The Organizational Saga in Higher Education

Author(s): Burton R. Clark

Source: Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Jun., 1972), pp. 178-184
Published by: Sage Publications, Inc. on behalf of the Johnson Graduate School of Management,
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 Burton R. Clark

The Organizational Saga in Higher Education

An organizational saga is a collective understanding of a unique accomplish-

ment based on historical exploits of a formal organization, offering strong norma-
tive bonds within and outside the organization. Believers give loyalty to the
organization and take pride and identity from it. A saga begins as strong purpose,
introduced by a man (or small group) with a mission, and is fulfilled as it is
embodied in organizational practices and the values of dominant organizational
cadres, usually taking decades to develop. Examples of the initiation and fulfill-
ment of sagas in academic organizations are presented from research on Antioch,
Reed, and Swarthmore.1

Saga, originally referring to a medieval development. The participants have added

Icelandic or Norse account of achievements affect, an emotional loading, which places
and events in the history of a person or their conception between the coolness of ra-
group, has come to mean a narrative of tional purpose and the warmth of sentiment
heroic exploits, of a unique development that found in religion and magic. An organiza-
has deeply stirred the emotions of partici- tional saga presents some rational explanation
pants and descendants. Thus a saga is not of how certain means led to certain ends, but
simply a story but a story that at some time it also includes affect that turns a formal
has had a particular base of believers. The place into a beloved institution, to which
term often refers also to the actual history participants may be passionately devoted.
itself, thereby including a stream of events, Encountering such devotion, the observer
the participants, and the written or spoken may become unsure of his own analytical
interpretation. The element of belief is cru- detachment as he tests the overtones of the
cial, for without the credible story, the events institutional spirit or spirit of place.
and persons become history; with the de- The study of organizational sagas high-
velopment of belief, a particular bit of history lights nonstructural and nonrational dimen-
becomes a definition full of pride and identity sions of organizational life and achievement.
for the group. Macroorganizational theory has concentrated
on the role of structure and technology in
INTRODUCTION organizational effectiveness (Gross, 1964;
An organizational saga is a collective un- Litterer, 1965; March, 1965; Thompson, 1967;
derstanding of unique accomplishment in a Price, 1968; Perrow, 1970). A needed cor-
formally established group. The group's defi- rective is more research on the cultural and
nition of the accomplishment, intrinsically expressive aspects of organizations, particu-
historical but embellished through retelling larly on the role of belief and sentiment at
and rewriting, links stages of organizational broad levels of organization. The human-
relations approach in organizational analysis,
1 Revised version of paper presented at the 65th
centered largely on group interaction, showed
Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Asso- some awareness of the role of organization
ciation, September, 1970, Washington, D.C. I wish symbols (Whyte, 1948: ch. 23), but this
to thank Wendell Bell, Maren L. Carden, Kai conceptual lead has not been taken as a
Erikson, and Stanley Udy for discussion and com- serious basis for research. Also, in the litera-
ment. Parts of an early draft of this paper have
been used to connect organizational belief to prob-
ture on organizations and purposive com-
lems of governance in colleges and universities munities, "ideology" refers to unified and
(Clark, 1971). shared belief (Selznick, 1949; Bendix, 1956;
178

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 Clark: THE ORGANIZATIONALSAGA 179

