On sustaining research agendas: Their moral and scientific basis

On the fiftieth anniversary of TVA and the Grass Roots' publication, Selznick reviewed his and the book's career in a talk at the Western Academy Management. He emphasized the dangers of separating organizational means from moral ends and of allowing cooptation to compromise too many of an organization's positive goals. Selznick noted similarities between his works and the later perspective of new institutional theory and concluded by urging organizational researchers to focus more on integrity and corporate responsibility.