This summary for the course “Sociology of Organization” concerns your own lesson notes, slides and all the info from the handbook.. With this summary, I got a good grade in 1st seat, hopefully it will help you too!
Sociology of Organizations
Contents table:
Chapter 0: Introduction class
Chapter 1: Organizations as rational systems
C1.1. Table of contents
C1.2. Content
C1.3. The encapsulation of social life in organizational relations
C1.4. Types of organizational problems and publics: ingredients of organizations
C1.5. What is an organization: general definitions
C1.6. Organizations: (other) essential ingredients
C1.7. The study of organizations: from common to divergent features
C1.8. What is an organization? A rational system definition
C1.9. What is an organization? Natural and open system definitions
C1.10. What is an organization? An open system definition
C1.11. Selected schools & theories
C1.11.1. Taylor’s scientific management
C.1.11.2. Fayol’s administrative theory
C.1.11.3. Simon’s theory of administrative behavior
C.1.11.4. Weber’s theory of bureaucracy:
Chapter 2. Organizations: Natural and open system perspectives
C2.1. = 4 perspectives:
C2.2. Content
C2.3. Organizations as natural systems
C2.4. Organizations as natural systems: Goal complexity
C2.5. Selznick’s institutional approach
C2.6. Organizations as natural systems: Informal structure
C2.7. Barnard’s cooperative system
C2.8. Mayo and the human relations school
C2.9. Organizations as open systems
Chapter 3: Organizational typologies and correlations studies
C3.0. Assignment: organizations in action
C3.1. Content
C3.2. Comparative organization studies: Typology and correlation studies
C3.3. Typologie studies
C.3.3.1. Typology studies: Blau and Scott
C3.3.2. Types of organizational problems and publics: zie schema p. 3
C.3.3.3. Typology studies: Blau and Scott
C.3.3.4. Typology studies: Burns and Stalker
C3.4. Correlation studies
C3.4.1. Hage’s axiomatic theory of organizations works together with Aiken
C3.4.2. Lawrence and Lorsch: differentiation and integration (correlation study)
Chapter 4: Organizations and micro perspectives A
C4.1. Content
C4.2. Micro versus macro perspectives
C4.3. Micro theories
C4.3.1. Contingency theory: an introduction look at two autors
C4.3.2. Contingency theory: a lineage
C4.3.3. Woodward’s industrial organization
C4.4. = 3 major contingencies and structural aspects
C4.5. Contingency theory: underlying assumptions
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C4.6. The core contingency theory paradigm
C4.7. Contingency theory: the SARFIT-model
C4.8. Contingency theory: conceptual and theoretical integration
C4.9. Contingency theories: organic and bureaucratic
Chapter 5. Organizations and micro perspectives B
C5.1. Content
C5.2. Differences between theories today and theory last week
C5.3. Resource dependence theory (RDT)
C5.4. RDT: intra-organizational power interorganizational relations
C5.5. Transaction cost theory (linksonder in schema p. 36)
C5.6. Transaction cost theory: A case study
Chapter 6. Organizations and macro perspectives A
C6.1. Content
C6.2. Zie schema p. 36: rechts
C6.3. Organizational ecology approach: see dia 6
C6.4. Contingency theory: the SARFIT model: see dia 7
C6.5. Transaction cost theory: see dia 8
C6.6. Organizational ecology approach
C6.7. Organizational foundings: a case study
C6.8. Concentration and specialization: dynamics of niche width
Chapter 7. Organizations and macro perspectives B
C7.1. Content
C7.2. Schema p. 36: rechts vanonder
C7.3. Neo-institutional theory: an introduction
C7.4. Neo-institutional theory <-> The core contingency theory paradigm
C7.5. Neo-institutional theory
C7.6. Neo-institutional theory: DiMaggio and Powell
C7.7. Neo-institutional theory
C7.8. Case study: Organizational downsizing
Chapter 8. Organizational sociology: Current problems & future prospects
C8.1. Content
C8.2. Introduction: towards a post-positivist approach
C8.3. Trend 1: From unitary to multiparadigm
C8.4. Trend 2: From monocultural to multicultural studies
C8.5. Trend 3: From present-centered to longitudinal and historical analysis
C8.6.Trend 4: From micro- to macro units and levels of analysis
C8.7. Trend 5: From structure to process
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Chapter 0: Introduction class
Course material
PPT = obligations, texts online = extra information (not to study by heart).
