GROUPS AND ORGANIZATIONS

By Ilana Mannine

A group is any number of people with similar norms, values, and expectations, who usually interact in social settings on a daily basis.

Examples: College sororities and fraternities, dance companies, and even chess clubs.

The important feature of a group is a sense of belonging. This is different from categories of people who just share a common feature, like being retired, but they don’t act together.

The study of groups is an important part of sociology since it plays a main role in the transmission of ideas and culture. When we interact with people, we pass on our ways of thinking and acting.

A primary group is a small group that is characterized by intimate, face to face association and cooperation. Primary groups play a significant role in the socialization process and the development of roles and statuses. Primary groups are important in a person’s every day life.

Examples: Members of a street gang, members of a family living in the same house, and a group of “sisters” in a sorority.

A secondary group is a formal, impersonal group in which there is little social intimacy or understanding. In a secondary group the relationships are more superficial than the ones in a primary group.

Examples: Large college classes, business associations, and a delivery crew.

An in-group is a group to which people feel they belong. In school, this is the “in-crowd” or the cool people. An out-group is a group where people feel they do not belong. In-group members often feel superior and think that they are better than the people in the out-group.

Sometimes conflict between these two groups can become violent on both personal and political levels. For example, in 1999 two students at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, attacked the school, which left 15 students and teachers dead. They were considered part of the out-group and this shows how a label can affect you psychologically and emotionally. Many students feel pressured to be a part of the in-crowd. Even on television shows and movies, there is a need to be considered cool and not an outcast.

A reference group is a group that individuals use as a standard for evaluating themselves and their own behavior.

Example: A high school student who wants to be in a hip hop group. The student will change the way they dress, listen to the same music, and hang out at the same stores as the people in the hip hop club.

Reference groups serve two main functions:

Setting standards of conduct and belief.

Serve as a standard against which people evaluate themselves and others. For example an actor will measure himself against a reference group in the acting industry.

Reference groups often change according to the different phases we are in during our lifetime.

What different reference groups have shaped your outlook and your goals in

life? How have they done so?

A coalition is a temporary or permanent alliance that is geared towards a common goal. As groups become larger, they develop into coalitions.

Some coalitions are short lived. For example, short-term coalition building is the key to success in the TV show Survivor. On this show, the four members of the “Tagi alliance” formed coalitions to vote castaways off the island. There are also many temporary coalitions in politics.

A small group is one that is small enough so that all members can interact, by talking with one another or becoming well acquainted. Some primary groups, like families, can be considered small groups.

The one key difference between a small group and a primary group is that a primary group is more intimate and personal.

Group size can affect the members in a group who are not the leaders. In a larger group, each member has less time to speak, but there are more points of view to absorb. At the same time, in a large group people have more freedom to ignore certain viewpoints.

The German sociologist Georg Simmel is the first to note how interaction changes according to the size of the group.

Georg Simmel

The simplest of all small groups is a dyad, which is a two-member group. Some examples are a wife and a husband, business partners, or a singing duo. However, a dyad can be destroyed by the loss of one member.

A triad is a three-member group. The third person added to the dyad can play three different roles:

A unifying role: When a married couple has a child, their kid can bind the group closer together.

A mediating role: If two members of the group are in an argument, the third person can be the source of compromise. This can occur when people are sharing a dorm room.

A divide-and-rule strategy: The third person may try to gain more power by making the other two rivals. A coach may try to do this with his two assistants.

In the movie Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda plays a juror who initially is the only person who believes in the person’s innocence, but eventually convinces the entire jury at the end. Recent research, however, suggests that jury members do not usually change their minds after the first ballot.

A jury is an example of a small group, that has received much attention from sociologists. Researchers have compared 6-person versus 12-person juries, since the legislature has wanted to reduce the jury size. Sociologists found that when a defendant’s guilt was more apparent, 12-person juries were more reluctant to convict than 6-person juries.

As with membership in other small groups, serving on a jury is an intense experience. Health professionals have documented that some jurors suffer from symptoms of stress, including depression, anxiety, weight loss, sleep loss, and disruption in relationships.

William H. Whyte, Jr. coined the term groupthink, in which group members experience pressure to conform to the dominant way of thinking. This peer pressure discourages individuality and expression.

High level governments are prone to groupthink. These leaders often confer with one another in closed meetings, and therefore they hear no one else’s opinions. Groupthink also occurs in jury rooms, board rooms, and even in high school. Dividing a group into smaller units tends to avoid groupthink, and allows the expression of thought.

Groupthink is illustrated in the society of 1984 by George Orwell. The people are basically mind-controlled by the government, but the main character, Winston, resists this groupthink pressure. He attempts to gain his individuality throughout the plot.

Have you ever experienced the pressure of groupthink and felt that you had to

think a certain way to fit in?

In the book The McDonaldization of Society, sociologist George Ritzer discusses the effects of the fast-food industry on today’s culture and social life.

McDonaldization is defined as “the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world.”

