Organization

Social Organization, Formal organizations, Organizational Culture, Abstracts, Bibliographies, Syllabi, Journals, Sociologyindex, Books on Organization, Sociology Books 2009, Organizations, Organizational Crime

Social Organization - How do people organize themselves beyond the family unit? Social organization or social institution works to socialize the groups or people in it. Social organization are patterns of relationships organized to meet some human needs.

Sociology has approached the study of organizations in a number of ways. Earlier studies stressed the formal features of organizations, and described their internal functioning and the relationships among participants within the bounds of the organization itself. Over the past twenty years or so, however, a new perspective has emerged, one that sees the organization in the context of its surrounding environment (Aldrich & Marsden, 1988).

Formal organizations are typically understood to be systems of coordinated and controlled activities that arise when work is embedded in complex networks of technical relations and boundary-spanning exchanges. But in modern societies, formal organizational structures arise in highly institutional contexts. Organizations are driven to incorporate the practices and procedures defined by prevailing rationalized concepts of organizational work and institutionalized in society. Organizations that do so increase their legitimacy and their survival prospects, independent of the immediate efficacy of the acquired practices and procedures. There can develop a tension between on the one hand, the institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs that function as myths (and may be ceremonially adopted), and efficiency criteria on the other hand. To maintain ceremonial conformity, organizations that reflect institutional rules tend to buffer their formal structures from the uncertainties of the technical activities by developing a loose coupling between their formal structures and actual work activities. - (John Meyer and Brian Rowan, 1976)

Organizations: Two Sociological Perspectives
Much recent sociological work on the nature of organizations starts from the assumption that organizations are best studied and understood as parts of an environment. If organizations exist within a distinctive environment, then what aspects of that environment should be most closely examined? Sociologists have answered this question in two different ways: for some, the key features are the resources and information that may be used rationally within the organization or exchanged with other organizations within the environment; for others, the essential focus is on the cultural surround that determines and moderates the organization's possible courses of action in ways that are more subtle, less deterministic than the resources information perspective suggests. While there are many exceptions, it is probably fair to say that the resources-information approach has been more often used in analyses of commercial organizations, and the latter, cultural approach used in studies of public and non-profit organizations. - Stephen T. Kerr - Univ. of Washington

Defining formal organizations: What are they?
When we first begin to look at organizations, we need a framework within which we can understand them, hence the need to define what is and is not an organization. We may use these ideal type theoretical descriptions in comparison with real life, or look at them from various perspectives: the individual working in it as an employee or a boss, a structural analysis to look at how an organization wields its power within and then, later, from without, in the playing field with other formal organizations. What is left out in the definitions may then be pointed out.
Defining formal organizations give shape to our understanding (no doubt, an initial understanding) of what they do, why they do it and how they do it. All of us have encountered organizations before and may exist within a few at any one point in time. Yet, because of their frequency, we may take it for granted that we are dealing with organizations, not singular people, and this complexity must not be ignored. - Lim Sin Kiao, Gwendoline Anne

A singular person may find it difficult to reach particular goals on his own and therefore seeks to do so through the power and control of an organization we can see formal organizations as the means to such an end. Defining organizations as activity systems that are goal oriented point to the need to organize a group of people to attain a common goal. Doing so requires the wielding of power and the continued hold of power requires legitimacy. The link between society and organizations is also crucial in understanding an organization's power to control anything for it is within society that organizations exist and it is at the same time true that organizations  constitute society.

Defining organizations allows us to demarcate the boundaries so that we may study life within them. When we know what an organization is, we can then start to try to understand life in them , their workings, the relationships within them.

Because organizations want maximum control of power inside to get their goals, their structure is instrumental in the dissemination of this power. When we define bureaucracies in this first topic, we are aware of the external environment within which organizations exist, their need to overcome these ambiguities through dominance and the way they are structured to ensure this. Aldrich and Sinchcombe mention ambiguity out there which exists but is not within control. Here we learn that this does not matter because we do not know how to deal with it anyway. The existence within a wider environment in Stinchcombe's definition also means that there is a need for organizations to gain control beyond individual organizational units.

