This document provide an in-depth summary of the course social dynamics of policy and organisations. In top of the slides, added with my notes taken in class, all of the suggested text to read have been read and summarized.
Contents
Module 1 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 3
I- Introduction .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Purpose of this course................................................................................................................................................... 3
Evaluation ...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
II- What are? .............................................................................................................................................................. 3
A) Organisations ........................................................................................................................................................ 3
The law of structural differentiation (Jonathan Turner)............................................................................................ 5
The law of sociocultural disintegration ..................................................................................................................... 6
B) Social dynamics: a first definition ......................................................................................................................... 6
Power and position ................................................................................................................................................... 7
Module 2 ........................................................................................................................................................................... 7
Focus on the social .................................................................................................................................................... 8
I- Which is the proposed sociological perspective on organisations? ...................................................................... 8
A) An entity/organisation is “a construct” ................................................................................................................. 8
B) Bridging the paradox gap ...................................................................................................................................... 9
C) Sociological perspectives (& crisis of the sociology of business and organizations)............................................. 9
1. We consider organisations as historical objects and constructs ....................................................................... 9
a) Approached pragmatically (3rd sociological perspective)................................................................................ 10
5th dimension of looking: “dynamics of chaos” and global exchange ..................................................................... 10
b) Global (social) context (2nd sociological perspectives) .................................................................................... 11
c) Organisations as historical objects and constructs (1st sociological perspective) ........................................... 11
Paradigmatical approach (Berger & Luckman) – again 3rd sociological perspective ............................................... 11
Example: Hames Sharley designers......................................................................................................................... 14
II- Common knowledge errors................................................................................................................................. 15
Module 3A : Organizations in societies – time and space............................................................................................... 16
A) Organizations in context (Berger & Luckman, Parsons, Dahrendorf, ect…) ........................................................ 16
Module 3B: The value of excellence ............................................................................................................................... 27
Why focus on values in companies? ........................................................................................................................... 27
Dimensions of organisational culture (Hofstede) ....................................................................................................... 27
A- Typology: competing values framework of Quinn (1988) ............................................................................... 28
B- Typology – Broune & Jenkins, 2013 ................................................................................................................ 28
(Potential) negative & culture ..................................................................................................................................... 30
Cultural integration in companies: towards implementing aspirational values ......................................................... 31
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, A- Rituals.............................................................................................................................................................. 31
Cultural capital & social capital ................................................................................................................................... 32
Module 4: directing action towards goals....................................................................................................................... 33
What is directing an organisation or entity ................................................................................................................. 33
I- Structure as basis for directing............................................................................................................................ 34
A) Structure ......................................................................................................................................................... 34
B) And linear, causal relationships ....................................................................................................................... 34
C) Typology of organisational structures (different types of structures)............................................................. 35
D) Structure is influenced by ............................................................................................................................... 35
I- Directing power towards the goals ..................................................................................................................... 36
a) Who? ............................................................................................................................................................... 36
b) Leadership (directing power towards the goal) .............................................................................................. 37
c) BPS-orientation ............................................................................................................................................... 38
d) Management literature on leadership (the executive checklist – James M. Kerr ........................................... 38
e) Urgence and understanding: you can start with an inclusive swot in an inclusive dynamic .............................. 38
e) Urgency ........................................................................................................................................................... 39
II- Leading is changing – change= resistance........................................................................................................... 40
a) Social dynamics: leading towards goals meet opposition= conflict ................................................................ 40
b) Power dynamics in organizations and policy - Foucault on power: ................................................................ 41
III- Getting things done: motivation and demotivation ............................................................................................ 42
a) Intrinsic motivation ......................................................................................................................................... 42
b) How to get motivated collaborators? VERY DIFFICULT ................................................................................... 42
c) Social dynamics: motivation and communicative act ..................................................................................... 43
d) Internal communication .................................................................................................................................. 43
IV- Some examples from management literature/ consultancy............................................................................... 44
a) Management tools for creating motivation by acting on and with social dynamics ...................................... 44
Module 5: people make the organisation and policy...................................................................................................... 46
Team ............................................................................................................................................................................ 46
MBTI models ............................................................................................................................................................... 46
a. Validity............................................................................................................................................................. 48
b. Reliability ......................................................................................................................................................... 48
Big five models – Costa, Mcrae ................................................................................................................................... 48
II- People make the company: result-oriented directing......................................................................................... 49
a) Planning & evaluation cycle ............................................................................................................................ 50
b) Individual cycle: Harvard university example.................................................................................................. 51
c) Smart cfr. Operationalisation of variables ....................................................................................................... 51
d) Guidelines for writing measurable goals......................................................................................................... 51
III- Feedback ............................................................................................................................................................. 52
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, IV- The end ............................................................................................................................................................... 53
Presentations soc dynamics ............................................................................................................................................ 53
Contact theory - Allport (group 8)............................................................................................................................... 53
THEORY OF COMMUNICATIVE ACTION - J. Habermas (group 1) ................................................................................ 54
Theory of deliberate democracy- J. Habermas (group 2)........................................................................................... 55
Theory of communicative action: video games (group 6) .......................................................................................... 56
Social movements and protest cycle Tarrow (group 3) ............................................................................................... 57
Theory of habitus (group 5) ........................................................................................................................................ 58
Organizational boundaries. (group 7) ......................................................................................................................... 59
Symbolic violence, rationality & Elon Musk (group 9) ................................................................................................ 60
Module 1
I- Introduction
Purpose of this course
1. Applying insights from sociology to analysis of and functioning in organisations
o Focus is on organisations & policy within organizations
o We are part of organizations, they run 95% of our live and the big challenges of our life is how to act
within the organization, to do what?
