A Sociology of Organisations?

Consider the following story invented by Alasdair MacIntyre: ‘There was once a man who aspired to be the author of the general theory of holes. When asked “What kind of hole—holes dug by children in the sand for amusement, holes dug by gardeners to plant lettuce seedlings, tank traps, holes made by roadmakers ?” he would reply indignantly that he wished for a general theory that would explain all of these. He rejected ab initio the—as he saw it—pathetically common-sense view that for the digging of different kinds of holes there are quite different explanations to be given: why then he would ask do we have the concept of a hole ?’ ¹ This cautionary tale was originally directed at political scientists who offer general theories of modernisation, urbanisation or some such all-embracing concept. It might have been directed with equal force at certain species of organisation theorists. Certainly one does not venture far into the literature on organisations before discovering papers like: ‘Foundations of the Theory of Organisation’; ‘The Structure and Function of Organisation’; ‘Some Ingredients of a General Theory of Formal Organisation’; ‘Towards a Theory of Organisations.’ ² At the same time one cannot help noticing the bewildering array of treatments from different disciplines and from the interface between disciplines which occur when organisations are actually described and analysed. Take, for example, the very large interdisciplinary reader, edited by James March, Handbook of Organisations. ³ It is basically an attempt to represent the state of play in organisational analysis at the time of compilation and without doubt many of the individual contributions are of great interest. But the overall impression is of a babel of voices. The opening section is enigmatically labelled ‘Foundations’. It consists of social psychological papers on leadership, decision-making, and small group studies together with a sociological discussion of social structure and organisations. But it is extremely difficult to see what these papers are the foundations of: certainly not a general theory of organisations. Following a relatively brief section on methodologies (including a paper by Scott of particular interest to the research sociologist) ⁴ the third and major section of the book is entitled ‘Theoretical-Substantive Areas’. This includes papers on decision-making, communications and interpersonal relations in organisations not noticeably dissimilar to those treated under ‘Foundations’. It also includes a valuable paper on the comparative method in organisational analysis which might well have been treated under the methodology section. ⁵ Alongside papers such as these however are two other kinds. There are a series of papers which group discussion around ‘common-sense’ labels such as prisons, schools, trade unions, political parties, hospitals and business organisations. In addition there are contributions which have to do with particular kinds of theorising, namely management theory and economic theories of organisation. The final section of the book cryptically labelled ‘Applications’ has to do with the problem of implementing change in organisations: a number of strategies are reviewed which themselves reveal different levels of interest (the individual, the group, the organisation) and also different theoretical perspectives. Of course, if one applies what one has discovered about organisations to ‘the real world’ then the implication is that one's knowledge is practically relevant to the affairs of men and as such a prescriptive element is built in: you must do x, y and z if you would achieve a successful/efficient/happy/healthy/rational organisation.