Sociology and Management Studies

Abstract

HE CONTRIBUTION of the sociologist to the study of | industrial problems, particularly those of morale and inter1 group conflict, has been increasingly acknowledged in recent years; and one might reasonably expect recognition of this development in the teaching of management subjects in the universities. Yet if we make the obvious comparison between Britain and the United States, there is a considerable difference. Sociology is no stranger to the curriculum of the American schools of business and management a state of affairs which clearly reflects the high standing of sociology in that country and also the strategic importance of Elton Mayo's appointment at the Harvard Business School. Indeed, the position of sociology in business and management education in the United States now seems to be such that it has passed beyond the point at which separate reference needs to be made to it in the curriculum. At the highest reaches of all, in instituiions like the School of Industrial A{anagement of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, sociology may lose its separate identity in the interdisciplinary examination of'executive behaviour'; but the relevance of things social and psychological to management processes is taken for granted. In Britain, however, it is extremely rare to find sociology acknowledged as a key subject in management studies. There is still, it is true, a good deal of hesitation as to whether 'management' is a fit subject to be examined in a university classroom. But management studies of various kinds may be found in some of our universities (chiefly in business or personnel administration) and it remains a fact that in such teaching little attention has so far been given to sociology. In its latest report (for the quinquennium I9j2-7) the University Grants Comniittee, in a discussion of management courses at university level, refers to 'the prevailing uncertainty about what should be the content of management studies as a distinctive university discipline'; but comforts itself with the thought that certain established disciplines are included in these courses, such as economics, industrial organization, accounting