Price, 1968: 104-110; Carden, 1969); but the baseball or football team may create a rags-
concept of ideology has lost denotative to-riches legend in a few months' time that
power, having been stretched by varying excites millions of people. But such a saga is
uses. For the phenomenon discussed in this also very fragile as an ongoing definition of
paper, "saga" seems to provide the appro- the organization. The story can be removed
priate denotation. With a general emphasis quickly from the collective understanding of
on normative bonds, organizational saga re- the present and future, for successful per-
fers to a unified set of publicly expressed be- formance is often unstable, and the events
liefs about the formal group that (a) is that set the direction of belief can be readily
rooted in history, (b) claims unique accom- reversed, with the great winners quickly be-
plishment, and (c) is held with sentiment coming habitual losers. In such cases, there
by the group. seems to be an unstable structural connection
To develop the concept in this paper, ex- between the organization and the base of
treme cases and exaggerations of the ideal believers. The base of belief is not anchored
type are used; but the concept will be close within the organization nor in personal ties
to reality and widely applicable when the between insiders and outsiders, but is me-
phenomenon is examined in weak as well as diated by mass media, away from the control
strong expression. In many organizations, of the organization. Such sagas continue only
even some highly utilitarian ones, some seg- as the organization keeps repeating its earlier
ment of their personnel probably develop in success and also keeps the detached follow-
time at least a weak saga. Those who have ers from straying to other sources of excite-
persisted together for some years in one place ment and identification.
will have had at minimum, a thin stream of In contrast, organizational sagas show high
shared experience, which they elaborate into durability when built slowly in structured
a plausible account of group uniqueness. social contexts; for example, the educational
Whether developed primarily by manage- system, specifically for the purposes of this
ment or by employees, the story helps ra- paper, three liberal arts colleges in the United
tionalize for the individual his commitment of States. In the many small private colleges,
time and energy for years, perhaps for a life- the story of special performance emerges not
time, to a particular enterprise. Even when in a few months but over a decade or two.
weak, the belief can compensate in part for When the saga is firmly developed, it is em-
the loss of meaning in much modern work, bodied in many components of the organiza-
giving some drama and some cultural identity tion, affecting the definition and performance
to one's otherwise entirely instrumental of the organization and finding protection in
efforts. At the other end of the continuum, the webbing of the institutional parts. It is
a saga engages one so intensely as to make not volatile and can be relegated to the past
his immediate place overwhelmingly valu- only by years of attenuation or organizational
able. It can even produce a striking distor- decline.
tion, with the organization becoming the only Since the concept of organizational saga
reality, the outside world becoming illusion. was developed from research on Reed, An-
Generally the almost complete capture of tioch, and Swarthmore, three distinctive and
affect and perception is associated with only highly regarded colleges (Clark, 1970), ma-
a few utopian communities, fanatical politi- terial and categories from their develop-
cal factions, and religious sects. But some mental histories are used to illustrate the
formal rationalized organizations, as for ex- development of a saga, and its positive effects
ample business and education, can also be- on organizational participation and effective-
come utopian, fanatical, or sectarian. ness are then considered.2
Organizational sagas vary in durability.
They can arise quickly in relatively unstruc- 2 For some discussion of the risks and tensions

tured social settings, as in professional sports associated with organizational sagas, particularly
that of success in one period leading to later rigidity
organizations that operate in the volatile and stagnation, see Clark (1970: 258-261). Hale
context of contact with large spectator audi- (1970) gives an illuminating discussion of various
ences through the mass media. A professional effects of a persistent saga in a theological seminary.

