Social Groups and Social Organizations
Dec 25, 2015
Social Groupsand
Social Organizations
Social Classification
• Social Groups
• Social Categories
• Social Aggregates
Social Group
• Consists of at least two people who have one or more goals in common and share common ways of thinking and behaving
Social Aggregate
• A collection of people who happen to be at the same place at the same time but who have no other connection to one another.
Social Category
• A collection of people who share a particular characteristic. They do not necessarily interact with one another and have nothing else in common.
Types of Social Groups
According to Social Ties
• Primary Group
• Secondary Group
Primary Group
• People who are emotionally close and seek one another’s company
Primary Relationships: interactions that are intimate, personal, caring, and fulfilling
Secondary Group
• People who share only part of their lives while focusing on a goal or task
Secondary Relationships: impersonal relationships involving limited parts of relationships
According to Self-Identification
• In-Group
• Out-Group
• Reference Group
In-Group• A social unit in which individuals feel at home and with
which they identify.
Out-Group• A social unit to which individuals do not belong due to
differences in social categories and with which they do not identify.
Reference Group• A group to which we consciously or unconsciously refer
when we evaluate our life situations and behavior but to which we do not necessarily belong.
Social Interactions
• The way people talk and act with each other and various structures in society.
Type of Social Interactions
• Cooperation
• Conflict
• Social Exchange
• Coercion
• Conformityo Groupthink
o Group Pressure
o Obedience to Authority
More on Conformity
• People largely conform to group norms.
• Three important studies to know:
• Solomon Asch: Group pressure
• Stanley Milgram: Obedience to authority
• Irving L. Janis: Groupthink
Leadership• The process of influencing the activities of individuals
in a group towards the attainment of group goals in a given situation.
Types of Leaders
• Transformational Leader
• Transactional Leader
Social Organizations
• Are groups that associate for the purpose of achieving some goal or action.
• Have identifiable membership.
Formal Organization
• Takes on a highly rational form, with a clear chain of command and standard operating procedures (SOPs).
• Formality is often for the purposes of legality and legitimacy.
Organizational Theories
A. Bureaucracy Theories
B. Bureaucracy Dysfunction Theory
C. Oligarchy
D. Feminist organizational Theory
Bureaucracy o A formal organization best known for
its style of hierarchical authority.
• Advantages:– Effectiveness– careful operations
• Disadvantages :– Dehumanizing– red tape
Harmful effects of Bureaucracy
• Bureaucracy stifles creativity with its sea of rules and SOPs.
• It is also overly pragmatic and lacks a visionary element.
• Occasionally rules dominate goals.
Oligarchy
• A Sociological theory that emphasizes the rule of the few over the many
Feminist Organizational Theory
• Organizations are structured in a gendered way, which reinforces gender inequality in society.
• Gender inequality in organizations persists.