1. Groups, Networks, and Organizations
Chapter 5
Groups, Networks, and Organizations

2. Human Relationships
Central to sociology is the study of relationships:
how they begin
how they function
how they change
how they affect us

3. Social Processes Exchange
Social processes are the forms of interaction through which people relate to one another.
Exchange – the voluntary trade of tangible or intangible benefits. (Stolete, Fine & Cook 2001)
Norm of reciprocity – the expectation that people will maintain balance and return favors they receive in social exchange relationships. (Bonacich & Bienenstock 2009)

4. Sociology and You
The norm of reciprocity applies to dating relationships…
If you buy your date dinner, you may feel that something is owed in return.
If you have had your dinner bought for you, you may believe you are indebted to your date…and do things you really don’t want to do in exchange.
Disagreement on who owes what to whom can create situations that escalate into anger, breakups – even sexual assault.

5. Social Processes Cooperation:
People working together to achieve shared goals.
Cooperation is teamwork. ex: Spouses cooperate in raising children.
Cooperation operates at a broader societal level, too.
ex: Neighbors working together to fight a
proposed high rise.
Citizens supporting higher taxes to provide health care for the needy.

6. Social Processes Competition:
Competition is a struggle over scarce resources that is regulated by shared rules.
A positive outcome of competition is that it stimulates achievement and heightens people’s aspirations.
A negative outcome of competition is that it often results in personal stress, reduced cooperation, and social inequalities

7. Social Processes Conflict:
When the struggle over scarce resources is not regulated by shared rules, conflict may include attempts to neutralize, injure, or destroy rivals.
When the struggle for scarce resources (including children’s toys) is not regulated by norms that specify the rules of fair play, conflict often results…

8. Groups
A group is a collection of two or more people that has two special characteristics:
Its members interact within a shared social structure of statuses, roles, and norms.
Its members recognize that they are mutually dependent.

9. Answer the following Questions Individually:
Use a scale from 1 to 5.
1 = “not much”; 5 = “a great deal.”
1) How much do you feel that you personally contributed to the group activity? 
2) How much did you enjoy the activity?
3) How closely did you work with other group members?

10. Groups Group Size The impact of groups depends on their size:
5 friends could make their lives happier by agreeing to go out for beer every Thursday.
5,000 people might show up for a Justin Bieber concert to revel in shared enjoyment as fans.
Dyads: groups with two members only; fragile.
Triads: groups with three members; even if one member leaves, the group continues as a dyad.

11. Groups
Types of Groups
Reference groups are groups that individuals regularly compare themselves to.
○ Happiness drops when we compare
ourselves to groups that are better off
than we are – a situation known as relative
deprivation. Happiness increases when we
compare ourselves to those who are worse off.
Primary groups are characterized by intimate face-to-face interaction.
Secondary groups are formal, large, and impersonal.

12. Primary and Secondary Groups
Many of the groups we participate in combine characteristics of primary and secondary groups.
The elementary school classroom is a secondary group, yet many of the friendships developed there will last for 6, 12, or even 40 years.

13. Groups Primary and Secondary Groups
In preindustrial times, individuals rarely interacted with others outside their family or small band.
Today we lead complex lives involving many different groups. Our ties to primary groups have weakened.

14. Primary and Secondary Groups
Characteristic
Primary
Secondary
Size
Small
Large
Relationships
Personal, intimate
Impersonal, aloof
Communication
Face-to-face
Indirect
Duration
Long-term
Short-term
Cohesion
Strong; based on loyalty to group
Weak; based on
self-interest
Decisions
Based on traditions and personal feeling
Based on rules and rational thought
Social Structure
Informal
Formal
Primary Purpose
Meet expressive needs
Meet instrumental goals

15. Groups Interaction in Groups
Size – Smallest group is two people. As groups get larger, each member has fewer opportunities to share opinions
Physical Proximity – Interaction occurs more often when members are physically close.
Communication Patterns – Interaction can be either facilitated or hindered.
Cohesion – Solidarity; group has strong feelings of connection to the group and a web of relationships holding group together.

16. Common Patterns of Communication
The circles represent individuals and the lines are flows of communication.
The “all-channel” network is found in groups in which status differences are minimal or not present.
The wheel is associated with important status differences within the group.

17. Groups Group Conformity
Many of the things we deal with and believe in are not true or correct in any absolute sense; they are simply what our groups have agreed to accept as right.
Researchers who look at individual decision making in groups find that group interaction increases conformity.

