Groups and Formal Organizations CHAPTER 6 Primary Groups

Groups and Formal Organizations CHAPTER 6

Primary Groups and Secondary Groups Group: at least two people who have one or more goals in common and share common ways of thinking and behaving • they are in regular contact with one another • they share ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving • they take one another’s behavior into account • they have one or more interests or goals in common

Neither Social Categories nor Social Aggregates are considered to be groups Social Category: people who share a social characteristic • • • women teenagers elderly citizens of a town Social Aggregate: people who happen to be in the same place at the same time • people waiting in line for movie tickets • people waiting for a bus • people attending a concert • witnesses of an accident

Primary Groups Primary Group: people who are emotionally close, know one another well, and seek one another’s company • family • close friends Primary Relationships: interactions that are intimate, personal, caring, and fulfilling

How Do Primary Groups Develop? What conditions favor their formation? • small size • face-to-face contact • continuous contact • proper social environment

What are the functions of primary groups? They provide three important functions in society • emotional support • socialization • encourage conformity

Secondary Groups Secondary Group: people who share only part of their lives while focusing on a goal or task Secondary Relationships: impersonal relationships involving limited parts of relationships

Other Groups and Networks… Reference Groups Reference Group: group used for self-evaluation and the formation of attitudes, values, beliefs, and norms

In-Groups and Out-Groups Like two sides of a coin…you can’t have one without the other In-Group: exclusive group demanding intense loyalty (cliques) Out-Group: group targeted by in-group for opposition, antagonism, or competition jocks, cheerleaders, etc. nerds are in-groups for some, out-groups for others Freaks and Geeks

How are Group Boundaries Maintained? Boundaries

Social Networks Social Network: a web of social relationships that join a person to other people and groups Small World

Five Types of Social Interaction 1. Cooperation: individuals and groups combine their efforts to reach a goal Barn Raising

2. Conflict : interaction aimed at defeating an opponent argument

3. Social Exchange: a voluntary action performed in the expectation of getting a reward in return Sesame Street

4. Coercion: individuals or groups are forced to behave in a particular way Police show of force

5. Conformity: behavior that matches group expectations Candid Camera

Asch’s Experiment video

What is Groupthink? Groupthink: self-deceptive thinking that is based on conformity to group beliefs, and created by group pressure to conform

Formal Organizations high schools hospitals colleges corporations government agencies Formal Organization: a group deliberately created to achieve one or more long-term goals

Bureaucracy: a formal organization based on rationality and efficiency

Major Characteristics of Bureaucracies • A division of labor based on the principle of specialization • Power is derived from a legitimate source • A hierarchy of authority (pyramid shaped) • A system of rules and procedures • Written records of work and activities • Promotion on the basis of merit and qualifications

Public School District Organization Chart

Bureaucracies; Good or Bad? Advantages to industrial societies: • speed • efficiency • predictability • Rationalization: mind set emphasizing knowledge, reason and planning Disadvantages? • rules • procedures • impersonal treatment

Informal Structure Within Bureaucracies Personal relationships guided by common interests, shared values. Relationships guided by norms that Are not part of the formal organization Informal Organization: groups that form within a formal organization

Iron Law of Oligarchy Power increasingly becomes concentrated in the hands of a few members in any organization.