Networks, Groups, and Organizations

1
Chapter 5

• Networks, Groups,and Organizations

2
Chapter Outline

• Beyond Individual Motives
• Social Networks Its a Small World
• Groups
• Bureaucracy
• Freedom and Constraint in Social Life

3
How Social Groups Shape Our Actions

• 1. Norms of solidarity demand conformity.
• When we form relationships, we develop norms of
  solidarity about how we should behave to sustain
  the relationships.
• Study of the Nazis who roamed the Polish
  countryside to shoot and kill enemies of Nazi
  Germany felt they had to get their assigned job
  done or face letting down their comrades.

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How Social Groups Shape Our Actions

• 2. Structures of authority tend to render people
  obedient.
• Most people find it difficult to disobey
  authorities because they fear ridicule,
  ostracism, and punishment.
• Demonstrated in experiment conducted by social
  psychologist Stanley Milgram.

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How Social Groups Shape Our Actions

• 3. Bureaucracies are highly effective structures
  of authority.
• The Nazi genocide machine was so effective
  because it was bureaucratically organized.
• A bureaucracy is a large, impersonal organization
  composed of clearly defined positions arranged in
  a hierarchy.

6
Polling Question

• How likely would you be to join an organization
  where membership is determined by race?
• Very likely
• Somewhat likely
• Unsure
• Somewhat unlikely
• Very unlikely

7
Milgram Experiment

• 71 of experimental subjects were prepared to
  administer shocks of 285 volts, despite the fact
  that the actor appeared to be in great distress
  at this level of current.
• Teaches us that as soon as we are introduced to a
  structure of authority, we are inclined to obey
  those in power.

8
Obedience to Authority Increases with Separation
from the Negative Effects of Ones Actions
9
The Building Blocks of Social Networks

• Dyad is the most elementary network form, a
  social relationship between two social units.
• Triad is a social relationship among three social
  units.
• The social dynamics of these two elementary
  network forms are fundamentally different.

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The Dyad

1. Both are absorbed in the relationship.
2. Needs both partners to live but only one to die.
3. No free riders are possible.
4. Neither can deny responsibility by shifting it to
   a larger collectivity.

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The Triad

1. Intensity and intimacy are reduced.
2. Allows a partner to be constrained for the
   collective good.
3. Coalitions are possible.
4. Third-party mediation of conflict between two
   partners is possible.

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The Triad

1. Exploitation of rivalry between two partners is
   possible.
2. A divide-and-conquer strategy is possible.
3. Free riders are possible.
4. It is possible to shift responsibility to the
   larger collectivity.

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The Asch Experiment

• Asch assembled seven men. One was the subject,
  the others were actors.
• Asch showed the men a card with a line on it and
  asked which line on the card was the same length
  as a line on card 2.
• All six actors answered wrong.
• The subject typically overruled his own
  perception and agreed with the majority.

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The Asch Experiment
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Factors in Conformity

1. The likelihood of conformity increases as group
   size increases to three or four members.
2. As group cohesiveness increases, so does the
   likelihood of conformity.
3. People with low status in a group are less likely
   to dissent than people with high status.

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Factors in Conformity

1. People in individualistic societies like the
   United States tend to conform less than people in
   collectivist societies like China.
2. Even one dissenting voice greatly increases the
   chance that others will dissent.

17
Group Think

• Group pressure to conform despite individual
  misgivings
• Examples
• President Roosevelt and his advisors refused to
  believe the Japanese would bomb Pearl Harbor.
• President Nixon decided to cover up the Watergate
  break-in.

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Groups

• Groups are clusters of people who identify with
  each other.
• Primary groups involve intense, intimate,
  enduring relations.
• Secondary groups involve less personal and
  intense ties.
• Reference groups are groups against which people
  measure their situation or conduct.

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Polling Question

• Which type of group is the most important to you?
• Primary group
• Secondary group

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Four Criticisms Against Bureaucracies

1. Dehumanization
2. Bureaucratic ritualism
3. Oligarchy rule of the few
4. Bureaucratic inertia

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Possible Dyadic Relationships by Number of People
in Group
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Bureaucratic Structure
23
Network Structure
24
laissez-faire Leadership

• The least effective,
• Leader allows subordinates to work things out on
  their own, with almost no direction from above.
• Works best when group members are highly
  experienced, trained, motivated, and educated and
  when trust and confidence in group members are
  high.

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Authoritarian Leadership

• Authoritarian leaders demand strict compliance
  from subordinates.
• Most effective in a crisis such as a war or an
  emergency room.
• May earn grudging respect for achieving the
  groups goals in the face of difficult
  circumstances.

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Democratic Leadership

• Offers more guidance than laissez-faire but less
  control than authoritarian.
• Leaders try to include all group members in
  decision-making.
• Except for crisis situations, democratic
  leadership is the most effective leadership style.

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Quick Quiz
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• 1. Stanley Milgram's research, in which subjects
  used a "shock generator," showed that
• people become hostile towards those who disagree
  with them.
• the conclusions of Solomon Asch's research were
  incorrect.
• when norms are put into writing, they are easier
  to enforce.
• people are likely to follow the orders of
  authority figures.

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Answer d

• Stanley Milgram's research, in which subjects
  used a "shock generator," showed that people are
  likely to follow the orders of authority figures.

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• 2. Which of the following is NOT characteristic
  of a triad?
• Intensity and intimacy are reduced.
• Individuality is restricted.
• Coalitions are possible.
• Third-party mediation of conflict is possible.
• No "free riders" are possible.

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Answer e

• The characteristic, No "free riders" are
  possible, is NOT characteristic of a triad.

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• 3. Which of the following statements is
  consistent with the findings of Solomon Asch's
  experiment in which subjects were asked to match
  lines?
• Many people are willing to compromise their own
  judgment to avoid being seen as different.
• Many people pick friends who tend to agree with
  them.
• Ordinary people say things they know to be untrue
  to people in power.
• All of these choices are correct.

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Answer a

• The statement
• Many people are willing to compromise their own
  judgment to avoid being seen as different.
• is consistent with the findings of Solomon
  Asch's experiment in which subjects were asked to
  match lines.

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• 4. Which of the following illustrate groupthink?
• A group shares information and makes an effective
  recommendation.
• A group leader makes a decision without
  consulting anyone, and the decision turns out to
  be a bad one.
• A group seeks consensus, discouraging members
  from speaking freely, and making a poor policy
  recommendation.
• None of these choices.

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Answer c

• The following illustrates groupthink
• A group seeks consensus, discouraging members
  from speaking freely, and making a poor policy
  recommendation.

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• 5. The more levels in a bureaucratic structure
• the more efficiently it operates.
• the less likely is oligarchic rule to emerge.
• the more difficult communication becomes.
• the greater the number of dyadic relationships.
• None of these choices.

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Answer c

• The more levels in a bureaucratic structure the
  more difficult communication becomes.