2025-2026 General Catalog

Source: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/departments-programs-degrees/sociology/organizational-studies-ab/ Parent: https://catalog.ucdavis.edu/departments-programs-degrees/#programsanddegreestext

Office & Contact Information

The Major Programs

The Organizational Studies (OS) major is designed to provide a broad understanding of the political, social, and economic organizations that make up modern society. Whether thinking about the structure of government bureaucracies, legal systems, economic markets, educational systems, or workplaces, OS offers an interdisciplinary view from which to understand the contemporary world in which complex and formal organizations are ubiquitous. Formal organizations influence how we feel, what we think, and what we can accomplish. As such, the OS major provides both a basic understanding of the field as well as enhances your ability to pursue their more specialized career interests.

At the upper division level, you can choose one of four specialized tracks, any one of which will help to better identify and inform your career goals—whether that be in postgraduate education or a specific type of job—and pursue them after graduation. Whether you select the “Business & Society,” “Public Policy & Social Welfare,” “Nonprofit & Social Movement Organizations” or the “Student-Initiated Theme” track, once completed you will have a unique and valuable area of expertise.

Students who plan to enroll in graduate programs in business, public policy, public administration, and education are advised to develop proficiencies in statistics and calculus (such as the MAT 016 series).

Track 1: Business & Society (BAS)

The Business and Society track is for students who hold an interest in or wish to pursue careers in management or corporate professions and who are interested in economic institutions and commerce, management and administration, work and workplaces, and labor markets. Courses in this cluster analyze businesses, firms, corporations, and markets—nationally and globally—and their place in society, historically and in the present, from a critical perspective. The BAS track examines the origins of business corporations and economic markets (and relations); the power relations, inequalities, and stratification associated with contemporary business organizations (firms and corporations); why business organizations rely on particular organizational structures to increase their efficiencies and effectiveness; and overviews of the role business and regulatory organizations play in the economy.

Career & Postgraduate Alternatives for the Business & Society Track:

Professional training: MBA programs; mediation programs; law; public policy.
Graduate training: sociology; economics; Ph.D. business school programs (with concentrations in organizational behavior, entrepreneurship, industrial relations, economic analysis, policy analysis, and labor relations).
Career paths: managers, human resources professionals, project managers, diversity personnel, corporate social responsibility personnel, lobbyists, business entrepreneur, labor relations specialists, creative professionals, research staff at policy institutes such as Economic Policy Institute, Urban Institute or E2.

The PPSW track is for students who hold an interest in or plan to pursue careers in government and/or social welfare organizations. Courses in this track emphasize how formal organizations and institutions emerge to address key social problems and the policies they generate and utilize to solve them; the unique challenges that government and other policy-oriented organizations confront in addressing and managing public problems and promoting the common good; and the dynamics and special circumstances that specific organizational/institutional policy fields such as education, health care, and social welfare confront in seeking to fulfill their charge.

Career and Postgraduate Alternatives for the Public Policy & Social Welfare Track

Professional training: programs in public policy, public administration, government, social welfare, counseling, public affairs, law, leadership institutes, and community psychology.
Graduate training: Ph.D. programs in sociology, political science, public administration, education, and educational leadership.
Career paths: consultants, social service workers and administrators, staff at policy institutes and think tanks, program evaluation and development, nonprofit administrators, lawyers, teachers, research staff at policy institutes and think tanks, leadership positions in education, including higher education and counselors.

The NSMO track is for students who wish to contribute to local, national, and global transformation(s), to social justice, and/or who plan to pursue a career in the non-profit sector focusing on addressing specific causes and fulfilling social agendas. Students in this cluster may have particular interest in understanding the role that informal and formal organizations—from well-organized and mature non-profits to emergent social movement organizations—play in responding to and affecting social change. This cluster familiarizes students with the unique capacity of organizations to change the world but simultaneously, the barriers, limitations, and challenges to doing so.

Career and Postgraduate Alternatives for the Public Policy & Social Welfare Track:

Professional training: programs in community development, regional development, urban development, public policy, public administration, Master’s programs in social change, law and social change, and business programs with a concentration in corporate responsibility.
Graduate training: programs sociology, history, labor studies, development, international relations, and political science.
Career paths: working in nongovernmental organizations around the world (NGO’s), joining the Peace Corps or Teach America; teaching in other countries; jobs in any number of areas that are the focus of social change and social justice efforts (energy, housing, labor, community and regional development, health, corporate social responsibility); working in for-profit companies in the areas of energy, corporate social responsibility, work/family support programs, research staff at policy institutes and think tanks.

Track 4: Student-Initiated Track

Select a combination of five courses from any of the above 3 themes (at least three courses should be from SOC). Students choosing this track must meet with a SOC undergraduate advisor to obtain approval of selected courses.

Major Advisor

Consult the Departmental Advising office in 1282 Social Sciences & Humanities Building or see the SOC Advising Office.

Honors Program

An Honors Program is available to Sociology & Sociology-Organizational Studies majors who have demonstrated excellence in their field of study. To be eligible for the program, students must have a grade-point average of 3.500 in the major and the recommendation of a faculty sponsor familiar with their work. Honors students write an honors thesis and take two quarters (8 units) of Honors coursework (SOC 194HA & SOC 194HB). Successful completion of the Honors Program, when combined with College GPA requirements, enables the student to graduate with High or Highest Honors. Students should apply for the program before they begin their fourth year.

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