ORGANIZATIONAL &INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURE

Studies of individual reactions to work reveal that when work provides challenges, potential for advancement and an opportunity for using expressive capabilities , it is enjoyable

This suggests that variations in organizational arrangement of tasks can have a strong impact on individual satisfaction

Studies have indicated that people who work in bureaucratized settings with more autonomy were more intellectually flexible, open and more self directed.

Characteristics of work have been shown to affect workers families. Those whose jobs provide them with more autonomy and flexibility are more likely to encourage self-direction and self-expression in their children; those whose jobs offer less autonomy and flexibility are more likely to emphasize obedience to rules in their childcare practices.

Socialization is a major part of what the family, education, religion and other institutions do to prepare individuals to be members of their social world

Interaction is the basic building block of socialization….

Out of the process of interaction we learn culture and become members of society

Interaction shapes us into human beings with social selves (which are perceptions we have of who we are)

Socialization is necessary not only for the survival of the individual but also for the survival of society and its groups

most theories of socialization focus on micro-level processes (ie: how families, peer groups etc. teach us how to live in our respective cultures….

* There are important macro processes as well……….

(functionalist) perspectives of socialization tend to see different levels of the social world operating to support each other (ex: boy and girl scouts stressing national values/patriotism)

Conflict theorists believe that those who have power and privilege use socialization to manipulate individuals in the social world to support the interests of elites

For symbolic interactionists the central “product” of the process of socialization is the self…….

The self refers to the perceptions we have of who we are

Throughout the socialization process our “self concept” is derived from our perceptions of the way others are responding to us…

George Herbert Mead-symbolic interactionists who felt individuals take others into account by imagining themselves in the position of the other, a process called “role-taking”…………

*the key to the development of the self, is learning to take the role of the other

*infants respond to others through imitation

*as children learn to use language and other symbols, the self emerges in the form of play-significant others

All complex organizations are built up from units of organization and consist of many units of ‘working’ or ‘basic’ organizations, overlaid with units of executive organizations (Chester Bernard)

Structure “involves clearly defined patterns of activity in which, ideally, every series of actions is functionally related to the purposes of the organization” (Robert Merton)

Structure consists of “the distributions, along various lines, of people among social positions that influence the role relations among these people” (Peter Blau)

Formal Structure-refers to the official, explicit division of responsibilities, definitions of how work is to be done and specifications of relationships involving the members of an organization

Informal Structure refers to the unofficial divisions, definitions and relations that emerge over time in an organization

Clearly defined division of laborHierarchy of AuthorityWritten rules and documents to

govern practicesSeparation of home and officeAppointment of members on the

basis of qualifications

Focused on the problem of ‘scientifically figuring out the best way to design organizations as a whole