This course introduces central theories and debates about formal organizations. Much of modern life occurs within organizations and involves interacting with a wide variety of complex, interconnecting organizations. Many of us were born inside an organization, you are pursuing your education inside an organization, many of you will spend most of your adult life working for organizations, and most of us will end our lives in, and be buried by, organizations. We work hard and craft expressions of our self-identity to gain access to some organizations (e.g. Greek communities, medical school) and we conform our behavior to avoid others (e.g. prison).
In this course, we will think critically about the key features of organizations, and we will assess the reciprocal relationships between organizational features and individual behaviors. We will address the origins of organizations, why society has organizations, how authority and compliance are maintained within organizations, how organizations create and reduce inequalities, the nature of organizational success and failure, and the relationship between individuals, organizations, and society. The instructor for this course, Tom VanHeuvelen, will be a new faculty member starting in Fall 2019.