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180 ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
DEVELOPMENT OF SAGA
Two stages can be distinguished in the
development of an organizational saga, ini-
tiation and fulfillment. Initiation takes place
under varying conditions and occurs within
a relatively short period of time; fulfillment
is related to features of the organization that
are enduring and more predictable.
Initiation
Strong sagas do not develop in passive or-
ganizations tuned to adaptive servicing of
demand or to the fulfilling of roles dictated
by higher authorities (Clark, 1956, 1960) .The
saga is initially a strong purpose, conceived
and enunciated by a single man or a small
cadre (Selznick, 1957) whose first task is to
find a setting that is open, or can be opened,
to a special effort. The most obvious setting
is the autonomous new organization, where
there is no established structure, no rigid
custom, especially if a deliberate effort has
been made to establish initial autonomy and
bordering outsiders are preoccupied. There
a leader may also have the advantage of
building from the top down, appointing lieu-
tenants and picking up recruits in accord
with his ideas.
Reed College is strongly characterized by
a saga, and its story of hard-won excellence
and nonconformity began as strong purpose
in a new organization. Its first president,
William T. Foster, a thirty-year-old, high-
minded reformer, from the sophisticated East
of Harvard and Bowdoin went to the untu-
tored Northwest, to an unbuilt campus in
suburban Portland in 1910, precisely because
he did not want to be limited by established
institutions, all of which were, to his mind,
corrupt in practice. The projected college in
Oregon was clear ground, intellectually as
well as physically, and he could there assem-
ble the people and devise the practices that
would finally give the United States an aca-
demically pure college, a Balliol for America.
The second setting for initiation is the
established organization in a crisis of decay.
Those in charge, after years of attempting
incremental adjustments (Lindblom, 1959),
realize finally that they must either give up
established ways or have the organization
fail. Preferring that it survive, they may re-
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linquish the leadership to one proposing a
plan that promises revival and later strength,
or they may- even accept a man of utopian
intent. Deep crisis in the established organi-
zation thus creates some of the conditions of
a new organization. It suspends past practice,
forces some bordering groups to stand back
or even to turn their backs on failure of the
organization, and it tends to catch the atten-
tion of the reformer looking for an opportun-
ity.
Antioch College is a dramatic example of
such a setting. Started in the 1860's, its first
sixty years were characterized by little
money, weak staff, few students, and ob-
scurity. Conditions worsened in the 1910's
under the inflation and other strains of World
War I. In 1919 a charismatic utopian re-
former, Arthur E. Morgan, decided it was
more advantageous to take over an old col-
lege with buildings and a charter than to
start a new one. First as trustee and then as
president, he began in the early 1920's an
institutional renovation that overturned
everything. As president he found it easy
to push aside old, weak organizational struc-
tures and usages. He elaborated a plan of
general education involving an unusual com-
bination of work, study, and community par-
ticipation; and he set about to devise the
implementing tool. Crisis and charisma made
possible a radical transformation out of
which came a second Antioch, a college soon
characterized by a sense of exciting history,
unique practice, and exceptional perfor-
mance.
The third context for initiation is the es-
tablished organization that is not in crisis,
not collapsing from long decline, yet ready
for evolutionary change. This is the most
difficult situation to predict, having to do
with degree of rigidity. In both ideology and
structure, institutionalized colleges vary in
openness to change. In those under church
control, for example, the colleges of the more
liberal Protestant denominations have been
more hospitable than Catholic colleges, at
least until recently, to educational experi-
mentation. A college with a tradition of pres-
idential power is more open to change than
one where the trustees and the professors
exert control over the president. Particularly
promising is the college with a self-defined
 Clark: THE ORGANIZATIONALSAGA
need for educational leadership. This is the
opening for which some reformers watch,
the sound place that has some ambition to
increase its academic stature, as for example,
Swarthmore College.
Swarthmore began in the 1860's, and had
become by 1920 a secure and stable college,
prudently managed by Quaker trustees and
administrators and solidly based on tradi-
tional support from nearby Quaker families
in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland.
Such an organization would not usually be
thought promising for reform, but Frank
Aydelotte, who became its president in 1920,
judged it ready for change. Magnetic in per-
sonality, highly placed within the elite circle
of former Rhodes scholars, personally liked
by important foundation officials, and rec-
ommended as a scholarly leader, he was
