Organization - Syllabus

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
Tuesday, May 23: First Day of Class. Introductions.
Wednesday, May 24: Introduction to Organizations Evolving
-Discussion Question: Why is it important to study small organizations?

Thursday, May 25: The Evolutionary Perspective.
-Discussion Question: In what ways do luck, chance, and mistakes play a role in
the evolutionary perspective of organizations?

Friday, May 26: New Organizations Part I. (Entrepreneurs and their Networks)
-Discussion Question: Why do nascent entrepreneurs use networks?

Tuesday, May 30: 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?

Wednesday, May 31: Organizational boundaries Part I.
-Discussion Question: Why do some organization leaders hire people they know?

Thursday, June 1: Organizational boundaries, Part II.
-Discussion Question: In what ways can rewards influence the behavior of organizational members?

Monday, June 5: Turning employees into members
-Discussion Question: What is a cognitive heuristic? What role do they have in an organization’s community of practice?

Tuesday, June 6: Managers
-Discussion Question: Why is it problematic to say that managers advance through corporations as a result of merit?

Wednesday, June 7: 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?

Thursday, June 8: New Organizational Forms Part II.
-Discussion Question: What are the positive consequences of teams for individual workers and for the Camry plant? Negative Consequences?

Monday, June 12: Organizational Transformation
-Discussion Question: How common are organizational transformations?

Tuesday, June 13: 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?

Wednesday, June 14: 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?

Thursday, June 15: 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?

Monday, June 19: Organizations and Social Change
-Discussion Question: Why is it important to consider age, period, and cohort effects?

Tuesday, June 20: New Populations
-Discussion Question: Why do new populations have to establish legitimacy?
Why don’t these new populations have legitimacy?

Wednesday, June 21: Reproducing Populations: Foundings and Disbandings
-Discussion Question: According to Aldrich, how do small, local breweries survive given the dominance of beer producers like Budweiser?

Thursday, June 22: 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?

Friday, June 23: Community Evolution