A Structural Control Model of Organizational Change

This paper presents a differential equation model of organizational change which focuses upon the mechanisms of change. The model is obtained from positing the notion of structural control. The necessary procedures for estimating the model are developed and applied to data from a panel study of bureaucracies. The model addresses Blau's formal theory of differentiation and both modifies and extends that theory. The relationship between size variables and differentiation variables is more complex than Blau's theory suggests. Moreover, some mechanisms of change are more important than others and this relative importance is detected in the model.