1. Groups and Organizations
Society The Basics
FOURTEENTH EDITION
Chapter 5
Groups and Organizations

2. Learning Objectives
5.1 Explain the importance of various types of groups to social life. 5.2 Describe the operation of large, formal organizations. 5.3 Summarize the changes to formal organizations over the course of the last century. 5.4 Assess the consequences of modern social organization for social life.

3. The Power of Society
Does your social class influence which groups and organizations you join?

4. Social Groups (1 of 3) Learning Objective 5
Social Groups (1 of 3) Learning Objective 5.1: Explain the importance of various types of groups to social life.
Social groups
Clusters of people with whom we interact in everyday life
Two or more people who identify with and interact with one another
Made up of people with shared experiences, loyalties, and interests
A special “we”

5. Social Groups (2 of 3)
As human beings, we live our lives as members of groups.
Such groups may be large or small, temporary or long-lasting, and can be based on kinship, cultural heritage, or some shared interest.

6. Social Groups (3 of 3) Categories
Not every collection of individuals forms a group.
Women, homeowners, soldiers, college graduates, millionaires

7. Social Groups: Primary Groups
Traits (Cooley)
Small
Personal orientation
Enduring
Primary relationships
First group experienced in life
Irreplaceable
Assistance of all kinds
Emotional to financial

8. Social Groups: Secondary Groups
Traits
Large membership
Goal or activity orientation
Formal and polite
Secondary relationships
Weak emotional ties
Short–term
Examples
Co-workers and political organizations

9. Not Quite a Social Group
Crowd
Temporary cluster of people
A group can have temporal status.
Crowd to group to crowd again
A large gathering of people at a football game
A crowd that begins to riot might be considered a group.

10. Summing Up Primary Groups and Secondary Groups Primary Group
Quality of relationships
Personal orientation
Goal orientation
Duration of relationships
Usually long-term
Variable; often short-term
Breadth of relationships
Broad; usually involving many activities
Narrow; usually involving few activities
Perception of relationships
Ends in themselves
Means to an end
Examples
Families, circles of friends
Co-workers, political organizations

11. Group Leadership (1 of 2) Three leadership styles
Authoritarian: Leader makes decisions; Compliance from members
Democratic: Member involvement
Laissez-faire: Let group function on its own

12. Group Leadership (2 of 2) Two roles Instrumental: Task-oriented
Expressive: People-oriented

13. Group Conformity Studies (1 of 3)
Asch's research
Line experiment
Conclusion
Willingness to compromise our own judgments to avoid the discomfort of being seen as different

14. Group Conformity Studies (2 of 3)
Milgram's research
Punishment experiment
Authority figure and groups of ordinary individuals influenced willingness to harm another person.

15. Group Conformity Studies (3 of 3)
Janis's research
Groupthink: Tendency of group members to conform, resulting in a narrow view of some issue
Negative side of groupthink
Number of U.S. foreign policy errors

16. Reference Groups Reference group Stouffer's research
Social group that serves as a point of reference in making evaluations and decisions
Stouffer's research
We compare ourselves in relation to specific reference groups.

17. Groups In-groups Out-groups
Display loyalty and respect to group members
Exist in relation to out-group
Generally hold overly positive views of themselves
Out-groups
Opposition to out-groups
May be defined by in-group as lower status
May be socially, politically, and economically subordinated by in-group

18. Group Size The dyad The triad A two-member group
Very intimate, but unstable given its size
The triad
A three-member group
More stable than a dyad and more types of interaction are possible
In a triad, if the relationship between any two members becomes more intense in a positive sense, two are likely to exclude the third.

19. Figure 5-2 Group Size and Relationships

20. Social Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender (1 of 4)
Social diversity influences intergroup contact (Blau and colleagues).
Large groups turn inward.
Members have relationships between themselves.
Heterogeneous groups turn outward.
Diverse membership promotes interaction with outsiders.
Physical boundaries create social boundaries.
If segregation of groups takes place, the chances for contact are limited.

21. Social Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender (2 of 4)
Networks
Networks are web of weak social ties, people we know of or who know of us.
Largest network of all is the World Wide Web of the Internet.

22. Social Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender (3 of 4)
Social media and networking
Social media refers to technology that links people in social activity.
By 2011, 600 million people were involved in Facebook networks and by the end of 2012, the number had passed 1 billion.
Today, Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites connect people all over the world.

