Sociology 267: Seminar in Complex Organizations SYLLABUS

Transcription

1 John R. Sutton 2804 Ellison, Spring 2005 Sociology 267: Seminar in Complex Organizations SYLLABUS Organizations are a distinctively modern form of human association. We spend most of our waking hours in organizations, and our participation in organizations has a powerful impact on our views of the world, who we choose as friends, our career choices, and our opportunities for economic mobility and political voice. In fact, any time individuals come together to work toward some goal to manufacture a product, to achieve social change, or simply to socialize with each other they are likely to create an organization. But organizations are not simple tools, and goals are not static. The act of organizing is likely to have profound (and often perverse) effects on individual participants and on the goals they seek to achieve. Organizations are powerful actors in their own right, acting back on the structure of society. Organizing is a generic human activity, not an unusual or recondite one. And in the last 25 years, organization theory has had a transformative influence on the study of social organization generally, especially the study of politics, social movements, education, religion, culture, and law. This seminar is designed for the entry-level student seeking exposure to some major trends and debates in the organizations literature. It does not cover everything in that literature, however for the most part, we neglect the social-psychological aspects of organizations in favor of meso- and macro-level issues about the relationship of organizations to larger social, economic, and cultural processes. READINGS AND REQUIREMENTS: Students will bear a major share of the responsibility for class discussions. All members will be responsible for the core readings for each meeting. In addition, one or two students each week (depending on the size of the seminar) will make informal presentations which will involve reading beyond the core selections. Presentations should not be simple summaries of the readings. Rather they should frame the readings within a larger body of literature (theoretical and/or empirical), and should aim toward raising questions and initiating discussion; beyond that, the field is open. I will be glad to help organize and goad your thinking. Readings are listed on the schedule below in three levels of urgency. Unstarred titles are core readings students should come to seminar prepared to discuss all of them in their respective weeks. Starred (*) titles are recommended, especially for weekly seminar leaders. In most cases, these represent more specific applications, developments, or critiques of core selections. Double-starred (**) readings are "deep background" either secondary summaries and interpretations, or primary sources which are mainly of artifactual interest. Most of the readings are contained in a reader available at The Alternative in Isla Vista. In addition, one book has been ordered, and is available through the UCEN Bookstore: Walter W. Powell and Paul J. DiMaggio The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. I have also placed on reserve the following supplementary text: Charles Perrow (1986) Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. New York: McGraw-Hill. Perrow offers very insightful and readable, but often out of date, discussions of many of the approaches we will be discussing. You should tackle the core readings on their own terms first; turn to Perrow if you re stuck, or just want added insight.

2 2 SCHEDULE AND READINGS Week 1 (3/29). Introduction Week 2 (4/5). Max Weber: Domination, Authority, and Rationality Weber, Max Economy and Society. Berkeley: UC Press. Pp , The Types of Legitimate Domination and pp , Bureaucracy. Kalberg, Stephen Max Weber's Types of Rationality. American Journal of Sociology 85: Schluchter, Wolfgang The Rise of Western Rationalism. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, pp *Perrow, Complex Organizations, ch. 1. *Hamilton, Gary G. and John R. Sutton The Problem of Control in the Weak State: Domination in the U.S., Theory and Society 18:1-46. **Reinhard Bendix Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait. Berkeley: University of California Press. Week 3 (4/12). Institutional Critiques of Hierarchy and Formalization Michels, Robert Political Parties. New York: Hearst s International Library. Pp , 80-90, Selznick, Philip Foundations of the Theory of Organizations. American Sociological Review 13: Gouldner, Alvin Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy. New York: Free Press. Ch. 4 & 5. Roy, Donald "'Banana Time': Job Satisfaction and Informal Interaction." Human Organization 18: Bendix, Reinhard Work and Authority in Industry. Berkeley: UC Press, chapter 5. *Perrow, Complex Organizations, ch. 2-3, 5. *Clark, Burton R "The Organizational Saga in Higher Education." Administrative Science Quarterly 17: *Zald, Mayer N. and Patricia Denton "From Evangelism to General Service: The Tranformation of the YMCA." Administrative Science Quarterly 8: *Roethlisberger, F.J. and William J. Dickson Management and the Worker. New York: John Wiley. Especially ch. 24, An Industrial Organization as a Social System. **Bittner, Egon The Police on Skid-Row: A Study of Peace Keeping. American Sociological Review 32: **Selznick, Philip TVA and the Grass Roots. Berkeley: University of California Press.

