SOC 180A Week 1 PDF

Week 1 1/13/24 ➔​ Complex formal organizations are technologies ◆​ People created organizations to serve purposes and reflect specific methodologies ◆​ Organizations as rational tools ​ They are improved over time via rationalization and refinement...

Week 1 1/13/24 ➔​ Complex formal organizations are technologies ◆​ People created organizations to serve purposes and reflect specific methodologies ◆​ Organizations as rational tools ​ They are improved over time via rationalization and refinement ​ Reflects society transformation ​ NEW DEFINITION: deliberate creations fashioned to achieve consciously desired ends/goals ○​ Parallel creation to England transition as people changed the way they think as people didn’t believe they had a hand in their fate ○​ Used to analyze, model, and compare aspects of social reality ​ Ideal types: abstract concept that captures the essential features of a phenomenon ◆​ Technology Defined ​ Technologies involve a purpose that directs their development and productive application ○​ All organizations have a purpose they set out to achieve ​ A method that applies technical knowledge and/or tools to the task of achieving a desired outcome ○​ Focus on the organization's methods ◆​ Organizations are technology ​ Four different aspects ○​ Application of formal rational (problem-solving) ○​ Goal specifically (mission) ○​ Stable yet interchangeable internal relations (established hierarchy) ○​ Legal framework (binding legal contracts) ​ Example pinto car ○​ They used rational thought that it would cost more to recall all the cars and add a rubber stop so they decided just to pay out ◆​ Focus on Formal Rationality (Best Means aka faster way) ​ Decided by effectiveness, technical metric, Proceduralism ​ It reflects problem-solving that relies on both technical criteria of measurable aspects of a problem and procedural decision-making ○​ Step 1 Identified problem ○​ Step 2 Global search for a solution ○​ Step 3 Assessment of fit ○​ Step 4 Selection of best fit ○​ Step 5 Application and resolution of the problem ◆​ Substantive Rationality (right means the moral right choice ) ​ Decided to morality, belief/faith, canon/traditional  ​ Problem-solving based on the application of ethical norms regarding what is deemed right and wrong to guide decision ○​ Ethics, norms, and morals reflect tradition or religious beliefs Lecture 1/15/25 ➔​ Pre-Lecture thoughts ◆​ They can always be changed to restructure to become much more efficient ◆​ We used to be controlled by fate versus knowing that most of our decisions are based on somewhat logical where we believe we are in control ➔​ Historical origins and emergence ◆​ Nation states ​ The emergence of massive societies ( pushed the idea of societies) pushed equally massive organizations ○​ Ie government bureaucracy ​ To govern (for survival) to survive ○​ Roles in the organization and the person are separate ​ They need things like borders, money, leadership, weapons ○​ To get this stuff the citizens are taxed which means that they’re acknowledged as citizens of the country ​ This again leads to the absorption previously mentioned ◆​ Enlightenment thinking ​ This leads to a change of mind from fate-based and traditional authority toward cause and effect, formal rationality, rule of law, and with them formal organization ​ Now organized from problem-solving with the rationality behind them ◆​ Science and Engineering ​ Formal rationality practical application in science, engineering, and math-accounting markedly improved analysis, calculator, and with it the systemization of the industry and government organization ○​ The first people who did the factory bureaucracy(Fredrick Taylor) were engineers ○​ Through bureaucratic of the factories control was taken away from the rich people ◆​ Urban markets ​ States' emergence of enlightenment thinking mainstreamed was also moving from agrarian self-sufficiency toward urban wage dependency and market exchange as a new way of life ○​ Commons act where people were kicked out of their land for the sheep where they were self-sufficient so they were then used for labor ​ This created markets where people could buy and sell ◆​ Mega-firms ​ A small number of merchants implemented formal rational principles and scientific methodologies in their industrial firms, leading to the formation of  large bureaucracies mega-factories which were the precursors to today's mega corporators ➔​ Organizational domination of formal organizations ◆​ Relative concentration ​ Relational measure that considers the total number of formal organizations (their staff) with other social groupings and associations ​ We haven't changed climate change as it will affect integral parts of lives ​ Knowledge monopolies are now being created ◆​ Relative size ​ Striking when compared to other social and organizational forms; this has strengthened the power they exert in society over time ​ TOO BIG to FAIL ​ They influence change in politics and other important areas ◆​ Relative dependence ​ Describes the proportion of workers, consumers, and citizens who rely on formal organizations for livelihoods ○​ Ex: individuals dependent on formal organizations for wages is a significant example ➔​ Complex, formal organizations are ◆​ Invented technology reflects a specific purpose and involves a distinct methodology ◆​ Emerged from a set of his ➔​