Chapter 5

Groups and Organizations

Social Group

• Two or more people who identify and interact with one another

• Category – a cluster of people who share a social trait such as age, sex, or race.

Group Think

• Social pressure within a group for individuals to conform to group norms and abandon individual and critical thinking

• People will compromise judgment to avoid being difficult– Solomon Asch’s experiment

Types of Groups

• Primary Group – a small social group whose members share personal and enduring relationships

• Secondary group – large and impersonal social groups devoted to some specific interest or activity

• Ingroup – social group commanding a members esteem and loyalty

• Outgroup – social group toward which one feels competition or opposition

• Reference group – social group that serves as a point of reference for people making evaluations or decisions

Group Size

• Dyad- social group with 2 members

• Triad- social group with 3 members

• Coalition- small social group

• Network- a web of social ties

Formal Organizations

• Large, secondary groups that are organized to achieve goals efficiently

• Bureaucracy- a form of organization based on explicit rules, with a clear, impersonal, and hierarchical authority structure

Types of Formal Organizations

• Utilitarian – primary motive is income

• Normative – not for income but to pursue some worthwhile goal

• Coercive – involuntary

Types of Leadership

• Instrumental Leadership – group leadership that emphasizes the completion of tasks

• Expressive Leadership – group leadership that focuses on collective well-being

Leadership Styles

• Authoritarian leadership- takes charge of decision making and demands compliance

• Democratic leadership – include everyone in decision making

• Laissez-faire leadership – allows group to function more or less on its own

Weber’s Analysis of Bureaucracy

• Complex division of labor (specialization)

• Hierarchy of authority

• Explicit rules

• Rewards on the basis of performance

• Impersonality

• Extensive written records

Negative Consequences

• Trained incapacity/ indifference

• Goal displacement

• Rule of the many by the few (oligarchy)

• Invisible women (glass ceiling)

Corporation

• A group that, through the legal process of incorporation, has been given the status of a separate and real social entity

Organizational Culture

• Classical theory – workers are motivated almost entirely by economic rewards

• Human relations approach – emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation within a bureaucracy

McDonaldization

• Efficiency

• Calculability

• Uniformity and predictability

• Control through automation