SOCIAL DYNAMICS OF POLICY AND ORGANISATIONS
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
1
, 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
2
, 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
4
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
1
, 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
2
, 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
4
