UC Irvine

The concept of "coalition" has been prominent in the organizational lit­erature for more than 25 years (March & Simon, 1958; Thompson & McEwen, 1958). However, the concept has been applied inconsistently and frequent! , has been a secondary subject of attention by those with primary interests in studying other organizational phenomena. Furthermore, de­spite the existence of research on coalitions in social psychology and po­litical science, the organizational context-we contend-makes generalizations from the findings in these other fields tenuous. The focus of the present paper is on: (1) a review and critique of the use of the term coalition in the field of organizational behavior; and (2) an elaboration of the features of the organizational context that strongly affect conclusions regarding the origins, nature and impact of coalitions. (For a more complete version of the first section of this paper that reviews the historical usage of the concept, see Stevenson, Pearce & Porter, 1985.)