Causal analysis

the long version

This book focuses specifically on confirmatory analysis - a quantitative technique used to illuminate causal relationships among organizational phenomena. The authors outline the conditions that must be met if causal inferences are to be drawn from nonexperimental data, and offer new tests for determining whether data meet those conditions. While analytic models and techniques of confirmatory analysis are stressed here, the authors also emphasize the importance of strong, well-developed theory as a prerequisite to the appropriate application of these powerful (but easily misused) tools.