Sociology is a discipline that belongs to what conventionally is called the social science. The discipline plays a leading role in the social sciences. The term sociology literally means the science of society; for the term itself in its direct sense denotes that. Sociology as an academic discipline arose in the first half of 19th century (in 1837, to mention the exact year) as a special science dedicated to unravel the fundamental laws governing the societal phenomena and human social relationship with primary interest in analyzing the problems and societies of the modern, western world. It has, thus, conventionally been accepted to associate sociology with the study of the modern, industrialized societies of western world.
Management students learning this discipline have a great advantage of gaining fresh insights and practical benefits in their personal lives and professional practices. Sociology along with other sisterly disciplines such as anthropology, economics, social psychology, human/ cultural geography, history and political sciences have now become an essential component of the management curricula in universities and other training institutions abroad.
The best way to introduce students of non sociology background (i.e. the students of business studies and management) to sociology was really a challenging task. Since students of this area of study understand more about the principle and practice of management and business within the organization and in the market as well than society and culture in general where these activities are carried out, our attempt to design and create this book has directed towards the need and aspiration of this class of students. This is not a particularly easy work because sociology is not as orderly, consistent, and integrated as we might like it to be. We have tried to provide a book that offers the student both integrated discussions of major sociological topics and issues and their relevance to business and management. In the course of teaching BBA students under Pokhara University we always tried to explore the problem they have been facing in reading and understanding most of the books prescribed in syllabus, no matter how they are scholarly presented and more analytical, and such that here we have made our attempt to incorporate our experiences in this book. We have endeavored to present principle, concepts and ideas of sociological knowledge related to the personal experiences of real people and their relationship with the management discipline.
Primarily, the book is strictly based on the course of PU and such that no single topic of any unit is left to explain here.. If you go thoroughly the book, you will find such feature so clearly. We have tried to analyze, describe and discern key concept of each topic as far as possible and as far as practicable, reducing the chances of making ambiguous meaning. We have added an additional supply within unit one, beyond the course has demanded, in order to describe the relationship of sociology with management and business studies and its relevance and importance to these disciplines. In accordance with the course included in unit two, we have tried to describe the relationship between these two disciplines rigorously. We have incorporated the meaning of key terms included in the text and review questions at the end of each unit. A collection of old questions has been added at appendix, at the end of the book A distinctive feature of the book is that Photos and pictures relevant to specific topics and issues have been added as needed in the text This part of the book surely help the students propagate some important ideas on various sociological concepts. In the course of designing this book we have borrowed and taken various materials from different authors and we thank them all. Last but not least, since it’s our first effort to introduce such book for the students of non- sociological background, we expect, without any hesitation, the feedback from students, faculty members and scholars as well.