1. Networks and Organizations Chapter 5 Lecture PowerPoint © W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

2. Social Relationships  Dyad – 2 people only (couples, best friends)  Triad – 3 people  Aggregate – people who share common characteristic (age, gender, race)  Group – 3 or more people who Have something in common Share identity as a group

3. Georg Simmel: Group size determines social relations You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 3

4. Social Groups You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 4  Dyad: most intimate form of social interaction members are mutually dependent on each other if one member leaves, dyad ceases to exist. Requires “symmetry” (mutual participation, consensus) No supra-individual control over members.  “Group” can put pressure on members  “Couple” cannot do that

5. Triad – Role of the third person You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 5

6. Classifying groups: Simmel  Small Group Face to face interaction Unifocal No formal structure  Party Like small group but multifocal (may be larger)  Large Group Formal structure Status differentiation

7. Classifying Groups: Cooley  Primary group Intimate, face to face Personal – members not interchangeable Important in socialization  Secondary group Impersonal Instrumental Interchangeable

8. Other types of “groups”  In-group – more powerful, majority  Out-group – less powerful, minority  Reference group – Group to which we compare ourselves. May be source of opinions or standards. Age group, generation College students Occupational group Social class

9. Conformity to groups You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 9 Solomon Asch: 1940s experiment - “Which line is the same length as line on left?” Subjects were put in groups; group chose wrong answer; 1/3 of subjects expressed “serious discomfort”

10. Ties and Networks You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 10  Tie: set of stories that explains our relationship to the another person Friend Co-worker Tennis partner  Social network: set of relations between dyads held together by ties

11. Types of Ties  Strong tie – “embedded” – reinforced through indirect paths, e.g. lots of mutual friends  Weak tie – few or no indirect paths May be link between different networks (think about why) May be effective way to connect with others (e.g. networking for job search)  Granovetter: “strength of weak ties” - weak ties more likely to provide new opportunities than strongly embedded ties

12. Figure 5.4 | The Strength of Weak Ties

13. Networks and society You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 13 Social capital Information, knowledge of people or ideas, and connections that help individuals enter preexisting networks or gain power in them. High levels of social capital in a community are desirable  community is tightly knit  can come together to face challenges,make improvements.

14. Is social capital declining? You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 14 YES  Decline in civic engagement.  Less time for community activities  More individual leisure activities  More people live alone  Institutions have become individualized

15. Is social capital declining? NO:  People still desire intimate relationships  Young people are more politically active  Civic engagement is cyclical  Social networks may just be more informal  Internet has created new ways of bringing people together

16. Figure 5.5 | Analysis of High-School Sexual Relationships

17. Figure 5.7 | Romantic “Leftovers”

18. New types of networks – open source  Internet forums  Facebook, myspace  Technically a network  Ties are of different type – not personal, not face to face  Potential for thousands of ties

19. Organizations You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 19  Organization: any social network defined by a common purpose and having a boundary between its membership and the rest of the social world.  Formal organizations have a set of governing structures and rules for their internal set-up while informal organizations do not.

20. Organizations You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 20  Organizational culture can be defined as the shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group.  Organizational structure refers to ways in which power and authority are distributed within an organization.

21. Structures: Bureaucracy  An organizational model rationally designed to perform tasks efficiently (Weber, 1921) Specialization Vertical Hierarchy Rules and regulations Technical competence as standard for hiring, promotion, reward Impersonality Formal written communication

22. Problems of Bureaucracy  Inefficiency, ritualism, red tape (e.g. FEMA and Katrina) Overemphasis on rules can undermine goals  Inertia – resistance to change, tendency to perpetuate itself  “Iron Low of Oligarchy” (Robert Michels) Few leaders control most resources, use them to maintain their power

23. Structures: “McDonaldization”  Bureaucratic structure – highly rational  Includes 4 principles Efficiency (“hamburger in 50 seconds”) Predictability (Formulas for everything) Uniformity (same everywhere) Control (automation, set standards)  Has spread to many other organizations

24. Structures: “New Workplace”  Economy based on information, services, technology  Creative freedom  Team work  Flexibility, openness  Better served by “flatter” organizations Control, responsibility more spread out Fewer levels in chain of command Sometimes less formal  May involve virtual organizations or networks

25. The Wealth of Networks You May Ask Yourself Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 25  Open source production peer-based promotes access to the end product’s source materials. Examples are Wikipedia and Linux  Virtual organizations Departments may be spread out geographically Communicate electronically via internet May be more “intelligent:” quicker to respond to environmental forces May still have hierarchy