23. Social Diversity: Race, Class, and Gender (4 of 4)
The 2010 film The Social Network depicts the birth of Facebook, now one of the largest social networking sites in the world.
In what ways have Internet-based social networks changed social life in the United States?

24. Global Map 5-1 Internet Users in Global Perspective

25. Formal Organizations Learning Objective 5
Formal Organizations Learning Objective 5.2: Describe the operation of large, formal organizations.
Types
Utilitarian
Material rewards for members
Normative
Voluntary organizations
Ties to personal morality
Coercive
Punishment or treatment; total institutions

26. Origins of Formal Organizations
Early organizations had limitations.
First, they lacked technology to let people travel over large distances, to communicate quickly, and to gather and store information.
Second, the preindustrial societies they were trying to rule had traditional cultures.

27. Rationalization of Society: Weber
Tradition makes a society conservative by limiting productive efficiency and ability to change.
Modern society “disenchanted” as sentimental ties give way to a rational focus on science, complex technology, and the organizational structure called “bureaucracy.”

28. Summing Up Small Groups and Formal Organizations Small Groups
Activities
Much the same for all members
Distinct and highly specialized
Hierarchy
Often informal or nonexistent
Clearly defined according to position
Norms
General norms, informally applied
Clearly defined rules and regulations
Membership criteria
Variable; often based on personal affection or kinship
Technical competence to carry out assigned tasks
Relationships
Variable and typically primary
Typically secondary, with selective primary ties
Communications
Typically casual and face-to-face
Typically formal and in writing
Focus
Person-oriented
Task-oriented

29. Max Weber's Elements to Promote Organizational Efficiency
Elements of ideal bureaucratic organizations
Specialization of duties
Hierarchy of offices
Rules and regulations
Technical competence

30. The Ideal Bureaucracy
Weber described the operation of the ideal bureaucracy as rational and highly efficient. In real life, however, organizations often operate very differently from Weber's model.

31. Organizational Environment
Factors outside an organization that affect its operation
Economic and political trends
Population patterns
Current events
Other organizations

32. Informal Side of Bureaucracy
Origins of informality
Personalities of organizational leaders
Leadership style
Modes of communication
New information technology

33. Problems of Bureaucracies
Bureaucratic alienation
Potential to dehumanize individuals
Bureaucratic inefficiency and ritualism
Preoccupation with rules, interferes with meeting goals
Bureaucratic inertia
Perpetuation of the organization

34. The Faceless Bureaucrat
George Tooker's painting Government Bureau is a powerful statement about the human costs of bureaucracy.

35. Oligarchy Michels Link between bureaucracy and political oligarchy
“Iron law of oligarchy”
Pyramid shape of bureaucracy places a few leaders in charge of the resources of the entire organization.
Democracy threatened because officials use power and resources for personal gain.
Distance created between officials and public.

36. Evolution of Formal Organizations: Scientific Management
Scientific management: Scientific principles applied to the operation of a business/large organization (Taylor)
Steps
Identify tasks and time needed for tasks.
Analyze to perform tasks more efficiently.
Provide incentives for worker efficiency.

37. Figure 5-3 U.S. Managers in Private Industry by Race, Sex, and Ethnicity, 2011

38. Diversity Snapshot
The principles of scientific management suggested that workplace power should reside with owners and executives, who have historically paid little attention to the ideas of their workers.

39. New Challenges to Formal Organizations
Race and gender
Japanese work organizations
Changing nature of work

40. Differences in Today's Information Age Jobs Learning Objective 5
Differences in Today's Information Age Jobs Learning Objective 5.3: Summarize the changes to formal organizations over the course of the last century.
Creative freedom
Competitive work teams
Flatter organization
Greater flexibility
The best of today's information age jobs—including working at Google, the popular search engine website—allow people lots of personal freedom as long as they produce good ideas.

41. Figure 5-4 Two Organizational Models

42. McDonaldization of Society
Principles
Efficiency: Do it quickly.
Predictability: Use set formulas.
Uniformity: Leave nothing to chance.
Control: Humans are the most unreliable factor.
Many other jobs, such as working the counter at McDonald's, involve the same routines and strict supervision found in factories a century ago.

43. Future of Organizations: Opposing Trends Learning Objective 5
Future of Organizations: Opposing Trends Learning Objective 5.4: Assess the consequences of modern social organization for social life.
Movement toward more creative freedom for highly skilled information workers
Movement toward increased supervision and discipline for less skilled service workers