ASOA15019U Sociology of Organizations

Organizational sociology is a fascinating subject because it is applied science dealing with ’living people’. Within modern and thus highly differentiated societies most functions essential to the reproduction of society are carried out by organizations. Consequently, most people are involved in one or more organizations.

Theories about organizations are manifold, and considered in a historical perspective they have changed with the development of the industrial society. Consequently, it is important to consider their origins as well as their relationship to other research fields dealing with organizations such as economy and political science.

Within organizational theories, the analysis of the relationship between participants, structure, processes and culture is essential for understanding how organizations are able to achieve their goals. Organizations were by and large considered as closed systems during the first half of the 20th century, either as hierarchical industrial production or as administrative bureaucracy. However, the importance of the environment with regard to the development of the internal as well as external relationships of organizations has since been emphasised. Within the analysis of such open systems, the shift of perspective is mirrored in a wide range of organisational sociological positions today, i.e. institutional, action theoretical (RC), systems theoretical, structuration theoretical, cultural (symbolic interactionism and phenomenology) and feminist approaches.

During the course it will be demonstrated how these theoretical approached may be applied to various degrees when analysing different types of organizations. These organizations comprise industry, services, public administration, interest representation, states, transnational co-ordination (e.g. the EU), but also networks of so-called intermediate organizations between the welfare state and the marked (e.g. voluntarily work). The course will provide an illustration of the discussion of the different theoretical approached by drawing on existing empirical analysis of relevant types of organizations, ranging from kindergartens to states or transnational institutions. During the course the students will be encouraged to use a case when illustrating their discussion of one or more organisational sociological positions. Furthermore, the course is a part of an overall project, aiming at bridging between the university and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). This might be the case in the private, but also in the voluntary sector and often supported and mediated by public sector organizations.