Chapter 5 Groups and Organizations

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Chapter 5Groups and Organizations

• Sets of people
• Organizations
• Bureaucracies

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Small and Large Organizations

• Groups and organizations are among the basic
  elements of social structure
• Personal experiences with large organizations are
  often troubling, because of their
• Impersonal cultures
• Rules and regulations
• Ways to maintain social control over large
  numbers of strangers

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rationalization of society, walmartization,
McDonaldization scientific management or
Taylorism
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• Large organizations (such as bureaucracies)
  contain small networks, groups, and cliques
• These informal organizations accomplish much of
  the larger organizations work
• Organizational principles (leadership,
  commitment, control, exchange) are the same in
  different kinds and sizes of organizations

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Sets of People

• Categories
• Networks
• Communities
• Groups
• Organizations
• Sets differ by
• Organization
• Effects they have on members

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Categories

• Aggregates with shared characteristics
• e.g., age, gender
• Have no social structure (no connections, members
  do not know each other)
• For this reason categories are of limited
  interest to sociologists

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• Categorical differences may be socially
  constructed as significant
• e.g., Male/female, young/old, white/black
• In this case, boundaries are enforced, and
  categorical differences serve as base for social
  and cultural differentiation
• i.e., To formation of communities or social
  movements

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Networks

• People connected directly (kinship, friendship,
  acquaintanceship) or indirectly
• Granovetter weakly tied networks (based mostly
  on indirect links) may be more useful than
  strongly tied networks
• They have large outreach and conduct valuable
  resources (information, social support, etc.)
• Networks are made of dyadic relationships (pairs
  based on regular social exchange)

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• Networks change as people enter and leave
  relationships
• Networks lack
• Collective identity (such as communities have)
• Complete awareness of their membership and its
  characteristics (such as a group has)
• Collective goals (such as an organization has)

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Communities

• Communities are sets of people with a common
  sense of identity
• Based on common experiences or common values
• Members are often prepared to make efforts for
  survival of communities
• Essentializing claiming that a personal
  characteristic is intrinsic to a community
• e.g., Canadians are modest

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• Debate is positive essentializing possible, or
  does essentializing inevitably lead to
  stereotyping and racism?

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• Toennies distinguishes between
• Gemeinschaft (community-based social life) a
  stable, homogeneous group lead similar lives
  share values have dense/highly connected
  networks controlling elites
• Gesellschaft a fluid, heterogeneous group lead
  different lives few shared values impersonal
  brief relationships interact around similar
  interests weakly-tied networks less cohesion
  and less control.

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Groups

• Groups
• Awareness of membership
• All members are connected (directly or
  indirectly)
• Members have roles (e.g., parentchild
  teacherstudent leaderfollower)
• Cooley
• Primary groups small regular face-to-face
  interactions
• Secondary groups larger members may not
  interact regularly

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• Importance of secondary groups
• Facilitate stable patterns of social interaction
• Responsible for much social learning
• Formal organizations are a subtype of secondary
  groups

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Organizations

• Organizations are
• Secondary groups that work together,
  with communication and
  leadership, to achieve common goals

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• Organizations differ by
• Origin (spontaneous or deliberate)
• Spontaneous organizations arise to meet a single
  goal. They disband when the goal is achieved or
  beyond reach, or are absorbed by formal
  organizations
• Division of labour (crude or complex)
• Formal/informal structure and leadership
• Goals (one specific goal or a range of goals)

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• Cliques are informal organizations that
• Satisfy peoples needs for interaction and
  support
• e.g., cliques providing support for New York
  transsexuals
• Produce roles, rules, and cultural values
• e.g., distinct circles of membership within
  Bohemia
• Have a purpose to raise status of members at the
  expense of outsiders
• Accomplished by interaction and exchange of
  resources among members and exclusion of
  non-members

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• Have a hierarchy of influence and popularity
• Leaderfavouritesother members
• Form on the basis of both similarity and choice
• Common in schools, because of the similarity of
  potential members
• Screen potential members, and control current
  members to ensure that they remain similar

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• Cohesion is based on loyalty to the leader and to
  the group
• Isolation from and ignorance of outsiders
  reinforces solidarity

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Formal Organizations

• Formal organizations are deliberately planned
  groups that coordinate people and resources
  through formalized roles, statuses, and
  relationships to achieve a division of labour
  intended to attain specific goals
• Members normally pursue not only organizational
  (e.g., creation of corporate profit), but also
  personal goals (e.g., career goals)

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• Explanations of success of formal organizations
• Organization fills a social need
• Organization controls necessary resources
• Organizational goals match personal goals
• Organization adapts to its environment, or
  changes the environment

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Bureaucracy

• Potentially very efficient formal organizations
  because
• Resources belong to the organization, not to
  persons
• Resources are distributed on the basis of office,
  not of personal favour
• Office holding is based on expertise
• Written rules govern relationships in the
  organization

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• This makes bureaucracy superior to earlier
  organizational forms, such as clientelism
• Historic origins of bureaucracy
• European nation-building and international
  warfare
• Capitalism
• Industrialization
• All three relied on rationalization view of the
  world based on accumulation of evidence
• Favours impersonal authority based on universal
  application of codified rules

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Characteristics of Bureaucracy

• Division of labour each members duties are
  specified and differentiated
• Based on technical competence and centralized
  provision of resources
• Hierarchy determines range of authority
• Each member is responsible to a specific superior
  and for a specific group of subordinates
• Aim to increase efficiency. However, it may
  become cumbersome
• Informal communication channels are used to
  compensate for it