offered other college presidencies, but he
chose Swarthmore as a place open to change
through a combination of financial health,
liberal Quaker ethos, and some institutional
ambition. His judgment proved correct, al-
though the tolerance for his changes in the
1920's and 1930's was narrow at times. He
began the gradual introduction of a modified
Oxford honors program and related changes,
which resulted in noteworthy achievements
that supporters were to identify later as
"the Swarthmore saga" (Swarthmore College
Faculty, 1941).
Fulfillment
Although the conditions of initiation of a
saga vary, the means of fulfillment are more
predictable. There are many ways in which
a unified sense of a special history is ex-
pressed; for example, even a patch of side-
walk or a coffee room may evoke emotion
among the believers; but one can delimit the
components at the center of the development
of a saga. These may center, in colleges, on
the personnel, the program, the external so-
cial base, the student subculture, and the
imagery of the saga.
Personnel. In a college, the key group of
believers is the senior faculty. When they
are hostile to a new idea, its attenuation is
likely; when they are passive, its success is
weak; and when they are devoted to it, a
saga is probable. A single leader, a college
president, can initiate the change, but the
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181
organizational idea will not be expanded over
the years and expressed in performance un-
less ranking and powerful members of the
faculty become committed to it and remain
committed even after the initiator is gone.
In committing themselves deeply, taking
some credit for the change and seeking to
ensure its perpetuation, they routinize the
charisma of the leader in collegial authority.
The faculty cadre of believers helps to effect
the legend, then to protect it against later
leaders and other new participants who, less
pure in belief, might turn the organization
in some other direction.
Such faculty cadres were well developed
at Reed by 1925, after the time of its first
two presidents; at Antioch, by the early
1930's, after Morgan, disappointed with his
followers, left for the board of directors of
the new TVA; and at Swarthmore, by the
1930's, and particularly by 1940, after Ay-
delotte's twenty years of persistent effort.
In all three colleges, after the departure of
the change agent(s), the senior faculty with
the succeeding president, a man appropriate
for consolidation, undertook the full working
out of the experiment. The faculty believers
also replaced themselves through socializa-
tion and selective recruitment and retention
in the 1940's and 1950's. Meanwhile, new
potential innovators had sometimes to be
stopped. In such instances, the faculty was
able to exert influence to shield the distinc-
tive effort from erosion or deflection. At
Reed, for example, major clashes between
president and faculty in the late 1930's and
the early 1950's were precipitated by a new
change-oriented president, coming in from
the outside, disagreeing with a faculty proud
of what had been done, attached deeply to
what the college had become, and deter-
mined to maintain what was for them the
distinctive Reed style. From the standpoint
of constructing a regional and national model
of purity and severity in undergraduate edu-
cation, the Reed faculty did on those occa-
sions act to create while acting to conserve.
Program. For a college to transform pur-
pose into a credible story of unique accom-
plishment, there must be visible practices
with which claims of distinctiveness can be
supported; that is, unusual courses, note-
worthy requirements, or special methods of
182 ADMINISTRATIVE
teaching. On the basis of seemingly unique
practices, the program becomes a set of
communal symbols and rituals, invested with
meaning. Not reporting grades to the stu-
dents becomes a symbol, as at Reed, that
the college cares about learning for learn-
ing's sake; thus mere technique becomes
part of a saga.
In all the three colleges, the program was
seen as distinctive by both insiders and out-
siders. At Swarthmore it was the special
seminars and other practices of the honors
program, capped by written and oral exam-
ination by teams of visiting outsiders in the
last days of the senior year. At Antioch it
was the work-study cycle, the special set
of general education requirements, commun-
ity government, and community involvement.
At Reed it was the required freshman lec-
ture-and-seminar courses, the junior qualify-
ing examination, and the thesis in the senior
year. Such practices became central to a
belief that things had been done so differ-
ently, and so much against the mainstream,
and often against imposing odds, that the
group had generated a saga.
Social base. The saga also becomes fixed in
the minds of outside believers devoted to the
organization, usually the alumni. The alumni
are the best located to hold beliefs endur-
ingly pure, since they can be as strongly
identified with a special organizational his-
tory as the older faculty and administrators
and yet do not have to face directly the new
problems generated by a changing environ-
ment or students. Their thoughts can remain
centered on the past, rooted in the days
when, as students, they participated inti-
mately in the unique ways and accomplish-
ments of the campus.
Liberal alumni, as those of Reed, Antioch,
