William T. Bielby

The Structure of Opportunity: How Promotion Ladders Vary within and among Organizations.

A previous version of this paper was presented at the 1984 Academy of Management annual meeting. The authors gratefully acknowledge research support from the National Science Foundation (SES 7924905), the CenterforAdvanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (BNS 76-22943), and the Stanford Graduate School of Business. Teri Bush, Kelsa Duffy, and Jill Fukuhara provided splendid technical support. Howard Aldrich, Robert Althauser, Yinon Cohen, Frank Dobbin, Paul Osterman, and the ASQ reviewers and editors offered helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. This paper analyzes data describing jobs in 100 establishments in order to test hypotheses about the characteristics of jobs and organizations associated with the structure of internal promotion ladders. The diversity of labor market arrangements found within the organizations indicates only weak support for hypotheses linking internal labor markets to organizational or sectoral imperatives. Atthe job level, however, there is support for hypotheses linking job ladders to firm-specific skills, organizational structure, gender distinctions, technology, occupational differentiation, the institutional environment, and the interests of unions. The paper concludes with an examination of how promotion ladders are formed from clusters of jobs associated with each other by occupation, skill, or gender composition.e

All Hits Are Flukes: Institutionalized Decision Making and the Rhetoric of Network Prime-Time Program Development

Drawing upon institutionalist theory this artcle analyzes how the introduction of new cultural objects produced for a mass audience is managed through an organized discourse. Data come form annoucements of prime-time television series in development for the 1991-92 season by the four U.S. television networks. Maximumlikelihood logit analyses support the conclusion that network programmers working in a highly institutionalized context use reputation, imitation, and genre as rhetorical strategies to rationalize and legitimize their actions. This study contributes to institutionalist theory and the sociology of culture by explaining the content and consequences of business discourse in a culture industry.

THE ORGANIZATION OF WORK IN A SEGMENTED ECONOMY

Stratification researchers have increasingly embraced segmentation perspectives, dividing industries into groups believed to exhibit different work arrangement and opportunity structures. Previous research, however, indicates only limited support for those predictions. This paper assesses the utility of segmentation approaches by conceptualizing and measuring sectors organizationally, rather than among industries. Center and periphery enterprises are distinguished along two interrelated dimensions: the complexity of their organizational forms (size, structure, and technology) and the degree of market power or environmental dominance. These dimensions are operationalized and tested in analyses of more than 400 work organizations. Our formulation captures predicted organizational differences in work and opportunity. For example, as hypothesized, establishments that are high on these dimensions rely more on internal career ladders and the proliferation ofjob titles. While coarse taxonomies of economic segmentation may accurately represent the economic extremes, however, they obscure the diversity of enterprises between those extremes. Stratification and work arrangements can be better understood by analyzing their specific organizational and environmental determinants.

Response Errors of Black and Nonblack Males in Models of the Intergenerational Transmission of Socioeconomic Status

Biases due to measurement errors in structural equation models of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status were asessed by estimating unobserved variable models with data from the remeasurement program of the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation-II survey. We found persuasive evidence that reports of social background and achievement variables by nonblack males are subject to strickly random errors, while reports by black males are subject to significant nonrandom error. When measurement errors are ignored for nonblacks, occupational returns to schooling are underestimated by about 15%, the effects of some background variables are underestimated by as much as 22%, and variation in socioeconomic achievements not attributable to education or social origins is underestimated by as much as 27%. Biases appear to be substantially greater for blacks. Consequently, ignoring measurement error exaggerates racial differences in returns to schooling and occupational inequality not attributable to social origins.

The Proliferation of Job Titles in Organizations.