Social organization and structure - patterns of human interdependence realized through the actions and decisions of a society's members.

Organization - Journals

Journal of Organizational Change Management - http://www.mcb.co.uk/cgi-bin/journal1/jocm

Electronic Journal of Radical Organisation Theory (EJROT) - Univ.of Waikato - The aim of the Journal is to stimulate leading edge discussion around radical ideas in the study and practice of organisation and management. - mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ejrot/

Abstracts, Bibliographies, Syllabi, Journals, Sociologyindex, Books on Organization, Sociology Books 2009, Organizational Culture, Organizations, Organizational Crime

Organization - Abstracts

Organizational Behavior, Organizational Theory, and Strategy.- Mark's Org Theory Website - amadeus.management.mcgill.ca/~mark.mortensen/ orgweb/home.shtml

Organization, Trust and Control: A Realist Analysis. - Author/s: Michael I. Reed - Abstract- This paper develops a critical realist analysis of trust/control relations within and between complex organizations. It suggests that trust/control relations are most usefully seen as structures of interrelated 'positioned-practices' which generate, shape and constrain the development of contrasting forms of expert power in a range of organizational contexts. The paper opens with a general overview of a number of currently influential theoretical perspectives on trust/control relations in social and organizational analysis. Efficiency and rationality in organizations. - Author/s: John Freeman - In "Taking Coase Seriously," Robert Gibbons considers the use of formal economic modeling in organizational research. He makes three claims: that internal organization is often imperfect; that such imperfections are consistent with both the utility-maximizing behavior of organization members and transaction cost economizing; and that modeling, especially economic modeling, can be applied to shed light on research issues pertaining to organizations that are not the subjects of common economic analysis.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION - How do people organize themselves beyond the family unit? In this section you will learn a little about the way Hopi and Navajo traditionally organize themselves. In the video "Seasons of a Navajo" you followed the lives of one family over the course of a year. You traveled to their different places of residence. In "Hopi: Songs of the Fourth World" you learned about the family structure for the Hopi. Consider the information contained here and in the videos and answer the questions below. - Systems of social organization as an element of culture: An introduction - One characteristic of human societies as they advance along the continuum of civilization is that they become increasingly organized. Small-scale systems -- or "micro-systems" -- of organzation might include such units as the family, a system which, arguably, is present even in some non-human societies. Other micro-systems might include living groups, work teams (eg. hunting parties), or communal groups which share tasks and products among themselves.

Anthropologists tend to classify different societies according to the degree to which different groups within a society have unequal access to advantages such as resources, prestige or power. mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/learning/glues/societyintro.html

Hinduism - Social Organization
Social Organization. The Caste System. When the Aryans moved into northwest India, they imposed a caste system to organize the new society created by their arrival. They initially put together a hierarchy of four varnas (i.e., castes), which later was expanded to include a fifth category. The caste system initially served to maintain rigid social boundaries between the invaders and the previous inhabitants. Over the generations, the origins were forgotten and the system became the stratification of a single society. uwacadweb.uwyo.edu/religionet/er/hinduism/HORGS.HTM

Natural ecosystems share many features with human social systems in terms of their evolutionary origin, dynamic complexity, and control mechanisms. This paper reviews parallels between the organizational characteristics of natural and social systems that could be a model for the 21st century. bahai-library.org/conferences/ecology.html

Social Organization determined by incommunicability of insights : It is readily assumed that new understanding of problems and opportunities can be communicated comprehensibly. This is not the case. Any new insight is understood to different degrees by different people. The resulting situation can be clarified using the work of Ron Atkin (Multidimensional Man; can man live in 3-dimensional space?, 1981) on q-analysis, namely the theory and application of mathematical relations between finite sets. He has applied this to the analysis of communication patterns within complex organizations. uia.org/strategies/stratcom_bodies.php?kap=59

