Contributions of Organizational Sociology: Part I: Contributions to Sociology — A Liberal View

Abstract

'Sociology of organizations' is often considered to be just a name for the general social-scientific approach to the study of organizations. However, a case can be made for a one-sided, purely sociological analysis of organizations and interorganizational trans actions on the grounds that such a sociological speciality forms an essential part of sociology at large and, in addition, contributes to various other sociological specialities. As a distinct subdiscipline organizational sociology developed in the 1960s as a 'horizon tal' approach, claimed to be more theoretical, more fruitful, and more economical than the 'vertical' study of organizations. With the aid of a fourfold classification of its 'outputs' it is argued that organizational sociology has produced a wide variety of fruitful theories and findings which justify the claim that there remains a definite need for such a speciality closely tied to its 'mother discipline'. In a sequel — to appear in OS 2/4 — the contributions of organizational sociology to practical and societal concerns will be dealt with.