations in highly institutionalized environments face internal and boundary-spanning contingencies. Schools, for example, must transport students to and from school under some circumstancesand must assign teachers, students, and topics to classrooms. On the other hand, organizations producing in markets that place great emphasis on efficiency build in units whose relation to production is obscure and whose efficiency is determined, not by a true production function, but by ceremonialdefinition.Ne vertheless, the survival of some organizationsdepends more on managing the demands of internal and boundary-spanningrelations, while the survival of others depends more on the ceremonial demands of highly institutionalized environments. The discussion to follow shows that whether an organizationssurvival dependsprimarilyon relationalor on institutional demands determines the engrossment of alignments between structures and activities. Elaboration institutional of rationalized myths Organizational conformity with institutional myths Legitimacy and resources Organizational Survival fficiency FIG. 2. -Organizational survival 353 American Journal of Sociology Types of Organizations Institutionalized myths differ in the completenesswith which they describe cause and effect relationships, and in the clarity with which they describe standards that should be used to evaluate outputs (Thompson 1967). Some organizations use routine, distinctly defined technologies to produce outputs. When o utput can be easily evaluated a market often develops, and consumers gain considerable rights of inspection and control. In this context, efficiency often determines success.Organizations must face exigencies of close coordinationwith their relational networks, and they cope with these exigencies by organizing around immediate technical problems. But the rise of collectively organized society and the increasing interconnectedness of social relations have eroded many market contexts. Increasingly, such organizations as schools, R & D units, and governmental bureaucraciesuse variable, ambiguous technologies to produce outputs that are difficult to appraise, and other organizations with clearly defined technologies find themselves unable to adapt to environmental turbulence.The uncertainties of unpredictable technical contingencies or of adapting to environmental change cannot be resolved on the basis of efficiency. knowledgeable participants and external constituents alike call for i nstitutionalized rules that promote trust and confidencein outputs and buffer organizationsfrom failure (Emery and Trist 1965). Thus, one can conceive of a continuum along which organizationscan be ordered. At one end are production organizations under strong output controls (Ouchi and McGuire 1975) whose success depends on the management of relational networks.At the other end are institutionalized organizations whose success depends on the confidence and stability achieved by isomorphism with institutional rules. For two reasons it is important not to assume that an organizationslocation on this continuum is based on the ingrained technical properties of its output and therefore permanent. First, the technical properties of outputs are socially defined and do not exist in some concrete sense that allows them to be empirically discovered. Second, environments and organizations often redefine the nature of products, services, and technologies.Redefinition sometimes clarifies techni ques or evaluative standards. But often organizations and environments redefine the nature of techniques and output so that ambiguity is introduced and rights of inspection and control are lowered. For example, Americanschools have evolved from producing rather specific training that was evaluated according to strict criteria of efficiency to producing ambiguously defined services that are evaluated according to criteria of certificate (Callahan 1962 Tyack 1974 Meyer and Rowan 1975). 354Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony Structural Inconsistencies in Institutionalized Organizations Two very general problems face an organization if its success depends primarily on isomorphism with institutionalized rules. First, technical activities and demands for efficiency create conflicts and inconsistencies in an institutionalized organizationsefforts to conform to the ceremonialrules of production. Second, because these ceremonial rules are transmitted by myths that may arise from different parts of the environment, the rules may conflict with one another.These inconsistenciesmake a concernfor efficiency and tight coordination and control problematic. Formal structures that celebrate institutionalized myths differ from structures that act efficiently. Ceremonialactivity is significant in relation to categorical rules, not in its concrete effects (Merton 1940 March and Simon 1958). A sick worker must be treated by a doctor using accepted medical procedures whether the worker is treated effectively is less important. A bus company must service required routes whether or not there are many passengers.A university must maintain appropriatedepartments independently of the departments enrollments. Activity, that is, has ritual significanceit maintains appearancesand validates an organization. Categoricalrules conflict with the logic of efficiency. Organizationsoften face the dilemma that activities celebratinginstitutionalized rules, although they count as innocuous ceremon ial expenditures, are pure costs from the point of view of efficiency. For example, hiring a Nobel Prize winner brings great ceremonial benefits to a university. The celebrated name can lead to