3 3 **Selznick, Philip Law, Society, and Industrial Justice. New York: Russell Sage Foundation, especially ch. 1 and 2. **Sudnow, David Normal Crimes: Sociological Features of the Penal Code in the Public Defender's Office. Social Problems 12: **Wilensky, Jeanne L. and Harold L. Wilensky Personnel Counseling: The Hawthorne Case. American Journal of Sociology 57: **Barnard, Chester The Functions of the Executive. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. **Dalton, Melville Men Who Manage. New York: John Wiley. **Mayo, Elton The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. **Skowronek, Stephen Building a New American State: The Expansion of NationalAdministrative Capacities, New York: Cambridge University Press. Week 4 (4/19). Organization as Control Marx, Karl Alienated Labor. Pp in Karl Marx: Early Writings. T. B. Bottomore (ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Edwards, Richard Contested Terrain. New York: Basic Books. Ch. 1, Three Faces From The Hidden Abode. Burawoy, Michael Manufacturing Consent: Changes in the Labor Process Under Monopoly Capitalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Ch. 1 & 4. Burawoy, Michael Between the Labor Process and the State: The Changing Face of Factory Regimes Under Advanced Capitalism. American Sociological Review 48: **Braverman, Harry Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press. **Burawoy, Michael Toward a Marxist Theory of the Labor Process: Braverman and Beyond. Politics and Society 8: Week 5 (4/26) Decision-making Theory March, James G. and Herbert A. Simon Organizations. New York: John Wiley. Chapter 6, Cognitive Limits on Rationality. Cyert, Richard M. and James G. March A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Ch. 1-3, 6. Cohen, Michael D., James C. March, and Johan P. Olsen A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly 17:1-25. Weick, Karl Educational Organizations as Loosely Coupled Systems. Administrative Science Quarterly 21:1-19.

4 4 Levitt, Barbara and James G. March Organizational Learning. Annual Review of Sociology 14: *Perrow, Complex Organizations, pp *Simon, Herbert A "A Behavioral Model of Rational Choice." Quarterly Journal of Economics 69: **March, James C. and Johan P. Olsen Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations. New York: Oxford University Press. **Simon, Herbert A Administrative Behavior (3rd ed.). New York: Free Press. Week 6 (5/3) Economic Theories of Organizations Chandler, Alfred D. Jr The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Introduction, pp. 1-12; ch. 12 ( Middle Management: Function and Structure ), pp Coase, R. H "The Nature of the Firm." Economica 4: Williamson, Oliver Markets and Hierarchies. New York: Free Press. Pp. 1-10, Williamson, Oliver The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology 87: *Perrow, Complex Organizations, ch. 7. *Williamson, Oliver E The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press. Chapter 1. *Robins, James A Organizational Economics: Notes on the Use of Transaction-Cost Theory in the Study of Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly 32: **Baron, James N. and Michael T. Hannan The Impact of Economics on Contemporary Sociology. Journal of Economic Literature 32:

5 5 Week 7 (5/10) Markets, Corporations, and Power Granovetter, Mark Economic and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology 91: Fligstein, Neil "The Spread of the Multidivisional Form Among Large Firms, " American Sociological Review 50: Fligstein, Neil "The Intraorganizational Power Struggle: Rise of Finance Personnel to Top Leadership in Large Corporations, " American Sociological Review 52: Dobbin, Frank R. and Timothy Dowd "The Market That Antitrust Built: Public Policy, Private Coercion, and Railroad Acquisitions, " American Sociological Review 65: Zuckerman, Ezra "The Categorical Imperative: Securities Analysts and the Illegitimacy Discount." American Journal of Sociology 104: *Ruef, Martin "Social Ontology and the Dynamics of Organizational Forms: Creating Market Actors in the Healthcare Field, " Social Forces 77: **Roy, William Socializing Capital: The Rise of the Large Industrial Corporation in America. Princeton: Princeton University Press. **Dobbin, Frank R Forging Industrial Policy: The United States, Britain, and France in the Railway Age. New York: Cambridge University Press. **Fligstein, Neil The Transformation of Corporate Control. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. **White, Harrison C "Where Do Markets Come From?" American Journal of Sociology 87: **White, Harrison C Markets From Networks: Socioeconomic Models of Production. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Week 8 (5/17): Organizational Ecology Stinchcombe, Arthur Social Structure and Organizations. Pp in Handbook of Organizations, edited by J. G. March. Chicago: Rand-McNally (read to p. 169 and skim the rest). Hannan, Michael and John Freeman The Population Ecology of Organizations. American Journal of Sociology 82: Hannan, Michael and John Freeman Structural Inertia and Organizational Change. American Sociological Review 49: Carroll, Glenn Concentration and Specialization: Dynamics of Niche Width in Populations of Organizations. American Journal of Sociology 90: Carroll, Glenn and Anand Swaminathan "Why the Microbrewery Movement? Organizational Dynamics of Resource Partitioning in the American Brewing Industry." American Journal of Sociology 106:

