Scott & Davis (2003)
Define anthropomorphize
treating an organization as if it has a human personality (“the organization wants,” “the organization feels,” “the organization decided”)
Define reductionism
explaining organizational outcomes only through individuals (like saying “it happened because people are lazy”), ignoring structures, rules, and environments.
How do organizations differ from families/communities/informal groups?
Any of these answers:
Formal rules/Custom and tradition
Explicit goals/Diffuse purposes
Hierarchical authority/Relational or status-based authority
Regulated membership/Natural or voluntary belonging
Deliberately designed/Emerge organically
Define schema
Patterns of thinking and behavior that people use to interpret the world
What are the three levels of organizations? (Hint: All start with M)
Macro
Meso
Micro
What is ubiquity in relation to the importance of organizations?
Organizations perform nearly all major functions in modern society, from production and governance to education and healthcare.
What are collective actors?
Organizations act as legally recognized entities that own property, make decisions, and interact with other organizations.
What case example does Ray (2019) use to demonstrate racial inequality?
Brown v. Board of Education
What are the three mechanisms listed under which an organization is racialized?
1) Racial superstructure
2) Racial structure
3) Racial substructure
Define all thre levels of organizations
Macro: system exists prior to any particular organization and extends beyond them.
Meso: organizations as the institutional hinge
Micro: Individual perceptions, behaviors, and interactions are shaped by organizational arrangements.
What are the three (3) common interests?
1) Organizational Survival
2) Structural Independence
3) Coordination & Control
What do organizational systems influence?
- Hiring
- Promotion
- Access to authority
- Distribution of rewards
What does this mean for people of color who are concentrated at the bottom of organizational hierarchies?
This has negative implications for life expectancy and agency that cannot be reduced to just intentional discrimination
What are the four (4) tenets of racialized organizations?
- Amplify or diminish agency
- Legitimize inequal distribution of resources
- Whiteness = credibility
- Decoupling is racialized
"We should recognize and acknowledge that..."
"...discrimination, racial sorting, and the inequality of resource distribution are not coincidental, but are designed to be a foundational norm."