SOC208H5 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Thai Cultural Mandates, Jeffrey Skilling, Profit Maximization
Document Summary
Social structures created by individuals to support the collaborative pursuit of specified goals. We can do things together that we can"t do alone. People bring together resources to meet goals or to provide services. Organizations are a dominant characteristic of modern society: discovery, socialization and resocialization (mental hospitals, production/distribution, protection (police, preservation of culture (churches, communication, recreation (sports) Collective action: extensions of ourselves: achieve goals we could not achieve alone, collective actors: natural vs. juridical persons, unintended consequences: manifest vs. latent functions. Over conformity can lead to stress and over development: rationalization, alienation: In order to operate, organizations must: define goals, induce cooperation, dispense products/services, select, train, replace workers, accommodate neighbors (other organizations or people, use resources to expand and maintain, harmonize work flows with human elements. Organizational diversity: size of the organization, type/sector, multiplex (more than one at a time, structure, capital, institutional context, global/contextual.