18. The Milgram Experiment
Groups
Group Conformity
The Milgram Experiment
Subjects in the Milgram experiment were ordered to administer electric shocks that they believed were dangerous to others. Although subjects found the experience stressful, most obeyed.

19. Groups Group Conformity Recent Conformity Research:
Individuals will conform to group pressure even when the other group members are strangers.
Understanding Small Group Conformity:
Individuals adopt group views when they don’t trust their own knowledge.
Individuals adopt group views when they fear group ridicule or rejection.

20. Groups Group Decision Making
Generally, groups strive to reach consensus.
As groups grow in size, they often adopt the more expedient policy of majority rule.
Group members’ opinions may become more similar over time in a choice shift.
A special case of choice shift is group think, when pressures to agree are so strong that they stifle critical thinking.

21. Social Networks
A social network is an individual’s total set of relationships.
Network Centrality
Refers to the number of direct or indirect ties between one individual and others in a network.
The greater the number of ties, the greater an individual’s centrality. (Faris, Robert, & Felmlee 2011)

22. Social Networks Strong and Weak Ties
Strong ties are relationships characterized by intimacy, emotional intensity, and sharing.
Weak ties are characterized by low intensity and low intimacy.
Ties versus Groups – strong and weak ties apply to one-on-one relationships; primary and secondary groups apply to the group as a whole.

23. Social Networks
Ties versus Groups

24. Social Networks Voluntary Associations
Nonprofit organizations designed to allow individuals an opportunity to pursue their shared interests collectively.
Vary in size and formality.
Perform important functions for individuals, such as greater personal happiness, longer life, more political participation, and greater sense of community.

25. Social Networks Community
Community refers to people who share a common space and sense of connection to it – dense, cross-cutting social networks.
Computer Networks and Communities
Internet provides a wide network of weak ties to many people.
Can provide strong ties and a true sense of
community.
Participating in video and computer games can increase individuals’ social networks.

26. Complex Organizations
Large, formal organizations with elaborate status networks. (Handel 2002)
A bureaucracy is a special type of complex organization characterized by explicit rules and hierarchical authority structure – designed to maximize efficiency.

27. The “Ideal Type” of Bureaucracy: Weber’s Theory
Complex Organizations
The “Ideal Type” of Bureaucracy: Weber’s Theory
Division of labor
Hierarchal authority
Rules and regulations
Impersonal relationships
Careers, tenure, and technical qualifications
Efficiency

28. Complex Organizations
Real Bureaucracies: Organizational Culture
Refers to the pattern of norms and values that structures how business is actually carried out in an organization.
Cohesion is key to successful organizational culture.
Successful organizational cultures encourage interaction and loyalty among employees.

29. Critiques of Bureaucracies
Complex Organizations
Critiques of Bureaucracies
Despite being the standard organizational form in the modern world, it has several major drawbacks:
Ritualism – rule becomes an end itself, rather than a means to an end.
Alienation – the emphasis on impersonal rules and hierarchies reduces cohesion.
Structured inequality – concentration of power in the hands of a few people.

30. Complex Organizations
Critiques of Bureaucracies
McDonaldization
The process through which a broad range of bureaucracies adopt management goals derived from the fast-food restaurant industry.
Principles of “McDonaldization”
○ efficiency
○ calculability
○ predictability
○ control

31. Quick Quiz

32. The expectation that people will return favors and strive to maintain a balance of obligation in social relationships is called:
the norm of reciprocity.
the norm of unending service.
tenure.
cooperation.

33. Answer: A
The expectation that people will return favors and strive to maintain a balance of obligation in social relationships is called the norm of reciprocity.

34. Which of the following is an example of the norm of reciprocity in action?
Joe buys his new infant son a baseball glove.
Penny gives Margaret a ride to school all semester, so Margaret types Penny’s term paper.
Joe buys himself an ice cream cone.
Margot yells at Rob after he yells at Sam.

35. Answer: B
The following is an example of the norm of reciprocity in action:
Penny gives Margaret a ride to school all semester, so Margaret types Penny’s term paper. .

36. Two or more people who interact on the basis of shared social structure and recognize mutual dependency are called:
a group.
an aggregate.
a category.
a bond.

37. Answer: A
Two or more people who interact on the basis of shared social structure and recognize mutual dependency are called a group.

38. 4. A form of bureaucracy growing in popularity that follows the principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control is called:
A) industrialization
B) Weberization
C) McDonaldization
D) institutionalization

39. Answer: C
The form of bureaucracy that is growing in popularity worldwide and that relies on the principles of efficiency, calculability, predictability and control is called McDonaldization.