organization theory
organization theory, sociology of organizationsIn practice these terms are used interchangeably, although the former has a slightly wider remit than the latter as it also covers work by non-sociologists, including those who are concerned to provide advice to management on how organizations should be designed and operated.
As various forms of organization pervade social life some difficulty also attaches to the definition of those which are the subject-matter of the sociology of organizations. In a useful discussion of this problem David Silverman (The Theory of Organizations, 1970) has suggested that the ‘formal organizations’ with which this branch of sociology is concerned have three distinguishing features: they arise at an ascertainable moment in time; as artefacts they exhibit patterns of social relations which are less taken for granted than those in non-formal organizations (such as the family) and which organizational participants...
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