Social Groups and Organizations PDF

**Topic 2** **SOCIAL GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS** **Social group** -- two or more persons who have something in common, who at the same time believes that what is common is significant to their consciousness, membership and interaction. - Two or more people who identify with and interact with one...

**Topic 2** **SOCIAL GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS** **Social group** -- two or more persons who have something in common, who at the same time believes that what is common is significant to their consciousness, membership and interaction. - Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another. (Macionis) - It is made up of people w/ shared experiences loyalties and interests like couples, families, clubs, business, neighborhood and large organizations. (Macionis) - Not every collection of individuals forms a group. For example, people with common status like soldier, women, business owners, millionaires, college graduates and Roman Catholics are just ***categories***. - People or students sitting in a large stadium interact to the very limited extent are just ***crowd*** **Two types of Social Group** 1. **Primary groups** (Charles Horton Cooley) -- a small social group whose members share personal and lasting relationships. **Characteristics of Primary Group** - People spend great deal of time together, engage in wide range of activities, and feel that they know one another pretty well. In short, they show real concern for one another. - Personal and tightly integrated group because they are among the first group we experience in life. Like family and friends have primary importance in the socialization process, shaping our attitudes, behavior and social identity. - Especially in family, we are bound to others w/ emotions and loyalty, like brothers and sisters may not always get along but they always remain family. - Members display a primary orientation thus they define each other according to who they are in terms of family ties, or personal qualities. 2. **Secondary group** -- is a large and impersonal social group whose members pursue a specific goal or activity. **Characteristics of Secondary Group** - Secondary relationships involve weak emotional ties and little personal knowledge of one another. - Many secondary groups exist for a short for period of time, beginning and ending without particular significance like college students who may or may not see each other again after the end of the semester. - Members of the groups look one another for what they are or what they can do for each other. - They tend to "keep score" aware of what we give others and what receive in return. - Goal orientation -- means that members usually remain formal and polite. **Group Leadership** - Leadership is one important element of group dynamics. - Small circle of friends may have no leader but in most large secondary groups, place leaders in a formal chain of command. **Two leadership roles/two kinds of leadership** 1. **Instrumental leadership** -- refers to group leadership that focuses on the completion of task. - Members look to instrumental leaders to make plans, give orders, and get things done. - Leaders usually have formal secondary relationships with other members. - Leaders give orders and reward and punish members according to how much the members contribute to the group's effort. - Successful leaders enjoy more respect from members. 2. **Expressive leadership** -- refers to group leadership that focuses on the group's well-being. - Expressive leaders take less interest in achieving goals than in raising group morale and minimizing tension and conflict among members. - Expressive leaders build more personal primary ties. They offer sympathy to a member going through tough times, keep the group united and lighten serious moments w/ humor. - Successful leaders receive more personal affection. **Three Leadership Styles / Leadership in terms of decision-making style** 1. Authoritarian leadership -- focuses on the instrumental concerns, takes personal charges of decision making, and demands that group members obey orders. Leader may win little affection from the group, a fast-acting authoritarian leader is appreciated in a crisis. 2. Democratic leader -- is more expressive and makes a point of including everyone in the decision-making process. Although less in successful in crisis situation, but democratic leaders generally draw on the ideas of all members to develop a creative solution to problems. 3. Laissez-faire leadership (French word w/c means "leave it alone") -- allows the group to function more or less on its own. This type of leadership is typically the least effective in promoting group goals (White and Lippitt, 1953; Ridgeway, 1983). **Group Conformity** Groups influence the behavior of their members by promoting conformity. "Fitting in" provides a secure feeling of belonging, but the extreme group pressure can be unpleasant and dangerous. **Other Type of Social Groups** **Reference group** - A group that serves as a point of reference in evaluation and making decisions. Example: - Young man who imagines his family's reaction to a woman he is dating is using his family as a reference group. - A supervisor who tries to predict her employee's reaction to a new vacation policy is using them as reference group. - Can be primary or secondary group **In-groups and Out-groups** **In-group** -- is a social group towards w/c a member feels respect and loyalty **Out-group** -- a social group toward which a person feels a sense of competition or opposition. - Tension between groups sharpen the group's boundaries and give people a clearer social identity. - Generally, members of in-groups hold overly positive views of themselves and unfairly negative views of various out-groups. - Powerful in-group can define others as lower-status out-group and subordinate as black and white American. **Group Size** ***by Georg Simmel a German sociologist*** - ***Size plays an important role on how group members interacts.*** - ***As the number of people in a group increases, the number of relationships that link them increases much faster*** ***Type of Group Size*** 1. **Dyad** (Greek for pair) - A social group with two members - Social interaction usually more intense compare to the larger groups. - Stability of marriage is very important to society, ***marital dyads*** supported by legal, economic and often religious ties. 2. **Triad** -- a social group with three members. - Triad is more stable than dyad because one member become a mediator among the other two members. - Married couple seek out third person (counsellor) to discuss tension between them. **Networks** - Is a web of weak social ties. - A group containing people who come into occasional contact but who lack a sense of boundaries and belonging. - If you think of a group as a "circle of friends", think of a **network** as a "social web" expanding outward often reaching great distance and including large numbers of people. - Ex: World Wide Web of the internet. (advantage to those rich countries) **Formal Organization** - A large secondary group that are deliberated and nationally design to achieve efficiently their specific objectives. **Types of Formal Organization** 1. **Utilitarian Organization** - one that pays people for their efforts. - Most people join the organization to make a living 2. **Normative Organization** - Is called voluntary association (ex. PTA) - People join normative organizations not for income but to pursue some goal they think is morally worthwhile. 3. **Coercive Organizations** - Membership in this kind of organization is involuntary. - People are forced to join these organizations as a form of punishment (ex. Prison, mental hospital). **Bureaucracy** - an organizational model rationally designed to perform task efficiently. **Key Elements of Ideal Bureaucratic Organizations** (Max Weber, 1978) 1. **Specializations** - there is a clear -- cuts division of labor among various officials - its members have a specialized job to do and concentrate on this specific task. 2. **Hierarchy** - there is a hierarchy of authority within the organization. - take the shape of pyramid -- few at the top and many at the bottom - take scope of authority cleanly defined, each official take order from the officer immediately above him/her. 3. 3\. **Regulations** - an elaborate system of rules and regulations (written formal) governs the day to day function of the bureaucracy. - Decision is based on these rules. 4. **Technical Competence** - Typically hire members according to set standards and then monitor their performance. 5. **Impersonality** - impersonal contact among members of organization; they based their interaction on their roles. 6. **Formal, Written communications** - The heart of bureaucracy is not people but paper works. - Interactions rely on formal, written memos, and reports.