▪ Organizations should be helpful in realizing relevant goal in your life
▪ Eg health, get a degree, …
2. Relationship with insights about aspects of management and organizations from other perspectives
3. Practical examples & some tools and insights for management related to social dynamics
4. Learning to work individually and in a group
5. Focused learning to present
6. Self-knowledge
Evaluation
• 70% oral examination (10-15min) & extensive written preparation (1-1.30h)
o You can bring all of the printed and personal notes to the examination →INSIGHTS
o First application – usually not 1 right answer, in real life there are many directions and just try to make
sense and logic, basic logic is essential! READ THE QUESTION
o Group of 4, we get the same questions – there is enough time and you come to them if you’re ready
o The written preparation is given to him at the end of the examination as he goes over the notes if he
forgets things →also write things that make sense (bullet points is okay)
II- What are?
A) Organisations
Collective
• Formal grouping of a minimum of two persons
o Not just a group of 2 people, has to be formal
• Common group target /group GOAL(S) on the level of the organization
o Eg being student is not an organization as we want an individual degree
• It interact internally and externally
3
, o Certain level of internal cohesion
o interacting: sort of communication, the organization as a system acts
▪ organization has a system, a logic on its own
▪ system in itself creates a way of acting, functions in a way, have a logic of itself
• It acts internally and externally (action)
o Acting together to achieve that common goal (Weber: sociology is a study of social action)
• Membership is identifiable
➢ MAX WEBER: The ideal type of the bureaucratic organization (rational organization)
• in opposition of clan life, family life
• System of social relations – with a person or group of people in change
• “the existence of the presence of a person in authority” leading to the probability that a course of action will take
place. So organisations are a relational and social system with a targeted action.
• “ZWECKRATIONALITÄT”
=Rational in the sense of employing appropriate means to a given end
e.g: engineer who builds a bridge as the most efficient way to cross a river.
• Erosion of tradition and affective relations – “wertrational”
=Rational in the sense that it is an attempt to realize some absolute value (value based, belief)
characteristic of traditional social rationality formations.
• We are moving in the society of the zwackrational – we are more and more rational acting systems and more
rational individuals
o Rationally achieve our goals
• Rational: as efficient and effective as possible
• “disciplined by a set of rules and rationalised principles of production”
o Way of looking at organization, and still a dominant way of looking at production and relationships
o “a calculated optimal profitability of the individual worker”
o “scientific” management” – you can measure everything and you can control everything to become more
and more efficient and more effective
• →purpose of this course: it is almost bullshit
o In many developed parts of the world this is not functioning or only to a certain degree
• Now the production system (eg looking at Tesla) is very different, very standerdized, very controlled, many
authomatic and different products, cut out the many different options/costumization
• Part of the trap today, in the highly individualized soc, we think that it’s the only way society is going forward,
which is not true
• Cultural: very slow to change, it’s based on human rights, traditions,…
• For new modern companies like google, the culture is also very important (wertrational)
➢ EMIL DURKHEIM
• We are not moving from zweckrationalitat to wertrational but both aspects have to be taken into account
o Eg both emotional and rational aspects
• Modern society have 2 big movements, which according to him will leave disintegration
o Before we were all farmers, all doing the same,… and were nicely integrated
o Control and organizational control
1) Social systems / structural differentiation
a. Whether organization needs integration to contribute to the same goal, to be able to work together
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