researchgrants, brighter students, or reputational gains.But from the point of view of immediate outcomes, the expenditure lowers the instructional return per dollar expended and lowers the universitys ability to solve immediate logistical problems. Also, expensive technologies, which bring prestige to hospitals and business firms, may be simply excessive costs from the point of view of immediate production. Similarly,highly professionalized consultants who bring external blessings on an organization are often difficult to justify in terms of improved productivity, yet may be very important in maintaining internal and external legitimacy.Other conflicts between categorical rules and efficiency arise because institutional rules are couched at high levels of generalization (Durkheim 1933) where as technical activities vary with specific, unstandardized, and possibly unique conditions. Because standardized ceremonial categories must confront technical variations and anomalies, the generalized rules of the institutional environment are often inappropriateto specific situations.A governmentally mandated curriculum may be inappropriate for the students at hand, a conventional medical treatment may make little sense given the characteristics of a patient, and federal safety inspectors may intolerably delay boundary-spanningexchanges. 355 American Journal of Sociology Yet another source of conflict between categorical rules and efficiency is the inconsistency among institutionalized elements. Institutional environments are often pluralistic (Udy 1970), and societies tell sharply inconsistent myths.As a result, organizationsin search of external support and stability incorporate all sorts of incompatible structural elements. Professions are incorporatedalthough they make overlap ping jurisdictional claims. Programs are adopted which contend with each other for authority over a given domain. For instance, if one inquireswho decides what curricula will be taught in schools, any number of parties from the various governments down to individual teachers may say that they decide. In institutionalized organizations, then, concern with the efficiency of day-to-day activities creates enormousuncertainties.Specificcontexts highlight the inadequacies of the prescriptionsof generalizedmyths, and inconsistent structural elements conflict over jurisdictional rights. Thus the organization must struggle to link the requirementsof ceremonialelements to technical activities and to link inconsistent ceremonialelements to each other. Resolving Inconsistencies There are four partial solutions to these inconsistencies. First, an organization can resist ceremonial requirements. But an organization that neglects ceremonialrequirementsand portrays itself as efficient may be unsucc essful in documenting its efficiency.Also, rejecting ceremonial requirements neglects an important source of resourcesand stability. Second, an organization can maintain rigid conformity to institutionalized prescriptions by cutting off external relations. Although such isolation upholds ceremonial requirements, internal participants and external constituents may soon become disillusioned with their inability to manage boundary-spanning exchanges. Institutionalized organizationsmust not only conform to myths but must also maintain the appearancethat the myths actually work. Third, an organization can cynically acknowledgethat its structure is inconsistent with work requirements.But this strategy denies the validity of institutionalized myths and sabotages the legitimacy of the organization. Fourth, an organization can promise reform. People may picture the present as unworkablebut the future as filled with promisingreformsof both structure and activity. But by defining the organizat ionsvalid structure as lying in the future, this strategy makes the organizationscurrent structure illegitimate. Instead of relying on a partial solution, however, an organization can resolve conflicts between ceremonial rules and efficiency by employing two relate devices decoupling and the logic of confidence.Decoupling. -Ideally, organizations built around efficiency attempt to 356 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony maintain close alignments between structures and activities. Conformity is enforced through inspection, output quality is continually monitored, the efficiencyof various units is evaluated, and the various goals are unified and coordinated. But a policy of close alignment in institutionalized organizations merely makes public a record of inefficiency and inconsistency. Institutionalized organizations protect their formal structures from evaluation on the basis of technical performanceinspection, valuation, and control of activities are minimized, and coordination, interdependence,and interchangeable adjustments among structural units are handled informally. Proposition 4. Because attempts to control and coordinate activities in institutionalizedorganizationslead to conflictsand loss of legitimacy,elements of structureare decoupledrom activitiesandfrom each other. f Some well-known properties of organizations illustrate the decoupling process Activities are performed beyond the purview of managers. In particular, organizations actively encourageprofessionalism,and activities are delegated to professionals.Goals are made ambiguous or vacuous, and categorical ends are substituted for technical ends. Hospitals treat, not cure, patients. Schools produce students, not learning. In fact, data on technical performance are eliminated or renderedinvisible. Hospitals try to ignore information on cure rates, public services avoid data about