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Definition of Social Organization

Ogburn and Nimkoff have defined organization is an articulation of different parts which perform various functions; it is an active group device for getting something done.

Eliott and Merrill says, organization is a state of being, a condition in which the various institutions in a society are functioning in accordance with their recognized or implied purposes.

According to H.M Johnson, organization refers to an aspect of interaction systems.

At present the term social organization is used to refer to the interdependence of parts in groups. These groups may vary in size and nature from workers to the factories. Many sociologists prefer to use the term social system to refer to the society as such rather than social organization.

The term is used in sociological studies and researches today to stress the importance of arrangement of parts in which the parts of society are related to each other and how each is related to the whole society. Organization makes possible the complex activities in which the members of a complex society participate. A small body of organized police can control a very large crowd. A small number of men constituting themselves as a government can rule a country.

Sometimes the word organization is used to refer to the associational groups. It includes corporations, armies, schools, banks and prisons. The society consists of many such organizations. A state is frequently called a political organization. A school may represent an educational organization and so on. They are all social organizations. According to Ogburn and Nimkoff entire society represents a wider organization; a social organization. But society is also quite generally an organized group of interacting individuals.

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