Reading and speaking

Pre-reading task

1. How do you understand the statement “The highest standards can be reached cooperatively …?

2. Explain the term “organization”

3. Do you think each social organization should have the so called social hierarchy?

4. Read the text.

New paradigm of social organization

Social organizations are usually considered as artificial formal social systems created with a definite purpose. However, this description is too narrow, because it does not take into account natural organizations that arise spontaneously during self-organizing, without a definite purpose. Therefore, there is a necessity to use new wider paradigm of social organization in spite of old one – narrow rationalistic. We can describe the social organization as the rather steady social integrity (social generality), showing reasonable behavior similarly to alive organism. This reasonable behavior is understood as ability of organization to respond adequately the challenges, or ability to reveal and to solve social problems (deviation from social norms).

Such a wide understanding of social organization leaves the subject field of the traditional theory of organizations and sociology of organizations and requires development of new sociology of organizations, which would be a part of general sociology. Object of research of new sociology of organizations should be not only artificial formal organizations, but also natural and naturally - artificial organizations, including families, settlements, cities, parties, nations, societies, global communities. The natural organizations are a consequence of the social relations between people, when "social facts" and "social forces" are appearing during interpersonal interactions, and they render regulating influence on the group members. These "social facts" in aggregate form the social mechanism of organization that has latent or half hidden character. The naturally - artificial organizations are partially developing in natural way, and partially – in artificial.

The social mechanism exists in each organization, its main function is the revealing and solving of social problems, due to what the integrity and stability of social organization is provided. Complication of kinds of organizations during social evolution is explained by complication of their social mechanisms as a result of accumulation and increase of a variety of "building material" such as “social facts" and other samples of organizational culture.

Answer the following questions

1. Give the narrow description of social organization.

2. What is “social organization”, according to the author?

3. What should the object of sociology of organization be? Why?

4. How is the integrity and stability of social organization provided?

5. Characterize your post-graduate studies as a kind of social organization.

6. Comment on the statement: “We get the best from people by expecting the best.”