effectiveness, and schools deemphasize measures of achievement. Integration is avoided, program implementation is neglected, and inspection and evaluation are ceremonialized. Human relations are made very important.The organization cannot formally coordinate activities because its formal rules, if applied, would generate inconsistencies. Therefore individuals are left to work out technical interdependencies informally. The ability to coordinate things in violation of the rules-that is, to get along with other people-is highly valued. The advantages of decoupling are clear. The assumption that formal structures are really working is buffered from the inconsistencies and anomalies involved in technical activities.Also, because integration is avoided disputes and conflicts are minimized, and an organization can mobilize support from a broader range of external constituents. Thus, decoupling enables organizations to maintain standardized, legitimating, formal structures while their activities vary in response to practical considerations. The organizationsin an industry tend to be similar in formal structure-reflecting their common institutional origins-but may show much diversity in actual practice. The logic of confidence nd goodfaith. -Despite the lack of coordination a nd control, decoupledorganizationsare not anarchies. Day-to-day activities proceed in an orderly fashion. What legitimates institutionalized organizations, enabling them to appear useful in spite of the lack of technical valida357 American Journal of Sociology tion, is the confidenceand good faith of their internal participants and their external constituents. Considerations of face characterize ceremonial management (Goffman 1967). Confidence in structural elements is maintained through three practices-avoidance, discretion, and overlooking (Goffman 1967, pp. 1218).Avoidance and discretion are encouraged by decoupling autonomous subunits overlooking anomalies is also quite common. Both internal participants and external constituents cooperate in these practices. assure that individual participants maintain face sustains confidencein the organization, and ultimately reinforcesconfidencein the myths that rationalizethe organizationsexistence. Delegation, professionalization,goal ambiguity, the elimination of output data, and maintenance of face are all mechanismsfor absorbinguncertainty while preserving the formal structure of the organization (March and Simon 1958).They contribute to a general aura of confidence within and outside the organization. Although the literature on informal organization often treats these practices as mechanisms for the achievement of deviant and subgroup purposes (Downs 1967), such treatment ignores a critical feature of organization life effectively absorbing uncertainty and maintaining confidencerequirespeople to assume that everyone is acting in good faith. The assumption that things are as they seem, that employees and managers are performing their roles properly, allows an organization to perform its daily routines with a decoupled structure.Decoupling and maintenanceof face, in other words, are mechanismsthat maintain the assumptionthat people are acting in good faith. Professionalization is not merely a way of avoiding inspection-it binds both supervisors and subordinates to act in good faith. So in a smaller way does strategic leniency (Blau 1956). And so do the public displays of moraleand satisfaction which are characteristic of many organizations. Organizations employ a host of mechanisms to dramatize the ritual commitments which their participants make to basic structural elements.These mechanisms are especially common in organizations which strongly reflect their institutionalized environments. 5 Proposition . The morean organizationsstructureis derivedrom instituf tionalizedmyths,themoreit maintains elaborate isplays of confidence, atisfacs d tion, and goodfaith, internallyand externally. The commitments built up by displays of morale and satisfaction are not simply vacuous affirmations of institutionalized myths. Partic ipants not only commit themselves to supporting an organizationsceremonial facade but also commit themselves to making things work out backstage.The committed participants engage in informal coordination that, although often formally inappropriate, keeps technical activities running smoothly I and avoids public embarrassments. n this sense the confidenceand good faith 358 Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony generated by ceremonial action is in no way fraudulent. It may even be the most reasonableway to get participants to make their best efforts in situations that are made problematic by institutionalized myths that are at odds with immediate technical demands.Ceremonial inspection and evaluation. -All organizations,even those maintaining high levels of confidence and good faith, are in environments that have institutionalized the rationalizedrituals of inspection and evaluation. And inspection and evaluation can uncover events and deviations that undermine legitimacy. So institut ionalized organizations minimize and ceremonializeinspection and evaluation. In institutionalized organizations, in fact, evaluation accompanies and produces illegitimacy.The interest in evaluation research by the American federal government, for instance, is partly intended to undercut the state, local, and private authorities which have managed social services in the United States. The federal authorities, of course, have usually not evaluated those programswhich are completely under federal jurisdiction they have only evaluated those over which federal controls are incomplete. Similarly, state governments have often insisted on evaluating the special fundings they create in welfare and education but ordinarily do not evaluate the programswhich they fund in a routine way.Evaluation and inspection are public assertions of societal control which violate the assumption that everyone is acting with competence and in good faith. Violating this assumption lowers morale and confidence. T hus, evaluation and inspection undermine the ceremonial aspects of organizations. 