Description
Scitus Academics LLC Sociology Work and Organisation by Citali Cernik
Sociology is much concerned with understanding social structures and
Organisational sociology gives much attention to the internal structure of
the Organisations, such as the managerial hierarchy, as well as to the
external structures that connect Organisations, such as strategic alliances.
Organisational sociology tends to focus on work Organisation s, although it
is equally concerned in principle with non-profit and other types of
Organisation, and hence has particular links with other sociological
approaches which also study work situations. The eminent US sociological
theorist, Talcott Parsons, propounded a functionalist view of society as being
a social system. Parsons saw the Organisation in this light, stressing that
Organisations helped society solve adaptive problems by providing
instruments capable of getting work done and attaining specific goals.
While adapting to their environments in a task sense, Organisations had also
to justify themselves. Parsons sees Organisations as containing three levels:
the lower level focused on technical efficiency, the middle managerial level
that coordinates and adapts these technical resources, and the upper or
institutional level that legitimates the Organisation to the wider society.
Following World War II, industrial sociology thrived for a time, developing
classic studies on systems of managerial authority, the informal group
behaviors that govern workplace life, and the lines of conflict that arise as
workers informally negotiate with their managers. Since then, the field has
fully-fledged increasingly multifaceted and internally discerned. While
much research has focused on the characteristics of workers’ jobs other
areas of concern have proliferated, including studies of new,
post-bureaucratic forms of work Organisation; the influence of race and
gender in shaping the allocation of workers into jobs and occupations; the
distinctive features of service occupations; the operation of labor markets
(whether within the firm or beyond its boundaries); and the relations
between work Organisations and their wider institutional environments.
Sociology, Work and Organisation is concerned with the social relations,
normative codes, and Organisational structures that inform the behavior,
experience, and identities of people during the course of their working
lives. It examines Organisations with courtesy to structure and objectives,
interfaces among fellows and among organisations, the relationship
between the Organisation and its environment and the social significance or
social meaning of the Organisation.