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Cohesion, Power, and Fragmentation: Some Theoretical Observations Based on a Historical Case

Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks

ISBN: 978-1-78350-751-1, eISBN: 978-1-78350-752-8

Publication date: 14 July 2014

Abstract

Using Simmel’s external threat–internal cohesion hypothesis, I argue that a group that succeeds in nullifying the threat that it faces will tend to become increasingly fragmented as a consequence. I illustrate this process by drawing on a study of the changing nature of cohesiveness among the leaders of large American corporations from the mid-twentieth century to the present. I use this historical case to develop a series of propositions about the relations among collective action, network structure, and political outcomes.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

Portions of this research were funded by the National Science Foundation (grant # SES-0922915) as well as a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Please direct correspondence to Mark Mizruchi, Department of Sociology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-1382, phone (734) 764-7444, FAX (734) 763-6887, email mizruchi@umich.edu.

Citation

Mizruchi, M.S. (2014), "Cohesion, Power, and Fragmentation: Some Theoretical Observations Based on a Historical Case", Contemporary Perspectives on Organizational Social Networks (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 40), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 199-217. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2014)0000040010

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited