The personalities who have come and gone in five editions of Writers o
n Organizations epitomize the changes in organization theory during th
e ASQ years. An analysis is made of the trends shown by those who have
been ''top of the pops'' in this longstanding book of summaries. One
trend in particular is examined: the slow though accelerating growth o
f cross-national research. Despite this acceleration, organization the
ory is still globally patchy. It is overwhelmingly Northern and Wester
n, that is, North American and Euro-U.K. Further comparison of papers
in the American-based ASQ and the European-based Organization Studies
shows that Americans cite Americans and very little else. Organization
theory and its theorists continue to be uncomfortably ethnocentric.