The impact of external control arrangements on organizational performance

There is currently high interest in the emergent reorganization of market a nd regulatory structure in the United States' electric energy sector. This article focuses attention on external organizational control structures and processes that have become institutionalized in that sector It specificall y addresses the organized environments in which public, quasi-public, and p rivately owned distributors of electricity have operated in recent history An approach to analysis of the impact of past policy choices on organizatio nal performance is presented using data envelopment analysis (DEA). It is c oncluded that DEA provides an interesting starting point for the comparativ e analysis of organizational performance.