Norton Specializes in the Sociology of Organizations and Corporate Culture

An English major at Lafayette, Thomas Norton ’59 returned to campus in 1967 to help launch the fledgling anthropology and sociology department. With four years of working for Bell Telephone of Pennsylvania and an M.B.A. earned before beginning doctoral studies in sociology at the University of Pittsburgh, it’s not surprising that his area of specialization is corporate culture and the sociology of organizations.

Norton, professor of sociology, studies the sociological theory of the firm and the dynamics of decision-making and corporate culture. “Business decisions usually deviate from pure rationality,” he says. “The managerial culture is often more important than the market. But corporate culture varies by industry and even among firms in the same industry.” Differences also exist between big businesses or big organizations versus smaller businesses and entrepreneurs, who often have a different relationship to the community and with their customers. He is interested in those differences and the unwritten rules that exist in every job and company regarding power and decision-making. “It has been possible—although not always the case—for very large corporations, like Chrysler in the past, to use their political clout to avoid failure and receive help from the government, or to accommodate their own business agendas. Small businesses live quarter to quarter and thus are more vulnerable to market forces in the short run. Although the use of political persuasion is still very much a part of American business, society’s increasing demands on the firm and the globalization of our economy have thrust the business system into a much more turbulent environment.”

Having studied the corporate culture of Bethlehem Steel in the early 1980s, he is saddened but not surprised the company filed a petition under chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy law. “It was rather predictable,” says Norton. “Bethlehem Steel was the second largest steel company in the U.S. It’s been in a protracted decline for decades. There is an oversupply of steel in the world market, and Bethlehem, moreover, was slow to adopt changes in technology. There was a feeling of insularity within the company. For years their board was dominated by insiders. Thus, the corporation was resistant to change.” He recounts a story he heard when doing his research on Bethlehem two decades ago. “I interviewed an employee who was in Steel’s famous Loop program (a management training program) in the 1950s. He went down to Texas to try to sell steel to a customer, who told him he could get the identical product cheaper from a supplier in Japan. Shocked, the salesman confirmed the information and told his supervisor who said, ‘Don’t worry. Those Texans are too patriotic not to buy from an American supplier.’ That was 30 years ago. Steel didn’t respond very well to the international competition.”

He is currently working with Mary Cate Guinan ’03 on an independent study examining the sociological aspects of the role of physician assistant vis-à-vis others in a hospital. Guinan is doing an internship in the physician assistant shadowing program at a hospital in the Lehigh Valley. She is keeping a log of the interactions and banter among doctors, nurses, and physician assistants to learn what this reveals about the role and status of physician assistants, and the dignity and autonomy they have in their jobs. “Hospitals are miniature social systems,” says Norton. “She is learning about the organization, but is not of the organization, so she maintains an analytical perspective to examine the social meaning of the work. For example, do doctors, nurses, and physician assistants rely on the formal aspects of their roles, or do their words and actions, such as banter in the operating room, tell us more about their work?”

Norton has devoted a good part of his career to service, both on campus and in the community. He served on many faculty committees, is a commissioner of the Easton Public Housing Authority, and is active in his church, St. Bernard’s, Easton.

“Lafayette has been a good fit for me,” he says. “It is unquestionably a stronger institution that it was when I came in the mid-1950s. The faculty is stronger, the curriculum is deeper, and even the students are better–all thanks to the concentrated efforts of many people over the years.”

“I took all of Professor Norton’s sociology courses,” says Jonathan Gralnick ’96, a manager for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. “I thought he was an interesting professor. I liked his classes and kept going.” An economics and business graduate, Gralnick particularly enjoyed the courses on corporate culture and class, status, and power. “Understanding relationships and power structure in a business environment, group dynamics, and working relationships have been very helpful in my career. In business decisions, numbers are important but also thinking outside the box about the responsibility, motivation, and goals of other stakeholders in the community.”

“Professor Norton is a wonderful professor and I always sought him out for advice,” says Jermaine Williams ’01, an anthropology and sociology graduate who played football defensive end at Lafayette. He earned a master’s degree in sociology at St Johns University, Long Island, N.Y. and is now an academic and general adviser for freshmen there. “He played an instrumental role in my post-Lafayette plans by facilitating the process of applying to graduate school.”

Highlights

Publications: Norton, “The Narcissism and Moral Mazes of Corporate Life: A Comment on the Writings of Howard Schwartz and Robert Jackall,” Business Ethics Quarterly, vol. 2, no. 1, pp.63-69, 1992.

Honors: Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, 1982; Jones Faculty Lecture Award, 1976.

Achievements:Commissioner, Easton Public Housing Authority, 1995–present; chairman, Downtown Improvement Group of Easton, 1981-82; Sloan Foundation grant, 1975-76.

Contact: (610) 330-5186, nortont@lafayette.edu