To whom, what for and how far is the sociology of organization still needed?

• Main Author: Mojić Dušan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Serbian Sociological Association, Belgrade 2017-01-01
• Series: Sociološki Pregled
• Subjects: sociology of organization; organization studies; theoretical approaches
• Online Access: http://scindeks-clanci.ceon.rs/data/pdf/0085-6320/2017/0085-63201701003M.pdf

Historical development and current state of affairs in sociology of organization and wider field of organization studies have been analyzed in the paper. Sociology of organization has usually been considered to be a sociological discipline, but also a sub-discipline of the sociology of work. Two concepts of organization have been extracted in the sociological studies - organization as a process and organization as a social unit or a state. The agreement of the researchers that we live today in the 'world of Organizations' points out to the relevance of the sociological analysis of social actors and social relationships inside organizations, and consequently the sociology of organization as a scientific discipline. During time, four directions in theoretical explanations of social reality of organizations have been developed - classical, neo-classical, modern and post-modern. These approaches have been the result of the changing social nature of modern and post-modern organizations, as well as different paradigms in their scientific study.