SYLLABUS

SOCI 302 Sociology of Organizations and Institutions

Ko University
Spring 2008
Instructor: Deniz Ykseker
Class: CASB26
Time: 12:30-13:45
Office: SOS 254
Phone ext.: 1309
E-mail: dyukseker@ku.edu.tr
Office Hours: Wednesday, 11:00-12.00, Thursday, 14:30-16:00, or by appointment
Course Description: This course introduces students to the sociological study of
organizations and institutions. Some questions we will focus on are: what are
organizations, what types of organizations are there, how do they evolve over time,
and how do they decline? We will especially focus on the evolution of business
organizations in response to technological changes and changes in the capitalist world
economy. Within this context, we will discuss types of labor control and labor
process. The course takes a macro-sociological approach. The emphasis will be on
the structure and systems of organizations more so than on human behavior. This
means that we will not explore individual or social-psychological levels within
organizations nor will we learn how to manage people. The course will be based on
lectures, readings, film screenings and hopefully one or two field trips to factories.
Course Materials:
A course reader containing most of the readings will be available for sale at the
XEROX Office. Some of the articles are available online through the SOCI302 page
on Courseware as indicated below.
Course Evaluation: Your success in this course depends on regular attendance, active
participation and doing the readings on time. There will be two midterm exams, one
assignment and a final exam.
Midterms: 25 percent each
Assignment: 20 percent
Final: 25 percent
Attendance and participation: 5 percent
Note on Assignment: You will write your assignment (around 5 double-spaced typed
pages) based on your observations during one of the field trips. In the event that the
field trips are cancelled, I will provide topics on which to write the assignment.
Academic Integrity and Student Conduct: Please refer to the course web page for
Sociology Departments Guidelines.
Course Schedule
WEEK 1: February 5-7
INTRODUCTION
WEEK 2: February 12-14
Nature and types of organizations, in Hall, Organizations, chapter 2.
CLASSIC ORGANIZATION THEORY

Bureaucracy, Max Weber. In F. Fischer and C. Sirianni (eds.) Critical Studies in

Organization and Bureaucracy, 1994. chapter 1.
The spirit of bureaucracy and beyond bureaucracy, Karl Marx. In Fischer and
Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 2.
WEEK 3: February 19-21
Oligarchy, Robert Michels. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 3.
WEEK 4: February 26-28
INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATION
From manufacture to modern society. Karl Marx, from Das Kapital, vol.1.
The Foremans Empire, Daniel Nelson. In Frank Hearn, The Transformation of
Industrial Organization, 1987.
WEEK 5: March 4-6
Scientific management, Frederick Taylor. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies,
chapter 4.
The real meaning of Taylorism, Harry Braverman. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical
Studies, chapter 5.
Film screening: Modern Times
WEEK 6: March 11-13
LABOR CONTROL
Forms of control in the labor process: An historical analysis, R. Edwards. In Fischer
and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 8.
Organizing Consent on the Shop Floor: the Game of Making Out, Michael
Burawoy. In Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 10.
WEEK 7: March 18-20
Midterm on March 18
Hanging Tongues: A Sociological Encounter with the Assembly Line, William
Thompson. In James Henslin, Down to Earth Sociology, 1995.
McDonalds. We Do it All for You, Barbara Garson. In James Henslin, Down to
Earth Sociology, 1995.
Gamze Ycesan-zdemir: Hidden Forms of Resistance among Turkish Workers:
Hegemonic Incorporation or Building Blocks for Working Class Struggle? Capital
and Class, no. 81, Autumn 2003, pp. 31-59. (online)
WEEK 8: March 25-27
HUMAN RELATIONS SCHOOL AND ITS CRITIQUES
Human Relations and the Informal Organization, Roethlisberger and Dickson. In
Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 6.
Hawthorne, the Myth of the Docile Worker, and Class Bias in Sociology Dana
Bramel and Ronald Friend. In Sociology of Organizations. A Reader, ed. Michael
Handel, 2004, pp. 97-107.
WEEK 9: April 1-3
MANAGERIAL CAPITALISM
The Emergence of Managerial Capitalism, Alfred Chandler, The Business History
Review, vol. 58, no.4, 1984 (online)

The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost Approach, Oliver

Williamson, The American Journal of Sociology, vol. 87, no.3, 1981 (online)
Fordism, David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1989.
S PR I N G B R E AK
WEEK 10: April 15-17
POST-FORDISM
A new paradigm of work organization and technology, J. Tomaney. In Ash Amin,
Post-Fordism, 1994.
From Fordism to Flexible Accumulation, David Harvey, The Condition of
Postmodernity, 1989.
Film screening: Enron. The Smartest Guys in the Room
WEEK 11: April 22-24
Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization, Walter Powell,
Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 12, 1990 (online)
The Evolution and Devolution of the Italian Industrial Districts, Bennett Harrison,
Lean and Mean, 1994, chapter 4.
Shuttling Goods, Weaving Consumer Tastes. Informal Trade between Turkey and
Russia. Deniz Ykseker, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol.
31, no.1, March 2007: 60-72 (online)
WEEK 12: April 29-May 1
Midterm on April 29
VOLUNTARY ORGANIZATIONS
The Rationing of Services in Street Level Bureaucracies, Michael Lipsky. In
Fischer and Sirianni, Critical Studies, chapter 15.
Film screening: Welfare
WEEK 13: May 6-8
GENDER IN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS
Women and power in organizations, Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In Fischer and Sirianni,
Critical Studies, chapter 17.
Sexuality and difference: on whose terms? C. Cockburn, In the Way Home.
Leslie Salzinger, Producing Women. Femininity on the Line in Genders in
Production, 2003, pp. 9-34.
WEEK 14: May 13-15
Review
Due date for assignments: May 15