Lawler, Edward

Edward J. Lawler, born in 1943, is an American theorist and experimental sociologist. He links properties of social structure to individual perceptions, emotions, and attributions to explain a range of social phenomena. Working primarily within the social exchange tradition of sociology, he has developed numerous theories that relate social structure to bargaining, voluntarism, commitment, emotion, and micro social order. He has authored several books, including Power and Politics in Organizations (1980) and Bargaining: Power, Tactics and Outcomes (1981) (both with Samuel B. Bacharach). He is the founding editor of Advances in Group Processes, the 2002 winner of the Cooley-Mead Award for lifetime achievement, and most recently the Martin P. Catherwood Professor at Cornell University. Lawler is currently the Dean of the School of Industrial and ...