INFORMAL ORGANIZATIONS AND

THEIR RELATION TO FORMAL

ORGANIZATION
Chester I. Barnard
I. What is a informal organization?
◦ People interact with each other even when their relationships are not a part of or
governed by formal organizations
◦ The interactions occur and continue without any specific conscious joint purpose
◦ They change the experience, knowledge, attitudes and emotions of the persons
affected  we infer this effects by using the phrase mob psychology
◦ Informal organization = the aggregate of personal contacts and interactions and
associated groupings of people
◦ Informal organization is indefinite and structureless – it has no definite subdivision
II. Consequences of informal organizations

◦ Two important classes of effects:

1. It establishes certain attitudes, understandings, customs, habits
2. It creates the condition under which formal organizations may arise
III. The creation of informal by formal
organizations

◦ Formal organizations rise out of and are necessary to informal ones

◦ Formal organizations create and require informal ones
◦ A formal organization can be understood only by knowing who’s who, what’s
what, why’s why of its informal society
IV. The functions of informal in formal
organizations

◦ Communication function
◦ The maintenance of cohesiveness in formal organizations
◦ The maintenance of the feeling of personal integrity, of self-respect, of independent
choice
◦ The means of maintaining the personality of the individual
Thank you!