Course Information

Course Code: SOZ732014
Institution: Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Semester: Summer 2024
Instructors: Dr. Lisa Suckert (suckert@uni-wuppertal.de) & Dr. Timur Ergen (ergen@uni-wuppertal.de)

This lecture provides an introduction to theories and concepts from organizational sociology, examining how organizations function as corporate actors in society and the various theoretical approaches to understanding organizational behavior and structure.

Course Materials
  • Complete Syllabus — Full course syllabus with detailed information and requirements

Assessment

Requirements will be announced during the course.

Students can improve their grade by producing a podcast on one of the lectures. Consult the guide.

Session 1: Einführung und Organisatorisches

April 10, 2024

Introduction to the course structure, requirements, and overview of organizational sociology.

Session 2: Organisationsgesellschaft und Organisationen als korporative Akteure

April 17, 2024

Required Literature:

  • Perrow, C., 1991. A society of organizations. Theory and Society, 20 (6): 725–762.

Additional Literature:

  • Coleman, J., 1986. Die asymmetrische Gesellschaft. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz, 11–139.
  • Davis, G.F., 2009. The Rise and Fall of Finance and the End of the Society of Organizations. Academy of Management Perspectives 23, 3.
  • Haveman, H., 2022. The Power of Organizations: A New Approach to Organizational Theory. Princeton University Press, Kapitel 9, 203–228.

Session 3: Rationalisierung und Bürokratisierung

April 24, 2024

Required Literature:

  • Weber, M. (1990 [1921]): Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie. Mohr, S. 122–155; 551–579.

Additional Literature:

  • Chandler, Jr., A., 1984. The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism. Business History Review 58, 4, 473–507.
  • Collins, R. (1980). Weber’s Last Theory of Capitalism: A Systematization. American Sociological Review, 45(6), 925–942.
  • Gorski, P.S. (2003): The Disciplinary Revolution. Calvinism and the Rise of the State in Early Modern Europe. Chicago: Chicago University Press, 114-155.
  • Weber, M. (1990 [1921]): Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Grundriß der verstehenden Soziologie. Mohr, S. 815–868.

Session 4: Formale Organisation

May 8, 2024

Required Literature:

  • Luhmann, N. (1993 [1964]): Funktionen und Folgen formaler Organisation. Duncker & Humblot, Kap. 1–7, 21.

Additional Literature:

  • Ashcraft, K. L., 2001. Organized Dissonance: Feminist Bureaucracy as Hybrid Form. The Academy of Management Journal 44, 6, 1301–1322.
  • Lazerson, M., 1995. A New Phoenix? Modern Putting-Out in the Modena Knitwear Industry. Administrative Science Quarterly 40, 1, 34–59.
  • Powell, W. W., 1990. Neither Market Nor Hierarchy; Network Forms of Organization. In: B. Staw & L.L. Cummings (Hg.), Research in Organizational Behavior 12. JAI Press, 295–336.
  • Stark, D., 2001. Ambiguous Assets for Uncertain Environments: Heterarchy in Postsocialist Firms. In: P. DiMaggio (Hg.), The Twenty-First-Century Firm. Princeton University Press, 69–104.

Session 5: Organisation & Mitglieder Loyalität, Widerspruch, Abwanderung

May 15, 2024

Required Literature:

  • Hirschman, A.O., 1995. Abwanderung, Widerspruch und das Schicksal der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik In: A.O. Hirschman, Selbstbefragung und Erkenntnis, Hanser Verlag, 19–56.

Additional Literature:

  • Hirschman, A.O., 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organization, and States. Harvard University Press.
  • Withey, M.J. & W. H. Cooper, 1989: Predicting Exit, Voice, Loyalty, and Neglect. Administrative Science Quarterly 34, 521–539.
  • Naus, F., A. van Iterson & R. Roe, 2007. Organizational cynicism: Extending the exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect model of employee’s responses to adverse conditions in the workplace. Human Relations 60, 683–718.

Session 6: Neoinstitutionalismus I: Ökonomischer Institutionalismus

May 29, 2024

Required Literature:

  • Williamson, O. E., 1981. The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach. American Journal of Sociology 87, 3, 548–577.

Additional Literature:

  • Acemoğlu, D. & J. A. Robinson, 2012. Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. Profile Books, Kap. 11 & 12, 302–367.
  • North, D., 1999. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. Cambridge University Press, 73–104.
  • Weingast, B., 2002. Rational Choice Institutionalism. In: Katznelson, I. and H. Milner (Hg.): Political Science: The State of the Discipline. Norton and Company, 660–692.