6 6 Baron, James N "Employing Identities in Organizational Ecology." Industrial and Corporate Change 13:3-22. *Perrow, Complex Organizations, ch. 6. *Pólos, László, Michael T. Hannan, and Glenn R. Carroll "Foundations of a Theory of Social Forms." Industrial and Corporate Change 11: ** Hannan, Michael T. and John Freeman Organizational Ecology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ** Carroll, Glenn R. and Michael T. Hannan The Demography of Corporations and Industries. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. **McKendrick, David G., Jonathan Jaffee, Glenn R. Carroll, and Olga M. Khessina "In the Bud? Analysis of Disk Array Producers as a (Possibly) Emergent Organizational Form." Administrative Science Quarterly 48: ** Haveman, Heather A Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Organizational Change and Performance Under Conditions of Fundamental Environmental Transformation. Administrative Science Quarterly 38: **Land, Kenneth C., Walter R. Davis, and Judith R. Blau Organizing the Boys of Summer: The Evolution of U.S. Minor-League Baseball, American Journal of Sociology 100: Week 9 (5/24): Neoinstitutional Theory: Theoretical Foundations Meyer, John W. and Brian Rowan. Institutional Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. Chapter 2 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. DiMaggio, Paul and Walter Powell. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. Chapter 3 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. DiMaggio and Powell, Introduction to The New Institutionalism. *Perrow, Complex Organizations, ch. 8. *Meyer, John W "Rationalized Environments." Pp in Institutional Environments and Organizatons: Structural Complexity and Individualism, edited by W. R. Scott and J. W. Meyer. Thousand Oaks: Sage. **Berger, Peter L. and Thomas Luckmann The Social Construction of Reality. Garden City, NY: Anchor. **Scott, W. Richard and John W. Meyer. The Organization of Societal Sectors. Chapter 5 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. **Scott, W. Richard Institutions and Organizations. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

7 7 Week 10 (5/31): Neoinstitutional Theory (continued): Extensions and Applications Jepperson, Ronald L Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism. Chapter 6 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. Friedland, Roger and Robert R. Alford Bringing Society Back In: Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions. Chapter 10 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. DiMaggio, Paul Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory. Pp in Institutional Patterns and Organizations, edited by L. G. Zucker. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger. Strang, David and John W. Meyer Institutional Conditions for Diffusion. Theory and Society 22: Bourgeois, Michael D. and John R. Sutton Legal Environments, the Employment Relationship, and Management Regimes: Evidence Over Thirty Years. Santa Barbara, CA: UCSB Department of Sociology. **DiMaggio, Paul. Constructing an Organizational Field as a Professional Project: U.S. Art Museums, Chapter 11 in Powell and DiMaggio, The New Institutionalism. **Dobbin, Frank Cultural Models of Organization: The Social Construction of Rational Organizing Principles. Pp in Diana Crane (ed.), Sociology of Culture: Emerging Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. **Scott, W. Richard, Martin Ruef, Peter Mendel, and Carol A. Caronna Institutional Change and Healthcare Organizations: From Professional Dominance to Managed Care. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. **Sutton, John R. and Frank Dobbin The Two Faces of Governance: Responses to Legal Uncertainty in American Firms, American Sociological Review 61: