Udy divides methods of work organization into 'production determined', 'technologically determined', 'socially determined', and 'pluralistic' types, and examines their prevalence across societies with varying subsistence activities and levels of social and political stratification. Special attention is paid to processes of integration and differentiation and their role in effecting transitions between organization types.

This book is a comparative study of the ways in which work is organized among non-industrial societies in the production of material goods. Two general hypotheses guide the author's work: (1) The structure of any work organization is influenced by both techonological processes and social setting, and (2) The structure of any reward system is influenced by the characteristics of the work organization, the social setting, and the limits imposed by features of the technological processes. Several predictions are presented and all are supported.

This study examines organizational characteristics associated with administrative rationality, as well as how organizational development differs under varying social or cultural conditions.

This study asserts that the structure of work organizations is affected more by production techniques than societal complexity. Empirical analysis suggests two trends: 1) production techniques that increase the importance of workers will influence rationality in work organizations, and 2) production techniques that increase the importance of workers and societal complexity will affect the bureaucratic elements of work organizations approximately equally. These findings challenge Udy’s (1970) thesis that complex peasant societies face more challenges than less complex societies in transitioning to modern industrial work forms.

Drawing from cultural evolution theory, the authors develop a model to explain the origin and evolution of productive organizations (organizations specialized in producing goods and services to satisfy human needs). They propose that productive organizations have two characteristics: exclusive membership and enhanced social learning within the organization. They find their predictions supported in a global sample of premodern societies.

This study employs factor analysis to develop a settlement pattern scale of cultural complexity. Political, economic, and religious factors are identified and implications for the structure of the cultural system are discussed.

"This paper presents an exploratory attempt to solve the problem of how to infer traits for which no direct material evidence remains." The author suggests that the archeologically defined community pattern can predict several sociocultural traits. Results support this hypothesis.

This manuscript examines the relationship between contribution to subsistence and residence localization. This relationship is explored separately for both genders in both agricultural and non-agricultural societies. Results indicate that the relationship is positive for males in non-agricultural societies and negative for females in agricultural societies. Tests on community size, marginality, and endogamy are also conducted.

This study tests an adaptational theory of military organization. Test of the relationship between population, residence type and military organization are presented; findings support the hypotheses.

The author explicitly defines and provides code for male and female age organizations and secret societies in Africa, as well as their significant sociopolitical roles within society. The author conducts preliminary analysis using the codes to explore characteristics and regional patterns of such organizations and societies. The analysis is compared to existing studies in order to assess the code and better understand cross-cultural patterns and variances. The author identifies the usefulness of the code beyond Africa, and discusses avenues for future research. No explicit hypotheses were tested, but Ericksen includes some descriptive generalizations.