The grade for ‘sociology of organizations’ for regular students, is composed of:
A mark for the group task (a mark given by the lecturer), individually corrected by self- and
peer assessment (45%)
A mark for the individual report (45%)
A mark for permanent evaluation (10%) based on:
- (A) active participation to the online quizzes and
We will not use your score or any kind of qualitative assessment to what you
perform in the quiz; it is a tool to test yourself
But: we do assess whether you fill out the quizzes (make use of it)!
Use it as a feedback tool: to check what you have (not) understood on the course
content dia
- (B) active participation to the peer-to-peer Q&A in Blackboard Forum
You have to make at least 3 relevant posts on the Q&A, eg. 1 question and 2
substantive answers, or 2 questions and 1 substantive answer, or 3 substantive
answers, but not: 3 questions
You have to participate in each of these three parts. If you do not, you will be automatically
sent to the second exam period.
Chapter 1: Organizations as rational systems
C1.1. Table of contents
From the 1960s to the 1990s: perspectives on organizations have become more complex and
multiple:
Quite a theoretical course
Organizations are a very important institute which occurs in every lifespan.
Literature Handbooks and journals
- A big development in the studies around organizations
C1.2. Content
The encapsulation of social life in organizational relationships
We as an individual have a relation with a multitude of organizations.
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Organizations can be categorised.
Organizational problems and types of “publics”
The elements of organizations: the essential ingredients
Organizations as an area of study: common and divergent interests
What is an organization? Rational system definitions
C1.3. The encapsulation of social life in organizational relations
“…society has changed over the past few centuries in the very structural elements of which it is
composed”
“When organizations are the characteristic structures in society, understanding how they
operate can shed much light on the biographies of their participants.”
People are encapsulated by organizations
Everything we are confronted with is composed in a organization.
Organizations have changed: more professional, more efficient, bigger, more people working in
organization
Context (society) + organization itself has become more complex
Move from production-oriented type of organization ex. factory service-oriented type
ex. cellphone company that sells subscriptions
Focus on changes in context (and how they influence how organizations work) & changes in
organizations
C1.4. Types of organizational problems and publics: ingredients of organizations
Types of publics (4):
1) Ordinary employees
- Workers at the assembly line in a factory, demotivation, alienation…
2) Employers and managers (dependence on lower ranked employees)
3) The contact public (direct relationship; invisible bureaucracies) ex. customers
4) The general public (indirect: cf. e.g. politicians, journalists, scientists -> political parties,
ngo’s..)
Ex. university: prof is employee because she has bosses above them
- Students are contact public: we are customers of university because they pay a fee and
except something in return
- Journalist are general public because they write about university (not a direct client) &
scientists are general public because they study university
Types of problems (4):
1) Controllability: “decisions are made above people’s head”
- Control regarding the decisions which affect daily working practices
- About decisions that are taken that influence the way you can behave
- Ex. alienation happens when employees are not in control of decisions being made
2) Quality of working life: cf. work climate, nature of tasks (monotonous, varied, challenging
or not,...)
- Ex. monotonous work can influence quality of working life in a bad way & varied work
in a good way because it is challenging
3) Directing and planning: cf. power/influence to set goals, to direct the policy of an
organization
- A lot of pressure on managers by shareholders to plan correctly to achieve certain
goals
4) Manageability: how to prevent or manage negative, often unintended, consequences of
the decisions that have been made
- Ex. changing markets: torfs deals with more online shopping and less shopping in real
life org has to deal with these eternal evolutions
Table: how many times are types of publics faced with these kinds of problems?
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