"In the social sciences, social structure is the aggregate of patterned social arrangements in society that are both emergent from and determinant of the actions of individuals."
Structural sociology is concerned with examining the patterns of relationships among organizations and between organizations and individuals.
Structural Functionalism: A theoretical framework that views society as a complex system made up of interdependent parts that work together to maintain social equilibrium.
Social Networks: A set of social relationships that links individuals or groups with each other, often through shared interests or commonalities.
Social Capital: The resources and benefits that derive from social networks, including access to information, resources, and opportunities.
Power Structures: The distribution of power and influence in organizations or social groups, including formal and informal hierarchy, decision-making processes, and allocation of resources.
Bureaucracy: A type of organizational structure characterized by a hierarchical system of authority, a formalized set of rules and procedures, and specialized roles and responsibilities.
Institutionalization: The process by which organizations or social practices become accepted as standard or routine, often through the influence of powerful institutions or cultural norms.
Organizational Culture: The shared values, beliefs, and practices that shape the behavior of individuals and groups within an organization.
Organizational Change: The process by which organizations adapt to external or internal pressures, often involving the reconfiguration of structures, processes, or cultures.
Social Movements: Large-scale collective action aimed at promoting social change, often involving diverse networks of individuals and organizations.
Globalization: The process of increasing interconnectedness and interdependence across borders, often involving the diffusion of economic, political, and cultural practices.
Management: The process of organizing and directing resources to achieve specific goals, often through the use of formalized structures and procedures.
Organizational Theory: The study of how organizations function, evolve, and adapt to changing circumstances, often drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives.
Decision-Making: The process of making choices or arriving at conclusions, often involving complex social and economic factors.
Innovation: The development and introduction of new ideas, technologies, or practices, often involving the diffusion of knowledge and the mobilization of resources.
Social Stratification: The division of society into hierarchical layers, often characterized by differences in wealth, status, or power.
Institutional analysis: This approach examines the ways in which social institutions and organizations shape behavior and decision-making.
Network analysis: This approach explores the connections and relationships between individuals and groups within an organization, as well as the ways in which these relationships affect organizational outcomes.
Organizational culture: This approach emphasizes the importance of understanding the shared beliefs, values, and norms that guide behavior within an organization.
Organizational ecology: This approach is concerned with understanding the ways in which organizations compete with one another and evolve over time.
Power and politics: This approach focuses on understanding how power is distributed within organizations, and the ways in which individuals and groups use power to pursue their own interests.
Resource dependence: This approach examines how organizations rely on external resources and how they manage their relationships with other organizations and stakeholders.
Structural contingency: This approach suggests that the effectiveness of an organization's structure and design is contingent upon the environment in which it operates.
Symbolic interactionism: This approach explores how individuals within an organization create and interpret symbols and meanings, and how these meanings shape their behavior.
Systems theory: This approach views organizations as complex systems of interrelated parts, and focuses on understanding how these parts work together to achieve organizational goals.
Human resources: This approach emphasizes the crucial role that human resources play in organizational success, and focuses on attracting, developing, and retaining talented employees.
"Society is believed to be grouped into structurally related groups or sets of roles, with different functions, meanings, or purposes."
"Examples of social structure include family, religion, law, economy, and class."
"It contrasts with 'social system', which refers to the parent structure in which these various structures are embedded."
"Social structures significantly influence larger systems, such as economic systems, legal systems, political systems, cultural systems, etc."
"It determines the norms and patterns of relations between the various institutions of the society."
"Since the 1920s, the term has been in general use in social science."
"...especially as a variable whose sub-components needed to be distinguished in relationship to other sociological variables, as well as in academic literature, as a result of the rising influence of structuralism."
"The concept of 'social stratification', for instance, uses the idea of social structure to explain that most societies are separated into different strata (levels), guided (if only partially) by the underlying structures in the social system."
"...an organization's structure may determine its flexibility, capacity to change, etc. In this sense, structure is an important issue for management."
"On the macro scale, social structure pertains to the system of socioeconomic stratification (most notably the class structure), social institutions, or other patterned relations between large social groups."
"On the meso scale, it concerns the structure of social networks between individuals or organizations."
"'Social structure' includes the ways in which 'norms' shape the behavior of individuals within the social system."
"John Levi Martin has theorized that certain macro-scale structures are the emergent properties of micro-scale cultural institutions."
"...a recent study describes how indigenous social structure in the Republic of Panama changed macro social structures and impeded a planned Panama Canal expansion."
"Marxist sociology has also historically mixed different meanings of social structure, though doing so by simply treating the cultural aspects of social structure as phenomenal of its economic aspects."
"Social norms are believed to influence social structure through relations between the majority and the minority."
"Majority-minority relations create a hierarchical stratification within social structures that favors the majority in all aspects of society."
"As those who align with the majority are considered 'normal', and those who align with the minority are considered 'abnormal'..."
"Majority-minority relations create a hierarchical stratification within social structures that favors the majority in all aspects of society."