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Lecture notes Sociology of organisations
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Anne Ponsteensv lectures sociology of organisations
Lecture 1 - Introduction & theoretical standpoints
- Work takes up a big part of our time, and when not working we’re still very much in
contact with (other) organisations (like when buying groceries or clothing, going out
to eat etc.)
- Sociology = the scientific study of social phenomena
- Sociology of organisations = the study of the relationships which develop between
human beings as they organise themselves and are organised by others in work
organisations, and how these patterns influence and are influenced by the actions
and interactions of people and how they make sense of their lives and identities
- Coleman’s boat = model that shows the interrelatedness between individuals and
population → video on slide 26
- Smith: people pursuing their self interest will simultaneously result in spontaneous
social order (but this is in times of small marketplaces → changes when the market
gets bigger)
1. Managerial-psychologistic strand
- Can be divided into two substrands: scientific management & psychological
humanism (they resemble but there are differences). Focus on micro-level
- Scientific management - Frederick Taylor/taylorism: work should be
decomposed to enhance efficiency (deskilling, simple tasks together form
complex control structures + simple tasks mean less waste motion, people
get better at them quickly or find more efficient ways to complete them). The
employer should do the thinking and employee the doing
- Taylor: humans are economic animals (fomo calculus) driven by money,
therefore an incentive pay system is the best (the harder you work, the more
you earn) → benefits both worker and employer
- Scientific management - Henry Ford/Fordism: more about technological work
with specialised machinery and mass production. Need for fair wages since
workers are consumers as well (better wages = more consumers → is
however questionable if this is really the case since factory workers might not
be able to afford expensive things)
- During the mechanisation period engineers took the lead in rationalising and
standardising industrial relations/work processes. Human behaviour is being
manipulated to maximise output/efficiency
- Taylorism and fordism both focus on detailed supervision of work,
management-work planning and close supervision of workers. Difference is
the environment (high vs low tech). Scientific management principles are
mostly used in (large) factories, not only during earlier times but also now
- Psychological humanism - McGregor, theory X and theory Y:
X: work is distasteful to most people, they aren’t ambitious and don’t feel
responsibility for their work making it important to have a management that
closely controls the workers to be able to achieve organisational goals
Y: Work is a natural play with favourable conditions and self-control and
motivation of workers is strong enough to achieve organisational goals,
therefore people can be self directed/creative at work if properly motivated
, Anne Ponsteen
- Pyramid of Maslow: hierarchy of needs → recent research shows that all
needs matter but they’re not fully hierarchical + variation in importance
between people and situations
- Two-level theory of motivation (Herzberg): based on people’s needs, hygiene
factors (salary, working conditions) can lead to dissatisfaction if not fulfilled
(which influences motivation factors) but cannot lead to satisfaction, need
positive motivation factors (recognition, growth) for that. To increase work
satisfaction, motivation factors need to be present in addition to hygiene
factors (practical application of needs-based thinking)
- Both scientific management and psychological humanism are focused on
individual actions and agency (micro-level). They draw sharp distinctions
between management and employees (agree that management promotes
efficiency) and aim to manipulate employee behaviour. Thoughts about
incentives (and thus their views on human nature) differ.
2. Durkheim-Human-Relations strand
- Also divided into two strands: Durkheim and human relations
- Durkheim: Emphasis on the social system and relations of individuals and
how this influences them (macro-level: link between individual and social
system). He assumes there’s an autonomous, externally existing society and
studies the underpinnings of cognition (norms, values, ways of doing)
- During Durkheim’s life the industrial revolution was happening, it exists of 4
phases;
1. Pre-capitalist: farmers, independent, everyone produces for themselves
2. Pre-industrial: specialisation through different occupations → people rely
on each other (butcher needs baker for bread and vice versa = social division
of labour)
3. Industrial: further specialisation and technical division of labour
- → durkheim asks himself what this means for relationships between people:
- - Pre-capitalist: people understood each other because their lives were pretty
similar (= mechanical solidarity)
- Pre-industrial: due to job specialisation, people’s lives are different bit they
now need each other (= organic solidarity)
- Human relation strand - Hawthorne effect = the effects of being observed →
study tried to experiment with different working conditions to look for the most
effective outcomes. At the end it appears that the presence of the scientist is
what elicited better outcomes because of the close attention, selection,
watching etc. (social solidarity)
- Emphasis Durkheim-Human-Relation strand: importance of informal relations,
interdependencies between people and social cohesion, focus on feelings
rather than reason (unlike managerial-psychologistic)
3. Interactionist-negotiated order strand
- Organisations and their members are restricted by rules but they also try to
bend these rules and add their own personal touch with their personality.
Bridge between micro- and macro-level
- Goffman: What happens results from ongoing interactions between actors
reading to an order. Organisational order emerges from an ongoing process
of adjustment (thus a focus on negotiations). Assumes that individuals and
society are mutually interdependent (combination psychology & sociology)
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