Lecture Notes Organisations and Society (SOBA204A)

Organisations and Society Lectures – Overview of all notes
TABLE OF CONTENTS

LECTURE 1

Key words: organization elements, micro-macro model, general mechanisms and outcomes
Articles: -

 How do organizations influence our lives
 4 societal outcomes in which organizations play a role
o Inequality
o Persistence
o Change
o Embeddedness
 Common core elements that all organizations show / key elements
o Purposeful collective of people
o Formal rules and structures
o Perceived boundary
 The micro-macro model of sociological explanation
o Basic explanation of how it works
 You can look at organizations in 2 ways
o As sites/contexts
o As drivers/actors
 Examples of organizational action that have important societal outcomes
 Mechanism approach: identifying entities, activities and relations
o Overview of mechanisms and outcomes

LECTURE 2

Key words: Inequality, discrimination, claims-making process, organizations as actors and contexts,
(symbolic, biased) formalization, (paradox of) meritocracy, accountability, transparency, gender
inequality, human capital
Articles: Kalev, Castilla & Bernard, Rivera, Philips

 Metaphor of the pie in explaining inequality
o 2 types of inequality: inequality as the size of the slice and inequality as the size of
the pie
o Claim-making process
 Explanations (for inequality in claims) – human capital and efficiency wage framework
o Market mechanisms; supply-demand factors
o Non-market mechanisms: efficiency wages
 Threat of job loss reduces shirking
 To attract the most productive workers
 Reduced costs associated with turnover
 Limitations of the economic model


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, o Economists: very limited information on skill supply and productivity, and limited
resources for extensive search for information
o Sociology: productivity is not a universal and not the only criterion to evaluate
employees
o Social psychology: social identity, inter- and intra-group status processes and
stereotypes.
 Inequality-generating mechanisms in organizations: discrimination
o 2 definitions of discrimination
o Examples of reasons for organizational actors to discriminate against a minority
 Discrimination mechanisms
o Taste-based (and implicit) discrimination
o Statistical discrimination
o Structural discrimination
 Where do tastes come from? The role of culture
o Homophily
 Discriminating and gender inequality – reconstructing the mechanism
o Self-fulfilling prophecy
 Short summary of first part of the lecture:
o Discrimination in hiring
o Discrimination in promotion
o Discouraged to claim organizational resources
 Organizations as actors driving inequality
o Policies that are discriminatory
o Organizational processes and structures that promote equality
 Formalization (gender bias)
 Meritocratic selection (paradox)
 Theory of bureaucracy
o Weber’s characteristics of rational bureaucracies
 1) Why formalization promotes equality of opportunity
o Standardized and objective criteria
o Hold decision-making actors accountable
 2) Why formalization would NOT promote equality of opportunity
o Neo-institutional theory: organizational structures symbolic so they legitimize
organizational action
o Organizational structures symbolic so decisions could still discriminate
 3) Why formalization would promote even more gender bias
o Biased formalization
o Biased formalization as a moral issue
 The paradox of meritocracy
o Explaining the paradox of meritocracy
 Moral credentials
 Self-perceived objectivity
 Which organizational policies do work
o Accountability


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, o Transparency
o Affirmative action
 Short summary of second part of the lecture

LECTURE 3

Key words: persistence, stability, rational choice perspective, institutions, legitimacy, 3 pillars of
institutions, institutionalization vs rationalization, isomorphism, (de)coupling, imprinting, gender
inequality
Articles: Turco, Johnson, Philips

 Why do social systems persist: rational choice perspectives
 Rational choice perspective
o Societal systems persist because
 Actors lack incentive
 Collective action problematic to achieve
 Institutional theoretical perspective
 The concept of institutions
o Institutional theory
 Institutional theory: major inspirations 1
o Durkheim social facts
o Rules and norms that regulate behaviour
o Definition of institutions (Durkheim)
 Institutional theory: major inspirations 2
o Phenomenology
o Berger and Luckmann: 3 phases of reproduction of meaning
 Externalization
 Objectification
 Internalization
o Reconstructing the phenomenological argument
o Meaning and morals: illustrating the difference
 Vb. Zwarte piet
 Institutional theory: major inspirations 3
o Bourdieu: social facts
o Social arena’s
o Habitus
o Power struggles
 Institutional theory: major inspriations 4
o Max Weber: legitimacy
o Rational choice approaches
o Institutional perspective
 Cognitive validity
 Moral dignity
 What explains stability: 3 main pillars of institutions
o Regulative pillar (coercion & sanctioning)


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