Lectures notes
Sociology of Organisation (201400012)
,L1: Introduction & theoretical strands 1
Why organisations?
People are engaged in organisations: it covers a lot of time in people’s week
→ People for example work, doing groceries, going to university, etc.
→ They effect our lifes so it’s interesting to know how they work
Why sociology?
Organisational context play a big role
→ Behaviour in context
Sociology = the scientific study of social phenomena
- Consider the influence of social contexts
- Study resulting collective human behaviour
Sociology of organisations
= “the study of the relationships which develop between human beings as they organise
themselves and are organised by others in work organisations, and how these patterns
influence and are influenced by the actions and interactions of people and how they
make sense of their lives and identities”
→ The interrelatedness between individual actions and agency and social processes,
cultures and structures
→ As shown in the Coleman boat:
→ The organizational and social context can shape human behavior but can also be the
outcome of human behavior
Adam Smith
Says that people pursue their self-interest which will lead to a spontaneous social order
→ The invisible hand
→ Society and the marketplace are self regulating and unintended
,→ Focusses on the market and was at the time when there were only a butcher, a baker
and a black smith and these people traded with each other. But the theoretical strands
start at a time when organisations started to come.
Six strands of theory
1. Managerial – psychologistic
2. Durkheim-human-relations
3. Interactionist-negotiated-order
4. Weber-social-action-institutional
5. Marxian-labour-process
6. Post-modern/post structuralist
→ Sort of glasses that you can use to look at organisations
→ Differ in their methodology, assumptions, focus, etc.
Managerial-psychologistic strand
Not a sociological strand: focusses on the individual
→ Still relevant because it has received a lot of attention and it is useful to contrast
other strands
→ It has two sub-strands which both focus on the individual
Scientific management (Taylorism)
Taylor wanted to address how to make work more efficient
→ Smith was thinking about this before him: splitting work would lead to more efficiency
→ See video
→ Taylor went further: analyse how you can do all these tasks as efficient as possible
Principles:
- Decompose work to enhance efficiency
- Separate thinking (employer) from doing (employee)
- Deskill (simple tasks and complex control structures)
→ People do simple tasks
- Neo-classical economic perspective on human behaviour
- Incentive pay systems
- Man as homo calculus (economic animal)
→ People want to earn money so they need to be rewarded by money
- Coleman’s boat: pure micro-level
→ behavioral assumptions focus on the worker self
What kind of organisations are most likely to use scientific management principles?
→ Factories, large companies where work can be splitted into different parts
, Ford is also a part of this sub-strand
Both Taylor and Ford focus on close supervision of workers (the approaches are alike)
But they are also different:
Taylorism:
- focusses on low tech environment
- workers will work harder if they receive money
Fordism:
- focusses on high tech environment
- workers are also potential consumers: we need to pay workers because they are
also consumers
→ It is questionable that the workers can afford the products that they make, so
are they really the consumers?
Mechanisation takes command
- Engineers took the lead in rationalizing industrial relations
- Standardisation of work processes and the human element
- Manipulating human behavior to maximize output/efficiency
Nowadays, work is still organized in this way
Psychological humanism
Different from scientific management: their assumptions in human nature
McGregor has shown this difference by theory X and Y
- Theory X
= Work is inherently distasteful to most people and most people are not
ambitious, have little desire for responsibility, and prefer to be directed. Most
people have little capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems.
Motivation occurs only at the physiological and safety levels. Most people must
be closely controlled and often coerced to achieve organizational goals.
- Theory Y
= Work is natural as play, if conditions are favorable. Self-control is often
indispensable in achieving organizational goals. The capacity for creativity in
solving organizational problems is widely distributed in the population.
Motivation occurs at the self-actualisation levels, as well as the physiological and
security levels. People can be self-directed and creative t work if properly
motivated.
Relates to the work of Maslow
- Agrees: management promotes efficiency
- Disagrees: which incentives? Self-actualization may be more important than
physiological needs
→ People have different kinds of needs and if people achieve a higher need if they
completed a level:
1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Belonging
4. Self-esteem
Sociology of Organisation (201400012)
,L1: Introduction & theoretical strands 1
Why organisations?
People are engaged in organisations: it covers a lot of time in people’s week
→ People for example work, doing groceries, going to university, etc.
→ They effect our lifes so it’s interesting to know how they work
Why sociology?
Organisational context play a big role
→ Behaviour in context
Sociology = the scientific study of social phenomena
- Consider the influence of social contexts
- Study resulting collective human behaviour
Sociology of organisations
= “the study of the relationships which develop between human beings as they organise
themselves and are organised by others in work organisations, and how these patterns
influence and are influenced by the actions and interactions of people and how they
make sense of their lives and identities”
→ The interrelatedness between individual actions and agency and social processes,
cultures and structures
→ As shown in the Coleman boat:
→ The organizational and social context can shape human behavior but can also be the
outcome of human behavior
Adam Smith
Says that people pursue their self-interest which will lead to a spontaneous social order
→ The invisible hand
→ Society and the marketplace are self regulating and unintended
,→ Focusses on the market and was at the time when there were only a butcher, a baker
and a black smith and these people traded with each other. But the theoretical strands
start at a time when organisations started to come.
Six strands of theory
1. Managerial – psychologistic
2. Durkheim-human-relations
3. Interactionist-negotiated-order
4. Weber-social-action-institutional
5. Marxian-labour-process
6. Post-modern/post structuralist
→ Sort of glasses that you can use to look at organisations
→ Differ in their methodology, assumptions, focus, etc.
Managerial-psychologistic strand
Not a sociological strand: focusses on the individual
→ Still relevant because it has received a lot of attention and it is useful to contrast
other strands
→ It has two sub-strands which both focus on the individual
Scientific management (Taylorism)
Taylor wanted to address how to make work more efficient
→ Smith was thinking about this before him: splitting work would lead to more efficiency
→ See video
→ Taylor went further: analyse how you can do all these tasks as efficient as possible
Principles:
- Decompose work to enhance efficiency
- Separate thinking (employer) from doing (employee)
- Deskill (simple tasks and complex control structures)
→ People do simple tasks
- Neo-classical economic perspective on human behaviour
- Incentive pay systems
- Man as homo calculus (economic animal)
→ People want to earn money so they need to be rewarded by money
- Coleman’s boat: pure micro-level
→ behavioral assumptions focus on the worker self
What kind of organisations are most likely to use scientific management principles?
→ Factories, large companies where work can be splitted into different parts
, Ford is also a part of this sub-strand
Both Taylor and Ford focus on close supervision of workers (the approaches are alike)
But they are also different:
Taylorism:
- focusses on low tech environment
- workers will work harder if they receive money
Fordism:
- focusses on high tech environment
- workers are also potential consumers: we need to pay workers because they are
also consumers
→ It is questionable that the workers can afford the products that they make, so
are they really the consumers?
Mechanisation takes command
- Engineers took the lead in rationalizing industrial relations
- Standardisation of work processes and the human element
- Manipulating human behavior to maximize output/efficiency
Nowadays, work is still organized in this way
Psychological humanism
Different from scientific management: their assumptions in human nature
McGregor has shown this difference by theory X and Y
- Theory X
= Work is inherently distasteful to most people and most people are not
ambitious, have little desire for responsibility, and prefer to be directed. Most
people have little capacity for creativity in solving organizational problems.
Motivation occurs only at the physiological and safety levels. Most people must
be closely controlled and often coerced to achieve organizational goals.
- Theory Y
= Work is natural as play, if conditions are favorable. Self-control is often
indispensable in achieving organizational goals. The capacity for creativity in
solving organizational problems is widely distributed in the population.
Motivation occurs at the self-actualisation levels, as well as the physiological and
security levels. People can be self-directed and creative t work if properly
motivated.
Relates to the work of Maslow
- Agrees: management promotes efficiency
- Disagrees: which incentives? Self-actualization may be more important than
physiological needs
→ People have different kinds of needs and if people achieve a higher need if they
completed a level:
1. Physiological
2. Safety
3. Belonging
4. Self-esteem
