Social Organization Change

Organizational culture can be defined as a system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members. It includes routine behaviors, norms, dominant values, and a feeling or climate conveyed. The purpose and function of this culture is to help foster internal integration, bring staff members from all levels of the organization much closer together, and enhance their performance. However, there seems to be a widely held misconception that throughout an organization or within a specific division there is only one uniform culture that exists. This definition does not seem adequate because it fails to recognize that in many organizations there are quite often groups that are unique of the dominant culture.

In an attempt to analyze social organizational change, Team D conducted a survey interview on a vast number of anonymous subjects. "Sociology is the systematic study of social behavior and human groups. If focuses primarily on the influence of social relationships on people's attitudes and behavior and on how societies are established and change" (Schaefer, 2003, p.3). In an essence, sociology is the study of humans by humans with the focus on various aspects of human life. It gives humans the ability to explore the world and understand why it exists as it does.

The change in the society could be seen as a form of social evolution or a part of the advancement in the social structure over time. Social change is a major contributing factor in many aspects of human life. It can be a gradual change where society may not noticeable or a drastic change where society is taken by surprise. It can affect everyone in society or just a select few people.

A key area of life that is most affected by social change is the workplace. Being able to monitor the effectiveness of social change in the workplace is another issue. One of the best methods of analyzing social change in the workplace is to administer an anonymous online questionnaire. The online questionnaire will gather data from various workplace environments as well as different aspects from each company. This includes but is not limited to topics such as leadership, communication, company culture, career development, ethics, diversity, and general demographic variables.

The goal is to gather a vast array of information that can accurately exemplify the overall direction that social change has taken in the workplace. Comparing and contrasting the data will provide a conclusion on how the social changes have impacted lives. The demographic data will provide insight into establishing a trend in gender, age, income levels, and more.

Naomi - What brought the researcher to the study - What our thoughts were on why we chose this project over any other.

Naomi - Purpose of the study - What we are trying to prove, what we are trying to say.

The sociological environment in the workplace has changed significantly over time. The Ronald Bird, Chief Economist, for the Employment Policy Foundation provided six dimensions of change in the workplace in his statement before the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health, and Human Service, Education and Related Agencies Committee. Bird provided this dimensions of change that affect relevance and applicability of current Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) regulations. The FLSA regulations were written in 1938 and had changed very little until 2005. FLSA regulates the white collar regulations that determine if employees are exempt or non-exempt.

Environmental shifts have occurred in the following key areas the industrial and occupational makeup of the workforce, the educational attainment, and earnings of workers, labor demand and supply, and workplace dynamics (Bird, 2004). Changes in these areas have complicated the process used to determined