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1985 American Sociological Association annual meeting, Washington, D.C. The authors were supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation (SES 79-24905) and by generous research funds from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. The Occupational Analysis Division of the U.S. Employment Service graciously provided data and assisted us in this research. Teri Bush, Kelsa Duffy, and Ann Bucher worked wonders on the manuscript. Howard Aldrich, Glenn Carroll, Paul DiMaggio, Frank Dobbin, John Meyer, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Peter Reiss, and the ASQ editors and reviewers offered assistance and helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper. This paper develops and tests hypotheses about the characteristics of organizations and their environments that favor the proliferation of detailed job titles to describe work roles. A method for measuring the proliferation of job titles is proposed and applied to a sample of 368 diverse work organizations. It is hypothesized that proliferation is linked to four main factors: technical and administrative imperatives; internal political struggles over the division of labor; the institutional environment and its role in shaping personnel practices; and the market environment. Crosssectional and longitudinal analyses indicate that job titles proliferate most in organizations that are large, bureaucratic, rely on firm-specific skills, have a professionalized workforce, and are in institutional sectors. We describe howfragmentation among job titles imposes status gradations and gender distinctions in organizations, noting some important theoretical and practical implications of the phenomenon.*

WOMEN AND MEN IN FILM Gender Inequality Among Writers in a Culture Industry

Distinctive features of culture industries suggest that women culture workers face formidable barriers to career advancement. Using longitudinal data on the careers of screenwriters, we examine gender inequality in the labor market for writers of feature films. We hypothesize and test three different models of labor market dynamics and find support for a model of cumulative disadvantage whereby the gender gap in earnings grows as men and women move through their careers. We suggest that the transition of screenwriting from a mixed to a male-dominated occupation parallels the “empty field” phenomenon described in a study by Tuchman of nineteenth-century novelists. The institutionalization of male dominance of the film industry in the 1930s and the typecasting of women writers has had a lasting impact on gender inequality, which shows little change through the early 1990s.

STATISTICAL POWER IN COVARIANCE STRUCTURE MODELS

During the preparation of this chapter, Ross L. Matsueda received support from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice (82-IJ-CX-0060), and the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. William T. Bielby was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (NSF-BNS-76-22443). Opinions expressed in this chapter are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the funding agencies. An earlier version of this chapter was presented at the August 1984 meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Antonio. The authors are grateful to Michael E. Sobel and several anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on that version.

Response Error in Earnings Functions for Nonblack Males

Biases due to measurement errors in an earnings function for nonblack males are assessed by estimating unobserved variable models with data from the Income Supplement Reinterview program of the March 1973 Current Population Survey and from the remeasurement program of the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation-II survey. We find that reports of social origins, educational and occupational attainments, labor supply, and earnings of nonblack males are subject to primarily random response errors. Logarithmic earnings is one of the most accurately measured indicators of socioeconomic success. Further, retrospective reports of status variables are as reliable as contemporaneous reports. When measurement errors are ignored for nonblacks, the total economic return to schooling is underestimated by about 16% and the effects of some background variables are underestimated by as much as 15%. The total effects offirst and current job status are underestimated by about 20% when measurement errors are ignored, as are the unmediated effects of current job status. Conflicting evidence is presented on whether respondents tend to understate the consistency between their earnings and educational attainments in the Current Population Survey. If there is such a tendency, unmediated effects of education are modestly understated when response errors are ignored, and they are overstated if no such tendency exists.

Response Errors of Nonblack Males in Models of the Stratification Process

Abstract We assess biases due to measurement errors in structural equation models of the intergenerational transmission of socioeconomic status. Using data for nonblack males from the 1973 Occupational Changes in a Generation-II survey, we find that retrospective reports of status variables are as reliable as contemporaneous reports and that response errors are strictly random. When measurement errors are ignored, occupational returns to schooling are underestimated by about ten percent, the effects of some background variables are underestimated by as much as 19 percent, and residual variation in socioeconomic achievements is underestimated by as much as 16 percent.

Arbitrary Metrics in Multiple-Indicator Models of Latent Variables:

It is well known that only ratios of lambda coefficients are identified from moments among measured variables in most covariance structure models with latent variables. Typically, researchers establish a metric for latent variables by fixing the lambda coefficient for an arbitrarily selected reference indicator. This paper demonstrates that this practice can produce arbitrary calibration of latent variables, undermine interpretation of metric parameters, and lead to invalid cross-population comparisons. The problem is illustrated with hypothetical examples. Analytical results are derived, and implications for sociological research are discussed.