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Organizational studies is the study of individual and group dynamics in an organization setting, as well as the nature of the organizations themselves. Whenever people interact in organizations, many factors come into play. Organizational studies attempts to understand and model these factors.
Like all social sciences, organizational behavior seeks to control, predict, and explain. But there is some controversy over the ethical ramifications of focusing on controlling worker's behavior. As such, organizational behavior (and its cousin, Industrial psychology) have at times been accused of being the scientific tool of the powerful.
Though it traces its roots back to Max Weber and earlier, organizational studies is generally considered to have begun as an academic discipline with the advent of scientific management in the 1890s, with Taylorism representing the peak of this movement. Proponents of scientific managment held that rationalizing the organization with precise sets of instructions and time-motion studies would lead to increased productivity. After the First World War, the focus of organizational studies shifted to analysis of how human factors and psychology affected organizations, a transformation propelled by the discovery of the Hawthorne Effect. This Human Relations Movement focused more on the actualization of the goals of individuals within organizations. The Second World War further shifted the field, as the invention of large-scale logistics and operations researchOperations research operational research or simply OR is the use of mathematical models, statistics and algorithms to aid in decision-making. It is most often used to analyze complex real-world systems, typically with the goal of improving or optimizing p led to a renewed interest in systems and rationalistic approaches to the study of organizations. Starting in the 1980s, cultural explainations of organizations and change became an important part of study. The field continues to evolve today.
Organizational studies is currently a growing field. Organizational studies departments are generally within business schools, although many universities also have industrial pyschology and industrial economics programs as well. Today, dominent approaches in the field include Social NetworksA social network is a map of the relationships between individuals, indicating the ways in which they are connected through various social familiarities ranging from casual acquaintance to close familial bonds. The analysis of social networks (sometimes c, Organizational EcologyOrganizational Ecology (Also Organizational Demography and Population Ecology is a theoretical and practical approach to studying institutions in the social sciences, and is especially used in organizational studies. Organizational Ecology uses a biologic, and New InstitutionalismNew institutionalism is a social theory that focuses on developing a sociological view of institutions, the way they interact and the effects of institutions on society. It is significant in that it provides a way of viewing institutions outside of the tr.
The field is highly influencial in the business world with practicioners like Peter DruckerPeter Ferdinand Drucker (born November 19, 1909) is a management theorist who created many phrases common in business today. Drucker, born in Vienna, Austria, moved to the United States in 1937. He taught at New York University as Professor of Management and Peter SengeSenge was the Director of the Center for Organizational Learning at the MIT Sloan School of Management and presently (2004) heads the Society for Organizational Learning, SOL. He emerged in the 1990s as a major figure in organizational development with hi turning the academic research into business practices. Organization behavior is becoming more important in the global economy as people with diverse backgrounds and cultural values have to work together effectively and efficiently.
An excellent overview of the field, including readings and outlines of major theories, can be found here.