Shifts that Have Occurred in Organizational Structures that Have Influenced Public Policy - Coursework Example

Most of the beliefs and routines that people have been following in organizational structures start to be questioned and this leads to uncovering of myths and half-truths which in the end lead to a change in the public policy and even ultimately in the organizational structure in question (Atchley, 1997).

As society evolves and different cultures become intertwined, people start experiencing what has always been reported to them and some of these experiences do not match the reported facts (Tart, 1986). This change in the social order, therefore, means a change in even the organizational structures as they are part of the social order that is affected by the technological and economic changes. When the organizational structures change, it means that the beliefs and values which were accompanying it and being upheld by the affected parties have to also be changed in return and this means therefore that new policies have to be created to match the changes and these are the public policies.

What is meant by the “social construction of reality?” Provide an example to illustrate your definition.
People are born into a society that has already established a sort of routine in their lives and specific actions that they take which leads them to have almost all the answers and solutions to anything they encounter. The routine which comprises of habituated actions has been created by the society over a period of time and they come to perceive these as the reality as they are based not on reported facts but on experience (Searle, 2010). The reality of any situation in this case, therefore, is based on society's beliefs and habits over a long period of time. This, therefore, means that different societies have their own social construction of reality and what is considered a reality in one society may not be necessarily the case in another society.

An example of the above according to the book “The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge.” by Berger and Luckmann (2011) is in the division of labor in many societies. In some societies, what has over time come to be considered a reality out of habit is that the role of women is to build houses for their families, this is considered however to be the role of men in other societies. These two societies have different realities when it comes to the division of labor in the family and the community at large. This reality has been socially constructed over a period of time out of routine and habit and in the end sticks in the society.