Bridging the gap: international organizations as organizations

Abstract

This article attempts to build a bridge between the study of international organizations and the sociology of organizations. Comparisons between functionalism in the two fields are found to be especially important in understanding different treatments of international organizations. We suggest that a number of concepts from the sociology of organizations can be effectively used to illuminate issues in international organizations. We focus on organizational performance and its determinants in environment, technology, goals, and structure. The authors' current work in international population planning and social forestry shows how the sociological concepts can offer useful perspectives and hypotheses for the study of international organizations.