and Swarthmore here, seek to conserve what
they believe to be a unique liberal institution
and to protect it from the conservative forces
of society that might change it-that is, to
make it like other colleges. At Reed, for ex-
ample, dropouts as well as graduates were
struck by the intellectual excellence of their
small college, convinced that college life
there had been unlike college life anywhere
else, and they were ready to conserve the
practices that seemed to sustain that excel-
lence. Here too, conserving acts can be seen
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SCIENCE QUARTERLY
for a time as contributing to an innovation,
protecting the full working out of a distinc-
tive effort.
Student subculture. The student body is
the third group of believers, not overwhelm-
ingly important but still a necessary support
for the saga. To become and remain a saga,
a change must be supported by the student
subculture over decades, and the ideology of
the subculture must integrate with the cen-
tral ideas of the believing administrators and
faculty. When the students define themselves
as personally responsible for upholding the
image of the college, then a design or plan
has become an organizational saga.
At Antioch, Reed, and Swarthmore, the
student subcultures were powerful mecha-
nisms for carrying a developing saga from
one generation to another. Reed students,
almost from the beginning and extending at
least to the early 1960's, were great believers
in the uniqueness of their college, constantly
on the alert for any action that would alter
it, ever fearful that administration or faculty
might succumb to pressures that would make
Reed just like other colleges. Students at
Antioch and Swarthmore also offered unstint-
ing support for the ideology of their institu-
tion. All three student bodies steadily and
dependably transferred the ideology from
one generation to another. Often socializing
deeply, they helped produce the graduate
who never quite rid himself of the wish to
go back to the campus.
Imagery of saga. Upheld by faculty,
alumni, and students, expressed in teaching
practices, the saga is even more widely ex-
pressed as a generalized tradition in statues
and ceremonies, written histories and current
catalogues, even in an "air about the place"
felt by participants and some outsiders. The
more unique the history and the more force-
ful the claim to a place in history, the more
intensely cultivated the ways of sharing
memory and symbolizing the institution. The
saga is a strong self-fulfilling belief; working
through institutional self-image and public
image, it is indeed a switchman (Weber,
1946), helping to determine the tracks along
which action is pushed by men's self-defined
interests. The early belief of one stage brings
about the actions that warrant a stronger
version of the same belief in a later period.
 Clark: THE ORGANIZATIONALSAGA 183
As the account develops, believers come to dine and loss. Loyalty causes individuals to
sense its many constituent symbols as inex- stay with a system, to save and improve it
tricably bound together, and the part takes rather than to leave to serve their self-inter-
its meaning from the whole. For example, est elsewhere (Hirschman, 1970). The gene-
at Antioch a deep attachment developed in sis and persistence of loyalty is a key organi-
the 1930's and 1940's to Morgan's philosophy zational and analytical problem. Enduring
of the whole man and to its expression in loyalty follows from a collective belief of
a unique combination of work, study, com- participants that their organization is distinc-
munity participation, and many practices tive. Such a belief comes from a credible
thought to embody freedom and noncon- story of uncommon effort, achievement, and
formity. Some of the faculty of those years form.
who remained in the 1940's and 1950's had Pride in the organized group and pride in
many memories and impressions that seemed one's identity as taken from the group are
to form a symbolic whole: personnel coun- personal returns that are uncommon in mod-
selors, folk dancing in Red Square, Morgan's ern social involvement. The development of
towering physique, the battles of community sagas is one way in which men in organiza-
government, the pacifism of the late 1930's, tions increase such returns, reducing their
the frequent dash of students to off-campus sense of isolation and increasing their per-
jobs, the dedicated deans who personified sonal pride and pleasure in organizational
central values. Public image also grew strong life. Studying the evocative narratives and
and sharp, directing liberals and radicals to devotional ties of formal systems leads to a
the college and conservatives to other places. better understanding of the fundamental ca-
The symbolic expressions themselves were pacities of organizations to enhance or di-
a strong perpetuating force. minish the lives of participants. The organi-
zation possessing a saga is a place in which
CONCLUSION participants for a time at least happily accept
An organizational saga is a powerful means their bond.
of unity in the formal place. It makes links
across internal divisions and organizational Burton R. Clark is a professor of sociology
boundaries as internal and external groups at Yale University.
share their common belief. With deep emo-
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