Organizational sociology

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The Organizational Sociology is a sub-discipline of sociology , which the empirical research and theoretical analysis of the forms, structures and internal processes of organizations and their interactions is dedicated to the social environment. Due to the variety of forms that organizations can take (including companies, associations, clubs, parties, universities, schools, hospitals, theaters, state administration, churches, the military, non-governmental organizations), the core of the discipline is organizational theory , the similarities and differences of these forms turns out. Organizational sociology focuses on research into structures, members, goals and functions as well as behavior in organizations from the point of view of the social division of labor , cooperation and rule . Industrial and business sociology have strong links to organizational sociology .

Differentiation from related disciplines

In contrast to organizational sociology, business organization theory deals with the structure and processes in organizations primarily under the criteria of expediency and economic efficiency. The organizational psychology , however, shall in turn submit the research interest primarily to the individuals whose psyche and behavior within organizations.

Subject and topics of organizational sociological research

The discipline owes its breakthrough to Max Weber's bureaucratic theory and the Hawthorne studies ( Hawthorne effect , see there Roethlisberger / Dickson) during the Great Depression . The latter discovered the difference between formal and informal organizational structure . The interactions between the two are still the subject of research.

The organizational sociological theory and research deals with the social functions of organizations (Max Weber, Talcott Parsons , Charles Perrow , Niklas Luhmann ), with the structural types of organizations ( Richard Scott , Henry Mintzberg ), the processing of decisions and the absorption of uncertainty in Organizations (Niklas Luhmann, Dirk Baecker ).

Sociologists see organizations both as collective actors capable of acting or as corporate actors in interaction with other organizations in their environment, as well as social systems with specific internal problems (e.g. bureaucracy and oligarchy, member recruitment and loyalty, divergence of organizational goals and member motivation).

Origin as an academic discipline

The institutionalization of organizational sociology took place in the USA and in Europe on different development paths.

In the USA, organizational theory - particularly due to the rapidly growing importance of organizational research at business schools - has been institutionalized in a practical and interdisciplinary manner. The development of theory gained independence from questions of social theory and the corresponding sociological “grand theories” through Robert K. Merton's concept of “ medium-range theory ”. Merton's students (including Philip Selznick , Alvin W. Gouldner , Peter Blau , Seymour M. Lipset and James S. Coleman ) successfully pushed this concept forward and helped to establish “organization sciences” as an independent discipline with an extensive body of empirical studies and contributed to a variety of specialized journals.

The individual European schools of organizational theory are a long way from being differentiated in terms of professional politics as in the USA . “Organization” was treated here in the context of theories of capitalism and the state , and its problems were accordingly thematized in debates about administration or production . The practical problems of the practitioners were discussed in the corporate and organizational consultancy . They were not seen as problems of their own. Organizational theory was only able to break free from the shadow of industrial and business sociology in Germany in the 1980s.

Although the historical roots lie equally in Europe and North America, there has been a dominance of US approaches since 1940, or at least since the 1970s, although in this "intermediate phase" there were in some cases close ties between American approaches and British authors and schools. European organizational sociologists draw their central ideas and concepts from the North American center. However, they are seldom able to respond to the main debates in the USA with innovative and independent concepts.

application

Organizational sociological research is used. a. also in corporate and works council consultations , which proceed according to different schools, such as the micropolitical approach (including Crozier / Friedberg) or the system-theoretical approach, which u. a. Niklas Luhmann and - in a modified form - Dirk Baecker as well for organizational sociology.

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See Veronika Tacke: Organizational Sociology. In: Georg Kneer / Markus Schroer (2010): Handbuch Spezial Sociologie. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag, page 341.
  2. See Günter Endruweit (2004): Organizational Sociology. Stuttgart: Lucius & Lucius, page 16.
  3. See subsection Organization as an actor and as a system. In: Walther Müller-Jentsch: Organizational Sociology. Frankfurt am Main 2003, page 18 ff.
  4. ^ Richard W. Scott: Institutions and Organizations: Theory and Research . Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA 1995.
  5. Cf. Hans-Joachim Gergs, Markus Pohlmann and Rudi Schmidt: Organizational sociology: organizational theory, its social relevance and “social-theoretical challenge” . In: Richard Münch, Claudia Jauß and Carsten Stark (eds.): “Sociology 2000” - special issue of the sociological revue . Special issue 5, 2000, p. 185 f . ; see also Barry S. Turner: A Personal Trajectory through Organization Studies . In: Samuel Bacharach, Pasquale Gagliardi and Bryan Mundell (Eds.): Studies of Organizations in the European Tradition. Research in the Sociology of Organizations . tape 13 . JAI Press, Greenwich / London 1995 .; see also Emil Walter-Busch: Organization theories from Weber to Weick . Faculties, Amsterdam 1996, ISBN 978-90-5708-019-7 .