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

Networks and Organizations

Chapter 5

Lecture PowerPoint

© W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

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

Georg Simmel: Group size determines social relations

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Social Groups

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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

Triad – Role of the third person

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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

Classifying Groups: Cooley Primary group

Intimate, face to face Personal – members not interchangeable Important in socialization

Secondary group Impersonal Instrumental Interchangeable

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

Conformity to groups

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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”

Ties and Networks

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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

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

Figure 5.4 | The Strength of Weak Ties

Networks and society

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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.

Is social capital declining?

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YES Decline in civic engagement. Less time for community activities More individual leisure activities More people live alone Institutions have become individualized

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

Figure 5.5 | Analysis of High-School Sexual Relationships

Figure 5.7 | Romantic “Leftovers”

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