CH 7 Social Groups and Organizations

Groups and Organizations
Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
Social Group
Two or more people who identify and interact with one
another.
Not every collection of individuals forms a

group.
Many people with a status in common
women, homeowners, soldiers,
millionaires, college graduates, and
Roman Catholicsare not groups, but
categories.
Not Quite a Social Group

Crowd
Temporary cluster of people
A group can have temporal status
A crowd can become a group, then a

crowd again.
A large gathering of people at a football game
A crowd that begins to riot might be
considered a group.

Primary Groups
Small social groups whose members share personal,
lasting relationships.
Traits
Small
Personal orientation
Enduring
Primary relationships
First group experienced in life
Irreplaceable
Assistance of all kinds

Emotional to financial
Secondary Groups
A large, impersonal social group whose
members pursue a specific goal or activity.
Traits
Large membership
Goal or activity orientation
Formal and polite
Secondary relationships
Weak emotional ties
Short term
Examples
Co-workers and political
organizations
Summing Up
Primary Groups and Secondary Groups
Group Leadership
Two roles
Instrumental: Task-oriented
Expressive: People-oriented
Three leadership styles

Authoritarian: Leader makes decisions;
Compliance from members
Democratic: Member involvement
Laissez-faire: Mainly let group function on its
own
Group Conformity Studies

Aschs research
Willingness to compromise our own
judgments
Line experiment
Milgrams research
Role authority plays
Following orders
Janiss research
Negative side of groupthink

Figure 7.1
Cards Used in Aschs Experiment in Group Conformity
In Aschs experiment, subjects were asked to match the line on Card 1 to one of the lines on Card 2. Many subjects agreed with the wrong answers given by
others in their group.
Source: Asch (1952).

Reference Group
A social group that serves as a point of reference in
making evaluations and decisions
Stouffers research
We compare ourselves in relation to
specific reference groups.
In-groups and out-groups

Loyalty to in-group
Opposition to out-groups

Group Size
The dyad
A two-member group
Very intimate, but unstable given its size
The triad
A three-member group
More stable than a dyad and more types
of interaction are possible

Figure 7.2
Group Size and Relationships
As the number of people in a group increases, the number of relationships that link them increases much faster. By the time six or seven people
share a conversation, the group usually divides into two. Why are relationships in smaller groups typically more intense?
Source: Created by the author.

Social Diversity:
Race, Class, and Gender
Large groups turn inward.
Members have relationships between themselves.
Heterogeneous groups turn outward.
Diverse membership promotes interaction with
outsiders.
Physical boundaries create social boundaries.
If segregation of groups takes place, the chances
for contact are limited.
Networks
Web of weak social ties, people we know of or who
know of us
Sociology, 13 Edition by John Macionis
h
Global Map 7.1

Internet Users in Global Perspective

Formal Organizations
Large secondary groups organized to achieve goals
efficiently; date back thousands of years.
Utilitarian
Material rewards for
members
Normative
Voluntary organizations
Ties to personal morality
Coercive
Punishment or treatment
Total institutions
Sociology, 13
Edition by John Macionis

Summing Up
Small Groups and Formal Organizations
Bureaucracy
An organizational model rationally designed to
perform tasks efficiently
Max Webers six elements to promote

organizational efficiency:
Specialization of duties
Hierarchy of offices
Rules and regulations
Technical competence
Impersonality
Formal, written communications
Organizational Environment
Factors outside an organization that
affect its operation:
Economic and political trends

Current events
Populations patterns
Other organizations
Informal side of bureaucracy

In part, informality comes from the
personalities of organizational leaders.

Problems of Bureaucracies
Bureaucratic alienation
Potential to dehumanize individuals
Bureaucratic inefficiency and ritualism

Preoccupation with rules, interferes with meeting
goals
Bureaucratic inertia
Perpetuation of the organization
Oligarchy: The rule of the many by the few

Helps distance officials from the public.
Michels: Concentrates power and threatens
democracy
The Evolution of Formal Organizations
Scientific Management
Application of scientific principles to the
operation of a business or large
organization
1. Identify tasks and time needed for tasks
2. Analyze to perform tasks more efficiently
3. Provide incentives for worker efficiency

New Challenges
to Formal Organizations
Race and gender
Pattern of exclusion
Female advantage
Japanese organizations
Value cooperation
Organizational loyalty
Changing nature of work

Information-based organizations
Creative autonomy, competitive work teams,
flatter organization, and greater flexibility
Figure 7.3
U.S. Managers in Private
Industry by Race, Sex, and
Ethnicity, 2005

Figure 7.4
Two Organizational Models
The conventional model of bureaucratic organizations has a pyramid shape, with a clear chain of command. Orders flow from the top down, and reports of
performance flow from the bottom up. Such organizations have extensive rules and regulations, and their workers have highly specialized jobs. More open
and flexible organizations have a flatter shape, more like a football. With fewer levels in the hierarchy, responsibility for generating ideas and making
decisions is shared throughout the organization. Many workers do their jobs in teams and have a broad knowledge of the entire organizations operation.
Source: Created by the author.

McDonaldization of Society
Efficiency: Do it quickly
Predictability: Use set formulas
Uniformity: Leave nothing to chance
Control: Humans are most unreliable
factor
Each principle limits human creativity,

choice, and freedom.
Weber: Rational systems are efficient but
dehumanizing.
Sociology, 13 Edition by John Macionis
h
Future of Organizations:
Opposing Trends
Movement toward more creative
freedom for highly skilled information
workers
Movement toward increased
supervision and discipline for less
skilled service workers

CH 7 Social Groups and Organizations

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Groups and Organizations

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Not every collection of individuals forms a

Not Quite a Social Group

A crowd can become a group, then a

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Assistance of all kinds

Three leadership styles

Group Conformity Studies

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

In-groups and out-groups

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Global Map 7.1

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Edition by John Macionis

Max Webers six elements to promote

Economic and political trends

Informal side of bureaucracy

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Bureaucratic inefficiency and ritualism

Oligarchy: The rule of the many by the few

The Evolution of Formal Organizations

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Changing nature of work

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Sociology, 13h Edition by John Macionis

Each principle limits human creativity,

Copyright 2010 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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