Lee Clarke

Organizations and Society

Since the turn of the century western societies have been marked by complex, formal organizations. But large parts of social science seems not to have noticed, though there are exceptions. Smart people have given a lot of thought to the internal dynamics of organizations and while some of that work is interesting there is precious little society in it. We have, too, a lot of work on relationships of organizations to their environments and that work gets closer to what I’m after in this course but still the focus remains on organizations per se rather than society. If organizations scholars have been lacking in trying to understand the relevance of their subject to society other parts of social science have committed a much greater sin: trying to analyze important parts of society without any reference to organizations whatever. Yet there is no place in modern society that organizations do not touch. It’s like trying to figure out what fish do without noticing the water they swim in.

I want to push this overstatement as far as it can go. The idea is to spend the first part of the course getting a handle on what it means to have an organizational perspective on the world; the rest of the course is about that view allows us to see about society that might otherwise be obscured.

The course's requirements are to read, talk, and write. Read all the work. Talk about the work every class period. I do not lecture. Most of the time I'll say a few words at the beginning of class, and I'll certainly participate in the discussion, but won't spend three hours per week telling you what I think other people thought. I'm more interested in the collectively creative exposition of the ideas. That only happens when informed people discuss and argue about ideas.

Oh yes, the writing. One of my ideologies is that I think it is rarely worthwhile to write about what other people said or thought or meant. Better to create. I want you to create the following things.

1. Analytic memos. These should be no longer than one page, and you should write one every week, except the week in which a critical essay, if you choose to do such, is due. These memos will organize discussion every week, and should be a two or three paragraph summary and critical commentary on one or a few issues raised by the readings. End the memo with a question (i.e. a sentence with a question mark), so that your key issue is clear. You should make a copy for everyone in the class, including me, and bring them to class every week. We will take a few minutes before class to read over the memos. Because the memos will play an important role in organizing our talk, there’s no point in handing them in late.

Then you have your choice of either critical essays or a short paper. You can do both, of course, and you’ll be a better person if you do.

2. Critical essays. There are two of these. My description is attached.
3. Paper. Fifteen to twenty pages on something that interests you that is in some clear way connected to the substance of the course. I say 15-20 pages because if you start something new, which I presume most folks will, then it will be impossible to write a good, full paper in one semester. You can do a good job of starting a paper without the pressure of producing length. Of course, the work could be the beginning of a qualifying paper, or as a chapter if you're dissertating. And while I'm telling you what you should do, you should not put your image to screen (i.e. pen to paper) for something this long without a view toward publishing it. All writing is productive; good production is published.

Oh yes, I do not give incompletes.

Following are the books you should buy. They’ll also be on reserve that the Livingston Library. Note that "Organizational Analysis," by Perrow, is out of print. You can try to get a used copy somewhere, or pass around my copy, or just make a photocopy of it.