The decline of organizational sociology? An empirical analysis of research trends in leading journals across half a century

Grothe‐Hammer, Michael; Kohl, Sebastian

doi:10.1177/0011392120907627

Cited by 17 publications

(9 citation statements)

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“…Modern systems theory has been repeatedly identified as offering the potential to provide elaborate understandings of contemporary organizational and social developments and modern societal challenges (Apelt et al, 2017; Grothe‐Hammer & Kohl, 2020; Schreyögg & Sydow, 2010). However, to unleash this potential, modern systems theory must first become capable of grasping new organizational forms—and so far, it has fallen short.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Membership and contributorship in organizations: An update of modern systems theory

Grothe‐Hammer

2020

Syst Res Behav Sci

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This article argues for an update of modern systems theory, in particular of the systems theory of organizations. Recent works have pointed out that existing understandings of membership fall short when it comes to accounting for the modern variety of organizational phenomena. This is also true for modern systems theory, which still relies on a rather conventional understanding of membership. Against this backdrop, I propose to draw on recent developments in related fields of communication‐centred organization research and to adopt the notion of ‘contributorship'. Following such works, contributorship can be defined as the decision on the distribution of rights to participate in the internal decision processes of an organization. By contrast, I propose to reformulate the notion of membership and define it as the decision that establishes whether a certain person belongs to the organization or not, that is, is a member of it or not. In addition, I propose to drop the existing systems‐theoretical assertion that membership is the core‐defining premise for the constitution of an organization. Instead, I argue that contributorship, not membership, is the basic premise needed by every organization to be constituted. Building on these insights, I will conclude the article by discussing the three possibilities of affiliating persons to an organization, that is, as mere members, mere contributors or both.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Membership and contributorship in organizations: An update of modern systems theory

Grothe‐Hammer

2020

Syst Res Behav Sci

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“…In finance, topic modeling was used to extract textual risk disclosures from annual reports (Bao & Datta, 2014). Similarly, Grothe-Hammer and Kohl (2020) used STM to analyze the change in focus over time of organizational sociology within the field of sociology.…”

Section: Studying Nonprofit Academic Publications: a Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Half a Century of NVSQ: Thematic Stability Across Years and Editors

Kang

Baek

Kim

2021

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly

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The aim of this article is to understand how the scholarship of the nonprofit sector shifted after almost half a century (1972–2019) of publication in the field’s premier journal, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly. Unlike previous attempts to understand the field’s scholarly evolution, we did not rely on expert opinion and analysis of themes but applied an automated content analytic method, more specifically structural topic modeling (STM). Using this method, we identified 37 key thematic topics that most optimally represent the 1,516 articles that were published in the studied period. After reporting these 37 thematic topics, we analyzed fluctuations based on three key periods of the journal and the editors’ disciplinary fields. While overall there was a trend of continuity (29 out of 37 topics) and little if any impact of the editors’ disciplines, a few thematic topics showed decline and fewer showed increase over time.

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“…Furthermore, linking organizations to communication media makes it possible to account for new organizational forms by reference to historical variations in the media landscape (Baecker, 2018, p. 167 ff.). In sum, this makes it possible to explain both that organizations “have become more important in our society than ever before in history” and why they “morph into new and unconventional forms” (Grothe-Hammer and Kohl, 2020, p. 420).…”

Section: General Implications and A Research Agendamentioning

confidence: 99%

The demoralization of society and the proliferation of organization

Rachlitz

Grossmann-Hensel

Friedl

2021

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PurposeIn this paper, the authors aim to clarify the relationship between organization and society. They argue that the proliferation of organization in modernity has not yet been properly understood in light of the absence of organization in premodern times. The authors therefore ask: Why do organizations proliferate? Why do they proliferate in such manifold organizational forms? And how can these heterogeneous forms nevertheless be related to a common problem to which organizations provide a solution? A comparative historical analysis based on the theory of social systems reveals that organizations fill a gap which the decline of morality as an integrative success medium created.Design/methodology/approachThe paper develops a conceptual framework focusing on the theory of media within Luhmann’s theory of social systems as a point of departure. The authors discuss the concept of “interpenetration” to assess the relation between morality and organization. They raise several follow-up questions for future empirical research, most prominently pertaining to the relationship between organization and digitalization.FindingsThe main finding is that morality can be conceptualized as a specific success medium (alongside religion and symbolically generalized communication media) which used to structure premodern societies by means of social and interhuman interpenetration at once. Modern society instead employs two differentiated forms of interpenetration: Social interpretation through organizations and interhuman interpenetration through love relationships. These centripetal counterforces help to mediate the centrifugal forces unleashed by the full development of modern success media. Modern society critically depends on the proliferation of organizations.Originality/valueThis paper examines the relationship between morality and organization not from the perspective of interaction or organization, but from the perspective of society. This approach provides novel insights in that it opens up promising avenues of comparison between organization and other social forms. Understanding the distinctively modern “success story” of organization as a social form makes it possible to ask about corresponding potentials and limitations, but also alternative possibilities. In doing so, the authors depart from most studies of organizations grounded in social systems theory as the authors primarily focus on Luhmann’s theory of media (as opposed to the theory of differentiation).

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The decline of organizational sociology? An empirical analysis of research trends in leading journals across half a century

Cited by 17 publications

References 50 publications

Membership and contributorship in organizations: An update of modern systems theory

Membership and contributorship in organizations: An update of modern systems theory

Half a Century of NVSQ: Thematic Stability Across Years and Editors

The demoralization of society and the proliferation of organization

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