Rationality and Equity in Professional Networks - Gender and Race as Factors in the Stratification of Interorganizational Systems

• NCJ Number: 79995
• Author(s): J Miller; J R Lincoln; J Olson
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 43 pages
• Grant Number(s): 77-JN-99-0018; 78-NI-AX-0135
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper examines the stratification in the interorganizational exchange networks that developed among the professional agencies in six social service delivery systems that were initiated and funded by the Federal Government.

Abstract

The principles of rationality and equity, which account for the leveling effects of social differences posited by Weber as part of the theory and legitimating symbolism of bureaucracy, are analyzed with data provided by the six multiagency social service delivery systems. The theory implies that organizational systems will neither reinforce nor create inequality based on gender or race. The study's dependent variable was access to the interorganizational networks of professional exchange that tied together the agencies in these systems. On the average, men and women, whites and nonwhites, had equal access to these networks. However, their investments and qualifications were related to this access in quite different ways, indicating that there was not a single resource allocation rule in operation. For white men, formal authority was the key to a strategic network position but education, unexpectedly, was a handicap. White women could also rely on authority, though less so than men, but for nonwhite women, education was the major factor. The most surprising finding was that for nonwhite men, none of the indicators of professional qualifications was a good predictor of network access. It is not clear whether these complicated findings indicate a sex and race-based discrimination. At the least, a complicated process of negotiation for advantages among the participants must have been in operation. Twelve footnotes, 5 tables, and over 50 references are given. (Author abstract modified)