Decisions
and careers?
Organization-sociological
views to things, what s going on at a psychosomatic department
Werner Vogd
This paper discusses methodological questions arising in qualitative
organizational research. The author suggests that the Pierre Bourdieu’s
concept
of habitus and Niklas Luhmann’s general systems theory can be combined
to
form/create a useful tool for understanding what is going on in
organizational
worlds. The analysis of a clinic department for psychosomatic disorders
is
presented as a paradigmatic example.
The results indicate that typical communication structures on the
hospital ward
reproduce taboos and decision blockades which have become the habitual
practice
of the professional actors. The two theoretical positions are shown to
be
compatible metatheoretically and to complementary each other,
permitting an
in-depth analysis of communicative processes in organizations.