Florida's Native People were never organized as large political units (tribes). Rather they practiced chiefdomships; whereby the chief and individuals of several small villages chose an overall leader (usually the chief of the area's principal town). ancientnative.org/polsoc.htm

The Social Organization of Structural Stupidity. There is much of value and much at stake in the findings of those who research in the sociology of work. What is to be made; who is to get a job; the conditions of labor in the workplace; how profits are to be defined and to be shared out as well as the degree of social solidarity ...all are questions of great importance to workers, consumers, and society alike. In capitalist societies, owners and managers give most of the answers to questions such as these. csf.colorado.edu/mail/socgrad/feb96/0075.html

Center and Periphery in the Social Organization of Contemporary Nahuas of Mexico - Alan Sandstrom - poverty.worldbank.org/library/view/6024/

In this paper, the author examines the relationship between "post-industrialism" and patterns of social organization that may be observed among international migrants at the micro-level; more specifically, the connection between certain aspects of post-industrial technology such as innovations in telecommunications and transportation and the social organization of Caribbean immigrants, a subset of the New Immigrants to the United States. repositories.cdlib.org/issr/volume2/6/

Organization - Syllabus

Abstracts, Bibliographies, Syllabi, Journals, Sociologyindex, Books on Organization, Sociology Books 2009, Organizational Culture, Organizations, Organizational Crime

RURAL SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
Sociology 4351, Spring 2006
Instructor: Dr. Tim Slack
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides an in-depth overview of the social organization of rural society. While the work of many rural sociologists is international in focus, this course will focus on the special circumstances facing people who reside in small towns and rural areas in the United States. The forces of globalization, urbanization, economic restructuring, and technological change are driving major changes in the social organization of rural America, and these changes are creating new challenges for those who reside there. Questions we will examine in this course include: Who lives in rural America? What are the important issues faced by rural people, families, and communities? What options are available to rural people and communities in our rapidly changing world, and how can rural people and places influence their futures?
The format of this course will include lectures, discussions, videos, guest speakers, and student presentations.
We all come to this course with different backgrounds that have led us to hold different ideas about the rural urban continuum. This diversity should allow for an interesting exchange of ideas.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Brown, David L. and Louis E. Swanson. 2003. Challenges for Rural America in the Twenty-First Century.
University Park, PA: The Pennsylvania State University Press.
Flora, Cornelia Butler and Jan L. Flora with Susan Fey. 2004. Rural Communities: Legacy and Change. 2nd
Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
COURSE WEBSITE
This course makes use of the Blackboard website. You should be able to access Blackboard through your PAWS account. After you log into PAWS, you will find the link to Blackboard under “Student Services.” I will use the website to post course material, additional readings, grades, and  announcements. Make sure to check the website regularly.

Sociology 110 - Formal Organizations and Bureaucracy

Formal Organizations - Syllabus - Summer 2002 - Stanford University

Course Description:
The modern world is powerfully shaped by the actions of large, complex organizations. As such, the study of organizations (including everything from schools and religious organizations to corporations, political parties, and governments) has a long history within sociology. This course provides a survey of the field of organizational sociology, beginning with the works of classical theorists, and covering contemporary work on ecological, institutional, and cultural approaches to organizations. Readings for the course balance theory and empirical research.

The Necessity and Inevitablility of Formal Organization: Classical Foundations

The Necessity and Inevitability of Bureaucratic Rationality

Max Weber. "Bureaucracy," (excerpt only), from From Max Weber. ed. Gerth and Mills.

Michels, Robert. 1949. "The Iron Law of Oligarchy" in Political Parties. Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press.

Industrial Organization: Humans as Machines

Harry Braverman, "Scientific Management," from Labor and Monopoly Capital, pp. 85-123.

Karl Marx, "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts... of 1844."

Bureaucratic Dysfunction: Formal and Informal Structure

Robert Merton, "Bureaucratic Structure and Personality," from Social Theory and Social Structure, pp. 249-260.

Peter Blau. "Consultation Among Colleagues." From Dynamics of Bureaucracy. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1955, pp. 121-143.

Cognitive and Structural Limits of Bureaucratic Rationality

James March and Herbert Simon. "Cognitive Limits on Rationality," from March and Simon. Organizations. London: Blackwell, 1993, pp. 157-192.

Karl Weick. "Educational Organizations as Loosely-Coupled Systems," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 21 (1978), excerpt from article, pp. 1-9.

Organizations and Their Environments

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik, "The Social Control of Organizations," from The External Control of Organizations, pp. 39-54.

Organizations in Networks

Walter Powell, "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy," Research in Organizational Behavior, v. 12 (1990), pp. 295-336.

Brian Uzzi. "Social Structure and Competition." Administrative Science Quarterly, 42,1:35-67, 1997.

Population Ecology

Michael Hannan and Glenn R. Carroll. "An Introduction to Organizational Ecology," Pp. 17-31 from Organizations in Industry. New York: Oxford, 1995.

Michael Hannan and John Freeman. "The Population Ecology of Organizations." American Journal of Sociology, v. 82 (1977), pp. 929-964.

Community Ecology

W. Graham Astley, "The Two Ecologies: Population and Community Perspectives on Organizational Evolution," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 30 (1985), pp. 224-241.

Institutional Approaches I: Rationality Revisited

John Meyer and Brian Rowan, "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony," American Journal of Sociology, v. 83 (1977), pp. 340-363.

Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell. 1983. "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields, American Sociological Review, 48: 147-60.

Institutional Approaches II: Applications

Lauren Edelman. 1992. "Legal ambiguity and symbolic structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights law," American Journal of Sociology 97: 1531-76.

Brian Rowan. 1982. "Organizational Structure and the Institutional Environment: The Case of Public Schools," Administrative Science Quarterly, 27: 259-79.

Comparative Approaches: Organizations Embedded in Cultures

Mauro F. Guillen. 1994. "Comparative Study of Organizational Paradigms," in Models of Management, 1-20 (portion). U. of Chicago Press.

Geert Hofstede. 1984. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Abridged Edition. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. (excerpt)

Back into Organizations: Social and Cultural Approaches

Social Processes and Social Networks in Organizations

Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Conditions for the Use of Power," excerpt from Power in Organizations, pp. 67-93.

Stephen Barley, "Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 31 (1986), pp. 78-108.

Culture in Organizations
Gideon Kunda. 1992. Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. (excerpt)

Sociology 110 - Summer Session I, 2000
Formal Organizations and Bureaucracy
Instructor: Amy Davis - www.unc.edu/~abarden

This course has the following objectives: (1) study the founding, transformation, and disbanding of organizations (2) provide you with opportunities to develop writing skills and to work with others (3) provide you with an atmosphere that encourages the exploration and exchange of new ideas (4) help prepare you for your professional and/or academic careers.

Texts and Readings

The primary textbook we will read this semester is Organizations Evolving, by Howard Aldrich. I refer to it as HA in the course schedule, but here is the complete reference.

Aldrich, Howard. 1999. Organizations Evolving London: Sage.

We will also read excerpts from books and articles from academic and popular journals and newspapers. The textbook is available at the campus bookstore. The other readings are available on reserve at the Undergraduate Library and/or are electronically available on my website.

Term Project
As soon as possible, find an organization with at least 2 but no more than 30 employees to study. You may pick an organization owned by a family member or the one at which you are currently (or have formerly been) employed. You must be able to visit this organization several times, so pick a local organization or one in your hometown. In addition to visiting the organization and making careful observations, interview the founder. Use the concepts from class to tell the story of this organization. A handout will be distributed in the first week of class detailing the requirements of this paper.

Team Work
We will form teams at the beginning of the term. We will meet in our teams during most class days. Team exercises are designed to apply concepts from the readings and increase participation in class. Also, teams are opportunities to discuss issues you encounter in your term projects. I encourage teams to form study groups for exams. I also encourage teams to coordinate photocopying of reserved readings.

Course Topics
First Day of Class. Introductions.
Introduction to Organizations Evolving
-Discussion Question: Why is it important to study small organizations?

The Evolutionary Perspective.
-Discussion Question: In what ways do luck, chance, and mistakes play a role in
the evolutionary perspective of organizations?

New Organizations Part I. (Entrepreneurs and their Networks)
-Discussion Question: Why do nascent entrepreneurs use networks?

New Organizations Part II. (Knowledge and Resources)
-Discussion Question: How do most new business owners, according to Aldrich, compare to the business owners discussed in the N&O articles with regard to initial capital? Why do you suppose the similarities and differences that you find exist?

Organizational boundaries Part I.
-Discussion Question: Why do some organization leaders hire people they know?

Organizational boundaries, Part II.
-Discussion Question: In what ways can rewards influence the behavior of organizational members?

Turning employees into members
-Discussion Question: What is a cognitive heuristic? What role do they have in an organization’s community of practice?

Managers
-Discussion Question: Why is it problematic to say that managers advance through corporations as a result of merit?

New Organizational Forms Part I.
-Discussion Question: According to Besser, can Japanese forms of organizing
workers translate effectively in the United States? Why or why not?

New Organizational Forms Part II.
-Discussion Question: What are the positive consequences of teams for individual workers and for the Camry plant? Negative Consequences?

Organizational Transformation
-Discussion Question: How common are organizational transformations?

Bureaucracy
-Readings:
Perrow, Charles. 1986. Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. “Chapter 1:
Why Bureaucracy?” Pp 1-36
-Discussion Question: What are some reasons why bureaucracy is a good way to organize?

Charismatic Control
-Discussion Question: Under what conditions is charismatic control effective in organizations? What is your reaction to charismatic control? What are some ways in which Direct Selling Organizations differ from Bureaucratic Organizations?

Organizational Power
-Readings:
Ford, Ramona L. 1988. “Political and Economic Power in the United States
Today: Alternative Views.” Work, Organization, and Power. Pp. 105-148.
-Discussion Question: How does the power pluralism view differ from the power elite view?

Organizations and Social Change
-Discussion Question: Why is it important to consider age, period, and cohort effects?

New Populations
-Discussion Question: Why do new populations have to establish legitimacy?
Why don’t these new populations have legitimacy?

Reproducing Populations: Foundings and Disbandings
-Discussion Question: According to Aldrich, how do small, local breweries survive given the dominance of beer producers like Budweiser?

Organizational Death
Readings:
Sutton, Robert I. 1987. “The Process of Organizational Death: Disbanding and Reconnecting.” Administrative Science Quarterly 32:542-569.
-Discussion Question: What is a successful organizational disbanding?

Community Evolution

Organization - Bibliography

Abstracts, Bibliographies, Syllabi, Journals, Sociologyindex, Books on Organization, Sociology Books 2009, Organizational Culture, Organizations, Organizational Crime

Comparative Approaches: Organizations Embedded in Cultures

Mauro F. Guillen. 1994. "Comparative Study of Organizational Paradigms," in Models of Management, 1-20 (portion). U. of Chicago Press.

Geert Hofstede. 1984. Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-Related Values. Abridged Edition. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage. (excerpt)

Back into Organizations: Social and Cultural Approaches

Social Processes and Social Networks in Organizations

Jeffrey Pfeffer, "Conditions for the Use of Power," Power in Organizations

Stephen Barley, "Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 31 (1986), pp. 78-108.

Culture in Organizations
Gideon Kunda. 1992. Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Organizations and Their Environments

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald Salancik, "The Social Control of Organizations," from The External Control of Organizations, pp. 39-54.

Organizations in Networks

Walter Powell, "Neither Market Nor Hierarchy," Research in Organizational Behavior, v. 12 (1990), pp. 295-336.

Brian Uzzi. "Social Structure and Competition." Administrative Science Quarterly, 42,1:35-67, 1997.

Karl Weick. "Educational Organizations as Loosely-Coupled Systems," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 21 (1978), excerpt from article, pp. 1-9.

Population Ecology

Michael Hannan and Glenn R. Carroll. "An Introduction to Organizational Ecology," Pp. 17-31 from Organizations in Industry. New York: Oxford, 1995.

Michael Hannan and John Freeman. "The Population Ecology of Organizations." American Journal of Sociology, v. 82 (1977), pp. 929-964.

Community Ecology

W. Graham Astley, "The Two Ecologies: Population and Community Perspectives on Organizational Evolution," Administrative Science Quarterly, v. 30 (1985), pp. 224-241.

Institutional Approaches I: Rationality Revisited

John Meyer and Brian Rowan, "Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony," American Journal of Sociology, v. 83 (1977), pp. 340-363.

Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell. 1983. "The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields, American Sociological Review, 48: 147-60.

Institutional Approaches II: Applications

Lauren Edelman. 1992. "Legal ambiguity and symbolic structures: Organizational Mediation of Civil Rights law," American Journal of Sociology 97: 1531-76.

Brian Rowan. 1982. "Organizational Structure and the Institutional Environment: The Case of Public Schools," Administrative Science Quarterly, 27: 259-79.

Books On Organization

Sociology of Organizations: Classic, Contemporary and Critical Readings
Book by Michael J. Handel (Editor)
"Michael Handel has assembled an authoritative and wide-ranging collection of key articles in the organizations field, and complements these papers with a terrific critical survey of the literature. His introductory essays will benefit both students and researchers alike. This collection is a real service to the field."
- Walter W. Powell, Stanford University
"A unique reader and commentary with broad coverage of the classics, combined with a healthy skepticism about received theories and an emphasis on the impact of organizations on society. The lucid commentary brightens the field."
- Charles Perrow, Yale University
For the first time, a single volume offers a comprehensive selection of primary readings and companion overview essays on the sociology of organizations. These readings and essays provide incisive and guided coverage of the subjects normally included in a one-semester sociology of organizations course.
The Sociology of Organizations covers the full range of theoretical perspectives and substantive topics through readings that are either classics in the field or widely discussed and debated "new classics."

Section introductions explain key terms and concepts, provide illustrations, and summarize related debates and research in clear prose. The depth of these overview essays makes this book ideal for use as either as a stand-alone text or a supplementary reader. After reading this book, students will have a thorough understanding of central concepts and an appreciation of the primary texts that are the foundation of the field.
Scholars and students in the fields of sociology, management, organizational behavior, and organizational psychology and those within political science and economics who are interested in how organizations function will find this work a welcome, invaluable resource.

The Social Psychology of Behavior in Small Groups
Book by Donald C. Pennington
Covers theories of group behavior and their application in organizational psychology and everyday social behavior. Topics include structure, formation, roles of individuals within groups, co-operation, conflict, teamwork, leadership, and
decision-making.

Organizational Behavior
Book by John R. Schermerhorn, James G. Hunt, Richard N. Osborn
The theme of this edition is The High Performance Organization. Ethics and social responsibility, workforce diversity,
technology, entrepreneurship, and skill-building are some of the important topics emphasized. Schermerhorn's new edition is intended for the Organizational Behavior course taught at most 2-year and 4-year colleges.

Social Psychology of Organizational Behavior: Key Readings
Book by Leigh L. Thompson (Editor)
Each article in this collection of readings has been carefully chosen for its tremendous impact on the field of organizational behavior. It focuses specifically on micro-organizational behavior, which has almost uniquely been influenced by social psychology. The reader is carefully structured into Sections which reflect a progression through widening levels of analysis: the
science of organizational behavior; decision making; negotiation and social dilemmas; groups and teams; procedural justice; relationships and trust; and vales, norms and politics. This volume is in an attractive, user-friendly format and will make excellent supplementary reading to courses on the social psychology, work and organizational psychology, and business.