Sociology: Social Organization

Please choose an organization you are fascinated with for this case study. It can be one of your workplaces, an organization in your hometown, Fortune 500 company, university, hospital, prison etc. Since this is a research paper, you must conduct two types of research:

1. Short literature review. Please use a min. of 5 academic sources to describe this organization (the organizational website can be an extra source). In addition to books and peer reviewed articles, you may also use the business section of leading newspapers and magazines (New York Times, Wall Street, Harvard Business Review, Fortune Magazine, Forbes, AJC etc).
2. Empirical research. You are encouraged to collect your own original/ primary data or analyze/ interpret existing/ secondary data on the organization of your choice. You may use participant observation/ visit the organization, interview employees and/ or managers face-to-face or by phone. It is best to visit the organization, so you can provide primary unfiltered observations on the organization of your choice. However, you may also find a ton of information on the organizational website and/ or documentaries/ employee interviews on YouTube, Netflix etc. (please make sure to provide references for your secondary data).

The Paper should cover the following sections:

1. Title of the Paper and Student Name.
2. Description of the organization (mission, vision, values, headquarters, number of employees, workforce diversity etc.).
3. Brief history of the organization from its founders to present.
4. Environment (tip: protecting the environment is extremely important for an organization, but the organizational environment includes much more than the physical environment: customers, partners, investors, suppliers, alliances, networks, economic and political forces, unions, regulators, media, institutions etc.).
5. Social Structure (tip: please analyze Weber’s 6 principles of bureaucracy in the context of your organization; mechanistic versus organic organizations; you may attach and discuss the organizational chart, discuss the supply chain, the lifecycle of the organization, organization as an open and close systems, symbolic practices that provide structure and routine, postmodern perspectives of social structure).

Try to apply at least 10 theories and sociological concepts that we’ve learned till midterm and please highlight them in your paper (with bold letters).

Explain/ elaborate how the knowledge gained in this class helped you gain a different perspective on organizations, work and employment.

The most important learning objective of this assignment is to demonstrate that you have comprehended the material and know how to apply organizational theories to real life organizations, work and employment situations.

Text book Hatch, Mary Jo. 2018. Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives. 4^th edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN: 9780198723981.