Chapter Summary for Chapter 18
An organization – a large impersonal group of people set up to achieve specific objectives – is an increasingly familiar form in contemporary societies and much of social life depends on the smooth activity of organizations. Organizations bestow increased predictability but inexorably draw more of our lives into their web, infringing on our personal freedom as more and more demands are made on us by organizations’ needs and. Bureaucracy and democracy are often presented as opposite ideal types.
Weber focuses on bureaucracy, or rule by officials. The main features of Weber’s ideal type are: hierarchy, written rules, salaried posts, separation between post and person and removal from direct control of the means of production. Weber’s emphasis on formal relations within organizations contrasts with Blau’s study of informal relations in a government agency. Blau’s study shows that everyday working practices often run counter to written protocols, because loyalty to the group overrides formal rules and procedures. Such informal practices are commonplace even in the most apparently rigid organizations, offering both an aid and an encumbrance to that organization’s activities.
Merton’s interest in the dysfunctions of bureaucracy concentrated on ways in which the principles of bureaucratic organization could ultimately become self-defeating. Burns and Stalker’s famous distinction between mechanistic and organic organizations makes the argument that structures are at least partly a function of product market situation.
The physical layout of organizations is significant with regard to principles of surveillance. The need for effective supervision of labour often leads to groups of workers operating in open spaces in direct sight of their superiors. Surveillance can also involve files of information that record the performance of those within the organization. Foucault notes the need for activities to be ‘coordinated in time and space’ through timetabling and regularized work patterns. This is most clearly seen in prisons, but Foucault saw all organizations as to some extent based on the logic of the prison. Foucault drew on Bentham’s concept of the Panopticon, a prison design where the prisoners could be seen at all times by guards, who themselves remained hidden.
Some organizations – transnational organizations – span the world. These are of two types: international governmental organizations (IGOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). Economic transnationals can be described as ethnocentric, polycentric or geocentric. Such is the scale of these bodies that they can now ‘plan on a global scale’. Economic organizations have evolved through a series of stages: family capitalism, managerial capitalism and welfare capitalism. Finally, there has been an emergence of institutional capitalism.
There are alternatives to the hierarchical bureaucratic model. A number of features of Japanese companies make them different from Weber’s ideal type. These are:
- bottom-up decision-making via suggestion schemes and quality circles;
- reduced specialization through job rotation and broader training;
- job security and payment in accordance with seniority;
- group-oriented production in cooperative teams;
- merging of work and private lives, via company uniforms, songs and leisure activities.
Studies suggest that employee involvement can lead to increased commitment and effectiveness.
The Japanese approach has influenced two recent innovations in Western management theory, namely human resource management (HRM) and the corporate culture approach. However, these are seen as oriented to the needs of business by those influenced by the more recent critical management studies (CMS). CMS calls into question the supposed neutrality of mainstream management theory. Actor-Network Theory (ANT) sees organizations as much more than just their human actors, bringing in other non-human ‘actants’ such as systems of rules, machines and inanimate objects, all of which, it is argued, influence the way that organizations function.
In recent years the study of networks has become more prominent in sociology. Personal networks can confer many advantages, particularly amongst high status social groups. New information communications technologies (ICTs) are transforming social networks. Castells sees networks powered by ICTs as the defining organizational structure of our age and the network enterprise as the most suitable form of business organization in a global information-led economy.
Social capital – the knowledge and connections that enable people to accomplish their goals and extend their influence – has become a well-used concept since the 1980s. Putnam’s study of declining ‘bonding social capital’ in the USA found that membership of many voluntary associations and clubs was declining. He argues that this is a clear sign of social disengagement as a result, primarily, of the expanding influence of television in generating social passivity. Evidence from Europe is less clear.
Others suggest that the ease with which mobile phones, email, internet chatrooms and social networking sites have quickly become embedded in people’s everyday routines suggest that new social ties and virtual communities are being created, bringing with them new forms of social capital. At this point, more empirical studies are needed before form conclusions can be arrived at.