6 Proposition . Institutionalizedorganizationsseek to minimize inspection and evaluationby bothinternalmanagersand externalconstituents. Decoupling and the avoidance of inspection and evaluation are not merely devices used by the organization.External constituents, too, avoid inspecting and controlling institutionalized organizations (Meyer and Rowan 1975). Accreditingagencies, boards of trustees, government agencies, and individuals accept ceremoniallyat face value the credentials,ambiguous goals, and categorical evaluations that are characteristic of ceremonial organizations. In elaborate institutional environments these external constituents are themselves likely to be corporately organized agents of society.Maintaining categorical relationships with their organizational subunits is more stable and more certain than is relying on inspection and control. Figure 3 summarizesthe main argumentsof this s ection of our discussion. compact AND RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS Organizational structures are created and made more elaborate with the rise of institutionalized myths, and, in highly institutionalized contexts, 359 American Journal of Sociology of structural The decoupling and from each other subunits from activity Isomor phism with an elaborated institutional environment Rituals of ood faith The avoidance and effective FIG. 3. -The confidence and of inspection evaluation effects of institutional isomorphism on organizations organizationalaction must support these myths. But an organization must also attend to practical activity. The two requirementsare at odds. A stable solution is to maintain the organizationin a loosely coupled state. No position is taken here on the overall social effectiveness of isomorphic and loosely coupled organizations. To some extent such structures buffer activity from efficiency criteria and produce ineffectiveness.On the other hand, by bindingparticipant s to act in good faith, and to adhere to the larger rationalities of the wider structure, they may maximize long-run effectiveness. It should not be assumed that the creation of microscopicrationalities in the daily activity of workers effects social ends more efficiently than commitment to larger institutional claims and purposes. Research Implications The argumentpresented here generates several major theses that have clear researchimplications. 1. Environmentsand environmentaldomainswhich have institutionalized a greater number of rational myths generate more formal organization.This thesis leads to the research hypothesis that formal organizations rise and become more complex as a result of the rise of the elaborated state and other institutions for collective action. This hypothesis should hold true even when economic and technical development are held constant. Studies could trace the diffusion to formal organizations of specific institutions professions, clearly labeled prog rams, and the like. For instance, the effects of the rise of theories and professions of personnel selection on the creation of personnel departments in organizations could be studied.Other studies could follow the diffusion of sales departments or researchand development departments. Organizationsshould be tack to adapt to such environmental changes, even if no evidence of their effectiveness exists. Experimentally, one could study the impact on the decisions of organizational managers, in planning or altering organizationalstructures, of hypothetical variations in environmentalinstitutionalization. Do managersplan differentlyif they are informedabout the existence of establishedoccupations or prog

Premature Specialization in Medicine

A medical doctor in todays world is educated and happy in a traditional manner that seeks to insure the well being of his or her patients. Practicing medicine requires a strong cognition background and rigorous cooking it is in the interest of clients and medical boards across the world to assure this. Thus, education in the science field is extremely important, even at the undergraduate level. organism a doctor is not just a job, nor is it solely a career. The medical profession is saturated with risk, for both the patient as well as the doctor. Doctors need early specialization in their education in order to acquire the skills necessary to handle delicate situations that occur on a unremarkable basis.Malpractice must come to an end. The education that a doctor receives is a tool that he or she will use his or her whole life, (unlike a individual who majored in something contrary to what their field of work is). A doctors stupefy is a vital instrument. Medical skill is a deman d for definite practicing procedures and should be taken monstrously. Knowing the legal system requires a doctor to have a good amount of experience mass ease the concerns of family and love ones, and also gives confidence to a doctor that he or she can do his or her work correctly.In order for doctors to get the best experience and education needed, training must take place early on in education. An abundance of science courses in college is a good start to discipline for medical school. Even though medical schools might cover the material that is offered in undergraduate biology and chemistry courses, repeat exposure to the material can only be beneficial to the student. The more experience that a student has in science and related subjects ultimately helps the future doctor in the considerable run.To manipulate the level of maturity of a doctor, it is necessary to educate them on a broad level. According to Thomas,English, History, the literature of at least two contrary l anguages, and philosophy should come near the top of the list, just below Classics, as basic requirements, and applicants for medical school should be told that their grades in these courses will more than anything. (Thomas 115)Educating premed students in these courses is important, but science is the most significant part in an undergraduate program. It requires thought and practice as well as research, which are all native keys to being a doctor. If a MD were certified with the least amount of experience allowed in the science field as possible, malpractice could be expected. On the opposite hand knowing two foreign languages is not vital to ones life. In fact, if a patient speaks another language translators can be brought in to fit certain needs.Doctors that focus on science and health are achieving what the profession requires. Understanding science to its full capacity ought to be the goal for premeds and medical students. To ensure the well fare of a patient, over achieve ment of science courses is necessary. Looking at the medical educational setup that is present in todays Universities, premed students work hard at science and put forth the effort to make these classes their number one priority.According to Thomas, If there are any courses in the humanities that can be taken without risk to class standing they will line up for these, but they will not get in to anything tough except for science. (Thomas 114) Comprehending science can be hard and exhilarating, students should space out these courses while maintaining a level of understanding of other fields, but it is serious to make focus on science. Any student in the undergraduate level maintaining a good grade point average while taking 300, and 400 level science classes is bound for success.The risk factor for a doctor practicing medicine that has thoroughly been educated and has completed all necessary science classes, whether it be premature specialization or courses in medical school, will ultimately be a safe doctor and will create a more secure atmosphere in the field.

Employer Liability for Employee Torts Under the Theory of Negligent Hiring Essay

The manager of an flat complex used the key to one of the apartments to participate the renters apartment during his morose duty time and rape the occupant. ABC apartment Company owns the property and hired the manager. An investigating after the f sour glum up evidence the manager had a criminal record which ABC failed to discover during the interview process. The inhabit is suing ABC Apartment Company for compensatory and punitive amends.The spare-time activity allow for discuss the possible legal theories upon which the tenant may seek recovery in a civil court of law and how likely the tenant may be to receive an award of compensatory and possibly punitive damages.The idea of vicarious liability has existed for centuries, predating even English common law in the sixteenth century. Vicarious liability was common in primitive law wherein owners were held responsible for the negligence of servants, slaves, inanimate objects and wives. Blumenreich, 1993).To phrase it plainly , a soul is responsible for the actions of those people with whom that person may have a master and servant relationship. The Re readment (Second) of Agency, (Restatement (Second) of Agency 215-267 (1958)) outlines the doctrine of respondeat superior as it pertains to a principal and his or her agent, such as an employer and an employee. low respondeat superior, a principal may be vicariously liable for torts committed by an agent of the principle.The liability may arise when the agents act is committed within the grasp of employment and in furtherance of the principals business, or when the agents act is ratified by the principal. (cited in Lindemann and Kadue, 1992) When applying the Restatement (Second) of Agency to the facts of the of the third party tenants rape at the hands of the apartment manager hired by ABC Apartments, it becomes clear why the doctrine of respondeat superior is doomed to fail in a civil court of law.The apartment manager entered the premises and raped t he victim in off hours. A reasonable person may conclude that entering the leased premises of a tenant and committing criminal acts against that tenant is non within the scope of employment for the manager and decidedly not in furtherance of the business of ABC Apartments. A reasonable person could also conclude ABC Apartments did not give the manager consent or instruction to unlawfully enter and physic all in ally assault the tenants of the apartments.The act of raping the tenant was motivated completely by the apartment managers own personal desire. Unless the apartment manager had been specifically instructed by ABC Apartments to rape the tenant, no purpose to serve ABC Apartments interest existed. Finally, the manager was hired to oversee the operation of the apartment complex for ABC, not to physically assault and rape the tenants.The theory of negligent hiring addresses employers who do not take reasonable care in hiring their potential employees for a descent (FindLaw, 200 4). In his legal treatise entitled Employment Screening, Rex K. Larson points out most states bring in a cause of action for negligent hiring, although, no real uniform elements have been adopted as of yet by the multiple state and federal courts. (cited in Creed. T. , 2007) However, a similarity in exactly how to define negligent hiring does exist.In the case of Garcia v. Duffy, 492 So. 2nd 435 (1986), the Florida domineering Court defined negligent hiring in the following manner Negligent hiring occurs when, prior to the time the employee is actually hired, the employer knew or should have cognise of the employees unfitness, and the issue of liability focuses upon the adequacy of the employers pre-employment investigation into the employees downplay. (cited in Sinclair-Bernadino, 2006. ) In Pennsylvania, Coath v. Jones, 277 Pa. Super. 