Malá skupina v průmyslové organizaci (Historicko-sociologický pohled na problém)

This study is an attempt to present a historically conceived recapitulation of the main non-Marxist conceptions dealing with the functions of small, chiefly the so-called informal groups in organization systems. The author’s starting point is a brief analysis of F. Taylor’s conception to which virtually all succeeding sociological theory reacted for the most part critically. After a description of the basic stages, the so-called Hawthorne experiment, there is an evaluation of its genuinely empirical results, and the author shows that this experiment became a history milestone in the development of the non-Marxist sociology of industry more for its theoretical superstructure and social philosophy than for its actual empirical results. This statement is supported by an analysis of the basic conclusion of an experiment written up by American sociologists Miller and Form, and an assessment of the basic ideas of Elton Mayos social philosophy. This is followed by the characteristics of the main development stages of bourgeois sociology after Hawthorne’s experiment and special attention is devoted to the critical concepts of W H. Whyte, the author of Organization Man. Petrusek indicates the link between sociological and social psychological theories with the management practices of a capitalist industrial enterprise, which he supports, among others, by analyzing the typology of relations between a manager and worker, as drawn up by J. B. Knox. Further, the author analyzes the basic methods of so-called psychology of organization, chiefly, 1. stress on a systemic approach to the study of organization, 2. the proposal for a new model of man with modern social engineering must work (particularly according to the ideas of Likert), and 3. the relation between the psychology of organization and the theory of human relations. The author indicates the differences in conception as to the character of work as they appear in the psychology of organization of certain French sociologists (G. Friedman) and in Marxism, emphasizing the unrealisticness of the ideas of the psychology of organization on the possibilities of overcoming the results of atomized work in a modem capitalist enterprise and shows that Taylorism, the psychology of organization, and theory of human relations are different from one another in many ways, but that they start from the same premise, which is to say that .the practical purpose of all sociological and psychological theory is “the attainment of organizational aims”: in this regard, all the determining elements are laid down by the social and class arrangement which they regard in principle as unchangeable. This is concretely illustrated in the conception of social changes, of social balance, of “directing” conflicts, etc. The theory of Rensins Likert is then examined in detail. Likert proposes that organizations should be regarded as a system of mutually linked, overlapping set of organizational families. In Likert’s conception there is an emphatic return once again in the non-Marxist theory of industrial enterprise to the problem of small groups which was first formulated in connection with the theory of human relations and in polemics with Taylorism. Likert’s conception falls under the heading of formally pregnant motivational theories in which the significance of participation by members of an organization in attaining organizational aims is stressed. Noting several critical formulations of D. Katz, the author points out that Likert’s conception overlooks the question of “atomized work” and one-sidedly emphasizes the technical and goal aspects of the managerial process in which the members of the group are supposed to participate. But this disregards the real interest conflicts and class antagonism. The conclusion of this study deals with an analysis of the so-called X and Y theory proposed by Mc Gregor. The problem of small groups can therefore be said to have been examined in this study from broad historical, theoretical and research aspects, and certainly not as an isolated marginal problem of empirical research on inter-individual relations in an industrial enterprise. The significance of small social groups for the functioning of organizational systems is undeniable, but an understanding of this significance is only possible of sociological analysis will consistently take into account both the inter-personal and organizational aspects of the problem and the social class aspects. Despite certain positive results achieved in non-Marxist sociology, notably on the level of study of inter-personal relations, non-Marxist analyses of the position and function of small groups in organizational systems are limited by their basic frame of reference. A Marxist approach can therefore critically draw upon only certain marginal impulses that are introduced in various places in this study.