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Summary lectures - Sociology of Organizations
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Lecture 1 – Introducing the theoretical strands of thoughtThe second Industrial revolution (1870-1914)
This is where the economic society emerged. Mankind had a sense of order and triumph over nature.
Steel, electricity, chemistry and medicine were upcoming, as well as urbanization and globalization.
The birth of industrial capital societies, and the break with tradition. New founded companies focused
on international trading, impressive headquarters. There was a new sense of order.
Corporate modernism: symbols of the new age.
Form follows function, repetitive and logical order, rationalization. Machine like corporations left only
the necessary essentials to function. Conformity: man in the service of the corporate machine.
Traits from corporate modernism are: depictions of impersonality, anonymity and anomie.
Anomie: waning traditions and a loss of solidarity, compassion and cohesion in human relations.
“Utility” grew in importance, hyperindividualism and competition as byproducts of the modern age.
Nowadays: playful headquarters of companies. Buildings as metaphors:
Buildings (and attire) as imperfect reflections of different underlying corporate identities or
organizational modus operandi.
Organizations as manifestations of very diverse underlying goals.
Organizations and the work they do are embedded in wider historically formed, social, cultural
and structural settings.
Sedimentation (layers stacked on top of each other) more likely than creative destruction (the
complete exchange of old for new)
Continues change: e.g. impact of technology and technological progress
No “one best way of organizing” that holds true at anytime or anyplace
Moreover, organizations can be different things at the same time
Then Now
Methodological pluralism
Hierarchical orientations Horizontal orientations
We need a pluralistic methodological framework in
Stark contrasts Natural blending
order to come to grips with the wide spectrum of
Repetition Variation
organizational manifestations and develop a fuller
Homogeneity Pluriformity
understanding of the interplay between work and
organization Mechanized order Organic order
Organizations as machines Organizations as organisms
Neo-classical economic viewpoint Cohesion Fragmentation
What organizations actually look like is rather irrelevant. What they all do results from the
magic of the price system
Organizations and their members are rational actors, only seeking to promote their self
Interest
The drive towards productive efficiency is all engulfing
Incentives are predominantly extrinsic and material in nature
The market “trumps” agency : do we control the invisible hand or does it control us?
Strands
1. Managerial–psychologistic strand
(a) Scientific management (Taylorism)
Decomposition of work in order to enhance efficiency
Seperation of thinking from doing
Deskilling (simple tasks and complex control structures)
Clear neo classical economic perspective on human behavior
Incentive pay systems Ø A view of Man as homo calculus (economic animal)
Formalisation of worker-employer relations
Firmly positioned on the micro level of Coleman’s boat
Scientific management is a movement in which engineers took the lead in endeavoring to rationalize
industrial relations. Standardization took place in work processes, also in the human element of it.
Human behavior is manipulated to maximize output and efficiency.
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