A Response to Rood and Grimes' Blind Men and Elephants

Abstract

The article presents a response by Andrew R. Weiss to a criticism of his reviews of the books “Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay,” 3rd ed., by Charles Perrow and “In Defense of Organization Theory: A Reply to the Critics,” by Lex Donaldson. Weiss sticks by his assertion that organizations are not what they appear and that observable routines and formal administrative processes are basically coercive or mere myths. The author notes that unlike power, authority is a stable, structural phenomenon and not simply a variant of interpersonal influence.