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• Rules guarantee impersonal, predictable responses
  to specific situations
• Separation of the person from the office
• Duties, functions, and authority are properties
  of the office, not of an office-holder.
  Relationships are between roles, not between
  people
• Hiring and promotion are based on technical
  merit, not on ascribed characteristics

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• Careers are protected
• Bureaucratic personality bureaucracies press
  their members to conform, and train them to deal
  with routine situations. This results in
• Trained incapacity to deal with new situations
• View of clients as representatives of categories,
  instead of as individuals with unique needs
• These needs are therefore not met the
  bureaucracy becomes efficient but not effective

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Informal Organizations in Bureaucracies

• Members develop complex personal and informal
  networks that
• Support and protect workers at the lower levels
  of hierarchy
• Conduct information, favours, and influence
• Provide a sense of community
• Hawthorne studies informal organization can
  either help a formal organization attain its
  goals or hinder it

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• This depends on the quality of the relationship
  between workers and the management
• The study expected that good group relations
  would increase productivity (human-relations
  school of management)
• In the absence of formal supervision, good group
  relations decreased productivity

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• Explanation the management consistently raised
  productivity standards
• The workers deliberately limited the speed of work

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Actual/informal Structure of a Bureaucracy

• Actual/informal structure and ideal/formal
  structure do not coincide
• Actual flow of information
• Controlling the flow changes power relations
  between superiors and subordinates
• Workers awareness of inequality and of the power
  of information control varies across societies
• Actors below the top level cannot use routine
  channels to negotiate in the ideal manner
• They therefore organize informally, on basis of
  trust and reciprocity

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• Organizations increasingly introduce horizontal
  reporting, which depends on swift trusttrust
  based on limited informationwhich works best
  when roles and expectations are clear

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Organizational Theory and Research

• Scientific management
• Human relations and behavioural school
• Systems theory
• Labour process theory
• Structural approach
• Feminist perspectives

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Scientific Management

• Frederick Taylor, Principles of Scientific
  Management (1911)
• Increase in productivity will end
  labour-management conflicts
• Time and motion studies break every task into
  a series of essential motions and develop
  standard time
• Extreme vertical division of labour
• Management as thinkers workers as doers

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Human Relations and Behavioural School

• Human relations workers are seen as non-rational
• Happy group relations produce high productivity.
  Management is to ensure happy group relations
• Behavioural school (Maslow) a fusion of
  human-relations theory and psychology of needs
• Management should adopt a participative
  leadership style that satisfies workers needs
  for esteem and self-fulfillment

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Systems Theory

• An organization is an open system, receiving
  input from its environment and producing output
• Ripple effect changes in one part of the
  organization produce (often unforeseen) changes
  in other parts

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Labour Process Theory

• Based on Marxs concept of alienation
• Alienation of workers from the products of labour
• Alienation of workers from the labour process
• Alienation of workers from themselves
• Alienation of workers from others
• Intensification of management control over the
  workplace
• Person-to-person control, technological control,
  bureaucratic control

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Structural Approach

• Kanter behaviour of members depends on
• Power
• Accountable but powerless cannot be good
  leaders
• opportunities for advancement
• Upwardly mobile support organizational goals
• proportional representation
• Tokenism is a self-fulfilling prophecy

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Feminist Perspectives

• Gender as explanatory concept in organizational
  processes
• Acker traditional organizational image or
  manager and worker is male
• As a consequence, organizational procedures are
  incompatible with female characteristics
• Womens sexuality is stigmatized
• Womens gender roles (e.g., child rearing) are
  considered deviant

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Organizational Cultures and Flexibility

• Introduction of horizontal groupings may create
  conflicts or inconsistent demands
• Because of this, greater flexibility must be
  sought both from workers and the organization
• Flexibility requires continuous education and
  workers participation in planning

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• Some organizations (e.g., universities) solve the
  problem of motivation by giving workers autonomy
  and rewarding strong identification with the
  institution

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• Higher receptivity for collective culture (e.g.,
  in Japan, Korea, and China) results in higher
  worker commitment and employee retention
• Organizational culture may apparently empower the
  workers, without changing relationships of
  differentiation and control
• Result increased control and intensification of
  work

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The Problem of Rationality

• Impersonal decisions and rewarding merit are more
  rational than patronclient relations
• The concern with the survival of the organization
  may undermine the quality of decisions (e.g.,
  red tape) and thus produce irrationality
• Presumption of knowledge and reliance on official
  procedures create a paper reality

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• Formal rules and separation of person from the
  office undermine personal responsibility
• So-called collective decisions are usually made
  by corporate elites
• Deviant behaviour continues until challenged from
  the outside
• Bauman Holocaust displays characteristics of
  rationality

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Relations with the Outside World

• One-way glass the outside world cannot see into
  the organization, but the organization can see
  the world
• Decision-making authority is separated from
  front-line work
• Groupthink the us vs them frame of mind
• The organization does not take criticism
  seriously
• It is unresponsive to change

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Total Institutions

• Goffman mental hospitals, prisons, and military
  camps have total control over inmates
• Staff watch and control inmates behaviour 24
  hours a day
• Founded on procedural rigidity
• Contrary to public organizations democratic
  participation by employees and clients

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• Totalitarian societies
• Bureaucratic
• Resocialize uncooperative citizens Blau
• Bureaucracy is a constant threat to democracy
• Bureaucracy is formed to achieve set objectives
• Organizing principle is efficiency and the
  structure is hierarchical

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• Democracy is formed to discover the objectives of
  the group
• Organizing principle is freedom of dissent and
  the structure is egalitarian