79, 419 A. 2d 1249 (1980), follows the Restatement (Second) of Torts stating Negligent hiring cases focus on what duty is owed by the employer to a third party when an employee commits a crime or other bad act the consensus is that an employer may be found negligent if he knew or should have known that an employee had a propensity for conduct that would damage a third person. (cited in LaPasta, 2006)The Minnesota Supreme Court in Ponticas v. K. M. S. Invs. , 331 N. W. 2d 907, 911 (Minn. 983) offered an opinion which can be characterized as a majority try out for the doctrine of negligent hiring Liability is predicated on the negligence of an employer in placing a person with known propensities, or propensities which should have been discovered by reasonable investigation, in an employment position in which, because of the circumstances of the employment, it should have been foreseeable that the hired individual posed a threat of combat injury to others. (cited in Creed, 2007)The commonality of all the above-quoted opinions revolves around holding employers responsible for hiring employees who harm third parties when an adequate background check would have prevented such a person from being hired for the job in the first place. In the law review article, Note, Minnesota Developments Employer Liability for the Criminal Acts of Employees Under Negligent Hiring Theory Ponticas v. K. M. S. Investments, 68 Minn L. Rev. 1303, 1304-05 (1984), Cindy M.Haerle draws upon the Ponticas opinion of the Minnesota Supreme Court to identify six basic elements of negligent hiring (1) the tort-feasor was the employer of the defendant (2) the employee was unfit for employment (3) the employer knew or should have known the employee was unfit (4) the plaintiff (claimant) was injure by the employees tortious act (5) the employer owed a duty of care to the plaintiff and (6) the hiring of the employee was the proximate cause of the plaintiffs injuries. cited in Creed, 2007).Assuming the courts of the state in which the tenant who became the rape victim of the manager utilize elements such as the above in determining an em ployers liability under a negligent hiring theory, it becomes clear ABC will be held liable for the acts of the manager. The manager was the employee of ABC at the time he committed the rape. The manager had a preliminary criminal record that ABC failed to discover during the hiring process.Because a criminal background check would have revealed the managers past to ABC, they would or should have known the manager was unfit to perform a job in which access to all the tenants apartments was readily available. The tenant was clearly injured, both physically and mentally, by the tortious act of the manager. ABC clearly owes a duty to their tenants to insure their employees are fit for the jobs they are hired to do. Failure to investigate the managers background is a clear breach of that duty.Finally, had ABC not hired the manager, access to the keys of the tenants apartments would not have been available to him and, of course, he would not have been able to enter the tenants apartment and commit the crime of rape. Now that is has been established the tenant will succeed under the theory of negligent hiring, the issue of damages must be addressed. Blacks Law Dictionary defines compensatory damages as such as will compensate the injured party for the injury sustained. (Nolan, p. 390, 1990).Blacks Law Dictionary defined punitive damages as damages awarded on an increased scalethat of punishing the defendant or of setting an example for similar wrongdoers. (id). In the Florida case of Tallahassee Furniture v. Harrison, a company was successfully sued under the theory of negligent hiring and the plaintiff was awarded $1. 9 million in compensatory damages and $600,000. 00 in punitive damages. (Arvey, et al. , p. 1, 2001) A Massachusetts jury ordered the Trusted Health Resources and Visiting Nurses Association of Boston to recompense $26. million in combined compensatory and punitive damages to the family of a murdered quadriplegic after the family successfully sued under the theory of negligent hiring. (Anderson, 1998).A clear mark issues from these decisions indicating courts are willing to allow for the award of punitive damages on top of compensatory damages. Based upon this information, under the theory of negligent hiring it seems likely that the tenant will be successful in a civil lawsuit and will be able to recover both compensatory and punitive damages of a world-shaking nature.The nature of employment law is ever changing and the theory of negligent hiring seems to be an ever expanding area of the law. The idea of a third party retrieve for the torts of an employee seems almost to be a return toward the primitive law mentioned in Mr. Blumenreichs article wherein the master was responsible for all actions of his chattel, or persons in their charge. (Blumenreich,1993. )