1. Chapter 5 Groups and Organizations
Types of Groups
Social Influence
Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies
Diversity: Race, Gender, and Class in Organizations

2. Types of Groups dyad triad primary group secondary group
reference group
in-group
out-group

3. The Small World Problem
Experiment: Can a document be routed to a complete stranger 1,000 miles away using only a chain of acquaintances.
300 “senders” were tasked with getting a document to a complete stranger.
1/3 of the documents arrived with an average number of 6.2 intermediate contacts.

4. Bystander Intervention Problem
Examines the dynamics of when and how people come to the aid of someone in trouble.
The more bystanders observe a person in danger, the less likely any of them will call for help.
Demonstrates the group size effect and pressure to conform.

5. Asch Conformity Experiment
Even simple objective facts cannot withstand the distorting pressure of group influence.
1/3 to 1/2 of the subjects make a judgment contrary to objective fact, yet in conformity with the group.  

6. Milgram Obedience Studies
65% of the volunteer subjects administered what they thought was lethal voltage on the shock machine.
Milgram described the dilemma revealed by his experiments as a conflict between conscience and authority.

7. Groupthink Four aspects of groupthink: An illusion of invulnerability.
A falsely negative impression of those who are antagonists to the group’s plans.
Discouragement of dissenting opinion.
Illusion of unanimity.

8. Risky Shift Groups weigh risk differently than individuals.
Most but not all group discussion leads to greater risk-taking.
As groups get larger, trends in risk-taking are amplified.

9. Formal Organizations
A secondary group organized to accomplish a task and achieve goals efficiently.
Develop cultures and routine practices.
People conform to expected patterns of behavior.
Can be tools for innovation, depending on the organization’s values and purpose.

10. Types of Organizations.
Normative (service, charitable organizations)
Coercive (prisons)
Utilitarian (corporations)

11. Weber's Characteristics of Bureaucracy
Division of labor and specialization
Hierarchy of authority
Rules and regulations
Impersonal relationships
Career ladders
Efficiency 

12. Bureaucracy’s Other Face
Informal structures ignore, change, or bypass the formal structure and rules.
Subcultures develop when people attempt to humanize an impersonal organization.
The informal culture can become exclusionary, increasing the isolation some feel at work.

13. Problems of Bureaucracies
Risky shift
Groupthink
Ritualism - rules become ends in themselves rather than a means to an end.
Alienation - individuals become psychologically separated from the organization.

14. The McDonaldization of Society
Four Dimensions:
Efficiency - things move from start to finish in a streamlined path.
Calculability - emphasis on quantitative aspects of products sold.

15. The McDonaldization of Society
Four Dimensions:
Predictability - products will be the same no matter when or where they are purchased.
Control - behavior is reduced to a series of machinelike actions.

16. Diversity: Race, Gender, and Class in Organizations
Organizations perpetuate inequality of race-ethnicity, gender and social class.
Minorities are less likely to get promoted and more likely to get fired.
Women experience negative effects of tokenism such as stress and lowered self-esteem.

17. Theoretical Perspectives on Organizations
Functionalist - specifies organizational functions and dysfunctions.
Conflict Theory - analyzes the consequences of hierarchical, gender, race, and social class conflicts.
Symbolic Interaction - focuses on how the self develops as a product of social interaction.