Today countless families rely on fast food, and McDonald’s has become a regular meeting place for social groups from children to seniors.

Ritzer discusses the negative effects of fast-food on society, including the environmental pollution caused by billions of disposable containers.

The movie Super Size Me also illustrates the negative impact that fast food has on people.

Our lives have become dominated by large secondary groups called formal organizations. A formal organization is a group designed for special purposes and structured for optimum efficiency.

Examples: U.S. Postal Service and McDonald’s.

Formal organizations shape the lives of every one of us. They have become so dominant that we created organizations to supervise other organizations, like the Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates brokerage companies.

Gender, race, and ethnicity can influence how we view ourselves within the formal organization. For instance, a study of women lawyers show that when there is less than 15 percent female partners, these women tend to think that the feminism is devalued. Women in firms with more female lawyers, had a stronger desire for promotions.

Formal organizations are organized in bureaucracies, which use rules and hierarchy to achieve efficiency. Max Weber first detailed the significance of bureaucracy. He developed an ideal type or model that would reflect the most characteristic aspects of all organizations. McDonald’s, Churches, and governments are key examples of bureaucracies. Bureaucratization is the process by which a group becomes increasingly bureaucratic. According to Weber, a bureaucracy illustrates five characteristics:

Division of labor: Specialized experts perform different tasks. By working a certain task, this allows people to become more skilled at that job. The downside of division of labor is that the workers can become divided. In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, he wrote that this could produce alienation, which is being isolated from society. It can also lead to trained incapacity. The workers become too specialized that they don’t notice obvious problems.

Karl Marx

Max Weber

Hierarchy of authority: Each position is under the supervision of the higher authority. In a Catholic Church, the pope is the supreme figure, then the cardinals, bishops, and so on.

Written rules and regulations: This provides a standard for performance. However, rules and regulations can overshadow the goals of the organization. Robert Merton called this goal displacement.

Impersonality: A bureaucracy should be performed indifferently, “without hatred or passion.” This guarantees equal treatment for each person, however it causes a cold environment.

Employment based on technical qualifications: Hiring should be based on merit not favoritism. However, at the same time, this discourages ambition to improve yourself elsewhere. Laurence J. Peter coined the Peter principle, which means that within a bureaucracy, an employee rises to his or her level of incompetence. If a talented person keeps receiving promotion after promotion, he will eventually reach a position that he can’t handle.

Robert Michaels developed the idea of the iron law of oligarchy, which describes how a democratic organization can develop into a bureaucracy ruled only by a few people. People who obtain leadership roles usually are very skilled and intelligent, so they can direct and control others.

The classical theory of formal organizations, or the scientific management approach, says that workers are motivated by economic rewards. This theory stresses that the physical constraints on workers limit their efficiency. Workers were treated more as machines under this approach.

When workers began to organize labor unions, theorists revised the classical theory. The human relation approach emphasizes the role of people, communication, and participation in bureaucracy. This method focuses on the workers’ feelings and emotional needs.

Voluntary associations are organizations established on the basis of common interest, whose members volunteer or perhaps pay to be involved.

Examples: The Girl Scouts of America, the American Jewish Congress, and the League of Women Voters.

Formal organizations and voluntary associations are similar, but not the same. Some voluntary associations have philanthropic and educational causes, like the YMCA and the Peace Corps.

Voluntary associations are largely divided by gender. Half of them are exclusively female, and one-fifth are male. Besides enhancing the well-being of society, voluntary associations can influence a person’s behavior. When kids are involved in sports or clubs, this greatly affects how they are as adults.

Collective decision making, or the involvement of employee problem-solving groups, became popular in the 1980s. These groups often attack problems rooted in the bureaucratic division of labor.

Minimal hierarchy replaces the traditional hierarchy of authority with a flatter organizational structure. This offers workers more access to those in charge, allowing them to voice their opinions.

Work teams have become increasingly used. There are two different types of work teams. Project teams address ongoing issues, while task forces address nonrecurring problems like construction.

Workers are also increasingly becoming telecommuters, which are people who work full-time or part-time at home rather than in an outside office.

Electronic communication has also changed the working environment. Even though e-mailing is very convenient, it has also interrupted work. Researchers have found that employees spend an average of 11 minutes on a project before being interrupted.

Labor unions consist of organized workers who share a common skill or the same employer. Unions emerged during the Industrial Revolution in England in the 1700s.

Union membership is steadily declining. Some reasons for its decline include:

Changes in the type of industry: Manufacturing jobs have decreased.

Growth in part-time jobs: Between 1982 and 1998, the number of part-time jobs in the U.S. rose 577%.

The legal system: The U.S. has made it difficult for unions to organize and bargain.

Globalization: Labor union demands for wage increases has caused a movement of jobs to developing nations, where unions are almost nonexistent.

Employer offensives: Hostile employers have taken court action to stop union’s efforts.

Union rigidity and bureaucratization: Labor has been slow to embrace women and minorities. In addition, in some unions the election of leaders dominates their activity.