About This Course

This course covers central issues in the field of organizational sociology. It explores different perspectives on why complex organizations look and operate the way that they do, and examines the social consequences of their behavior. The first part of the course focuses on the evolution of the modern firm. We will trace the history of different models of management and strategy, and evaluate their relative efficacy. The second part of the course examines how organizations shape, and are shaped by, their environments. The third part of the course will explore how organizational behavior influences social inequality, and how social inequality shapes the way that modern organizations function. We will make use of both social scientific analyses and Harvard Business School case studies.