Emile Durkheim’s concept of mechanical solidarity states that mainly in pre-modern societies, social relationships worked in a mechanical or “machine-like” fashion.  There is a general agreement on the same set of beliefs and behaviors.  People had similar jobs and lifestyles providing an environment for strong social solidarity. 

“Solidarity which comes from likeness is at its maximum when the collective conscience completely envelops our whole conscience and coincides in all points with it... at the moment when this solidarity exercises its force, our personality vanishes ... for we are no longer ourselves, but the collective life. (Durkheim, 1893)”

Everyone is seen as relatively equal with very little room for individuality.  The clearest example is a

 tribal, hunter/gatherer society.

An easier way for today’s society to relate would be to look at the culture and organization of boot camp.  In boot camp men and women are conditioned to loose their identities for the greater good of the group.  If just one person had too much pride or attitude for the drill sergeant then the entire group would suffer through some physical challenge.  Even though there is stratification and hierarchy in the

Army, in boot camp everyone is equal.

“The totality of beliefs and sentiments common to average citizens of the same society forms a determinate system which has its own life; one may call it the collective or common conscience. It does not change with each generation, but, on the contrary, it connects successive generations with one another. (Durkheim, 1893)”

There are not very many mechanical societies still around today.  There are even less organizations, companies or corporations that exist through mechanical solidarity. 

Organic solidarity primarily describes modern, industrialized societies in which the division of labor is greater and more widely spread.  Though individuals perform different tasks and often have different values and interests, the order and very survival of society depends on their reliance on each other to perform their specific task (Dunman, 2003).   “People have a variety of worldviews, and their behaviors are not deducible from one common set of beliefs and practices.  With the rise of organic solidarity, we find a strong faith in reason, science, and human control” (Cheney et al, 2004). There are so many analogies that can be drawn from organic solidarity; the easiest analogy I found for organic solidarity was the heart. All the chambers in the heart have different, specific functions, but they all work together to pump the blood to where it needs to go in the body (Emile Durkheim).  Even though the chart points downwards, it illustrates that when there is greater moral density and an increase in volume of population of society, there is an increase of specialization in labor resulting in an organic solidarity. “Organic solidarity features the interdependence of various functions at work, in professions, and for organizations.  In this way, an organic society is far more differentiated and fragmented than is a society characterized by mechanical solidarity” (Cheney et al, 2004).

In organizations and groups today that have more of a horizontal hierarchy in Durkheim’s eyes have a mechanical solidarity.  While in organizations that have strict stratification, segregation and vertical hierarchies are seen to have an organic solidarity.

Works Cited

Cheney, G., Christensen, L., Zorn, Jr., T., & Ganesh, S. (Eds.). (2004). Organizational communication in an age of globalization. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press.

Dunman, L. J. (2003). Solidarity. Retrieved Feb. 04, 2005, from The Emile Durkheim Archive Web site: http://durkheim.itgo.com/solidarity.html.

Durkheim, E. (1893). Retrieved Feb. 04, 2005, from Extracts from Emile Durkheim Web site: http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/study/xdur.htm.

Emile Durkheim. (n.d.). Retrieved Feb. 04, 2005, from Structural Functionalism Web site: http://socserv2.mcmaster.ca/soc/courses/soc2r3/sf/durkheim.htm#ball.