GROUPS & ORGANIZATIONS

1. GROUPS & ORGANIZATIONS Macionis, Sociology Chapter Seven

2. Overall Goals for Chapter 7 • Look at groups and their behavior • Learn about organizations and their role in society • Review leadership styles

3. SOCIAL GROUP A social group is defined as two or more people who identify and interact with one another

4. NOT QUITE A SOCIAL GROUP • Category • People with common status • Crowd • Temporary cluster of people • A group can have temporal status • There are times when a crowd can become a group and then a crowd once more • A large gathering of people at a football game • A crowd that begins to riot may be considered a group

5. PRIMARY GROUPS • Traits • Small • Personal orientation • Enduring • Primary relationships • First group experienced in life • Irreplaceable • Security • Assistance of all kinds • Emotional to financial

6. SECONDARY GROUPS • Traits • Large membership • Goal or activity orientation • Formal and polite • Secondary relationships • Weak emotional ties between persons • Short term • Examples • Co-workers • Political organizations

7. Categories of Groups • Instrumental • Task oriented • PTO • Spinning • ARL • Expressive • People oriented • Book club • Bike team • ARL

8. Decision Making Styles • Authoritarian • Leader makes decisions • Compliance from members • Democratic • Member involvement • Everyone is equal • Laissez-faire • Group functions on its own

9. REFERENCE GROUPS • Groups act as point of reference in making evaluative and decisions • Stouffer’s research • We compare ourselves in relation to specific reference groups • INGROUPS and OUTGROUPS • Loyalty to INGROUP • Opposition to OUTGROUPS

10. GROUP SIZE MATTERS • The dyad • A two member group • Intimate, but unstable given its size • The triad • A three member group • More stable than a dyad and more types of interaction is possible

11. SOCIAL DIVERSITY • Large groups turn inward • Members have relationships between themselves • Heterogeneous groups turn outward • Diverse membership promotes interaction with outsiders • Social equality promotes contact • If members are equal in standing, then members of all backgrounds are more likely to associate • Physical boundaries create social boundaries • If group is segregated then chances for contact are limited • Networks • Web of weak social ties, people we know of & who know of us

12. BUREAUCRACY • Rational model designed to perform complex tasks efficiently • Max Weber’s six elements to promote organizational efficiency • Specialization of duties • Hierarchy of offices • Rules and regulations • Technical competence • Impersonality • Formal, written communications

13. Organizational Environment • Factors outside an organization that affects its operation: • Economic and political trends • Current events • Populations patterns • Other organizations

14. BUREAUCRACY PROBLEMS • Bureaucratic alienation • Potential to dehumanize individuals • Bureaucratic inefficiency and ritualism • Preoccupation with rules, interferes with meeting goals • Bureaucratic inertia • Perpetuation of the organization • Oligarchy • Rule of the many by the few

15. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT Application of scientific principles to the operation of a business or large organization • Identify tasks and time needed for tasks • Analyze to perform tasks more efficiently • Provide incentives for workers efficiency

16. McDONALDIZATION • Efficiency -Do it quickly • Uniformity -Leave nothing to chance • Control -Humans are most unreliable factor • Movement toward more creative freedom for highly skilled information workers. • Movement toward increased supervision and discipline for less skilled service workers. Future Opposing Trends

17. “Fear colludes with our most conservative self and allows us to stop before we try, dismiss before we think, mock before we imagine.” - Carol Lloyd