N CHAPTER 6: GROUPS, NETWORKS and ORGANIZATIONS

■ CHAPTER 6: GROUPS, NETWORKS AND ORGANIZATIONS

■ I. Introduction: Social Groups

■ II. Groups Within Society

■ III. Group Dynamics

■ IV. Rationalization of Society

■ V. Characteristics of Bureaucracy

■ VI. Bureaucratic Dysfunctions

■ VII. Conclusions

■ I. INTRODUCTION: SOCIAL GROUPS

■ A. Social Groups and Identities

■ 1. What is a social group?

■ a. a collection of people who regularly interact with one another on the basis of shared expectations concerning behavior and who share a sense of ______

■ b. e.g. a ______shares an interest in relationships with the opposite sex, music, sports, activities

■ A.2. Who are you?

■ 3. Who are you: ______

■ a. all are groups to which ______

■ b. this sense of belonging is the key to social integration and ______(Durkheim)

■ II. GROUPS WITHIN SOCIETY

■ A. Aggregates, Categories and Groups

■ 1. social ______: a simple collection of people who happen to be together in a particular space but do not significantly interact or identify with one another

■ 2. social ______: people who share a common characteristic but do not necessarily interact or identify with one another

■ 3. social ______: a collection of people who regularly interact with one another on the basis of shared expectations concerning behavior and who share a sense of common identity

■ B. Primary and Secondary Groups: Charles Horton Cooley

■ 1. ______group: groups that are characterized by intense emotional ties, face-to-face interaction, intimacy, and a strong, enduring sense of commitment ■ a. examples: ______

■ b. central to socialization and our ______

■ c. may ______: become dysfunctional, hurt their members, or fall apart

■ B.2. ______group: groups characterized by large size and by impersonal, fleeting relationships

■ a. relatively temporary, more anonymous, formal, and impersonal group based on some interest or activity, whose members interact based on ______

■ b. examples: ______

■ c. What is your most important characteristic, according to WMU?

■ C. In-groups and Out-groups

■ 1. ______: groups toward which one feels particular loyalty and respect, the group to which “we” belong: WMU

■ 2. ______: groups toward which one feels antagonism and contempt, “those people”: CMU

■ 3. Consequences of this division of the world into in-groups and out-groups: ______

■ D. ______Groups: a group that provides a standard for judging one’s attitudes or behaviors, even if we do not belong to the group

■ 1. e.g. how to become a successful politician?

■ E. ______: sets of informal and formal social ties that link people to each other

■ 1. provide members with valuable information, ______

■ F. ______: consciously using and cultivating networks for some gain; e.g. employment

■ G. ______: a cluster of people within a larger group who choose to interact with one another; an internal faction

■ 1. Examples of cliques in high school or at WMU?

■ H. ______community: individuals who more or less regularly interact with one another on the Internet; e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

■ I. Electronic ______: individuals who regularly interact with one another on the Internet, who see themselves as a group, and who develop close ties

■ 1. Any members of this type of group?

■ III. GROUP DYNAMICS

■ A. What are Group Dynamics? ■ 1. the ways in which individuals affect groups and the ways in which groups ______

■ B. Group Size

■ 1. Size and ______:

■ a. ______: a group consisting of two persons; most intense and intimate, but also most unstable

■ b. as a group grows ______, intensity and intimacy decrease and stability increases

■ c. ______: a group consisting of three persons; more stable, but more potential for alliances and conflict

■ B.2. Group Size and ______

■ a. a small group can operate by ______because discussion and debate can reach an agreement quickly

■ b. in a larger group, discussion and debate can be endless, e.g. ______

■ c. leaders emerge in larger groups to allow the group to ______

■ B.3. Group Size & ______

■ a. ______: in larger groups, people feel a diffusion of responsibility; other people in the group can help, so why should I?

■ 4. Size and Degree of ______: a small group of friends does not have a formal structure, but large secondary groups do

■ C. Conforming to ______

■ 1. The ______Experiment: the length of lines on a card and the effects of peer pressure, even from people you do not know

■ 2. The ______Experiment: obeying orders to administer electric shocks to someone in order to teach them

■ IV. RATIONALIZATION OF SOCIETY

■ A. What Are Organizations, Formal Organizations and Bureaucracies?

■ 1. ______: a large group of individuals with a definite set of authority relations

■ 2. ______Organization: a group that is rationally designed to achieve its objectives, often by means of explicit rules, regulations, and procedures

■ a. What do you think of when you hear the word “bureaucracy”?

■ b. Then why do we have so many bureaucracies?

■ A.3. ______: a formal organization with: ■ a. a hierarchy of ______: assignments flow downwards, accountability upwards

■ b. a clear division of ______

■ c. written ______

■ d. written communication and ______

■ e. impersonality of ______

■ B. Why Study Bureaucracies?

■ 1. because we ______as members of bureaucracies: schools, corporations, government agencies, churches, etc.

■ C. What Is Rationality?

■ 1. ______: the acceptance of rules, efficiency, and practical results as the right way to approach human affairs

■ D. Max Weber

■ 1. ______societies believed that the past was the best guide for decisions people had to make in the present

■ a. “because that’s the way we’ve ______”

■ b. e.g. passing down traditional ways of planting crops in ______

■ D.2. This reliance on traditional ways of doing things stood in the way of ______, since the Industrial Revolution was dependent on people finding new ways of doing things, e.g. inventing the steam engine and machines to use in factories

■ 3. How did rationality replace tradition as the guide for human behavior?

■ D.4. Max Weber’s Answer: The ______and the Spirit of Capitalism:

■ a. success in life meant that you were ______in the new Protestant religions

■ b. spending money on yourself was ______

■ c. only acceptable thing was to ______to make more money

■ d. ______make it possible for businesses to grow

■ E. Karl Marx

■ 1. ______did not lead to rationalization and bureaucracies

■ 2. Instead, capitalism changed the way people ______

■ 3. In order to make money, people had to create and put into practice new ______■ E.4. Capitalist industrial production destroyed traditional ways of life and the utility of believing in ______

■ 5. Because capitalism was so efficient and productive, people ______

■ 6. Rationality resulted from economic and technological changes in society, not from ______

■ F. Rationalization and Bureaucracy

■ 1. Both Weber and Marx identified the key change in the transition from agrarian to industrial societies: ______

■ 2. The most important element of rationalization was the growth of bureaucracies that made it possible to organize ______: this is why we have so many bureaucracies

■ V. CHARACTERISTICS OF BUREAUCRACY

■ A. Hierarchy of ______: assignments flow downward and accountability flows upward

■ 1. e.g. my role as a ______within WMU

■ B. Division of ______: work is broken down into specific tasks and people are trained to specialize in each task

■ 1. e.g. professors vs. ______

■ C. Written ______: tell each member what their role and duties are

■ 1. e.g. faculty and student ______

■ D. Written Communications and ______: members are required to keep track of what they do in writing

■ 1. e.g. ______

■ E. ______: members owe loyalty to the role in the organization, not to particular individuals, and rewards are based on merit

■ 1. What would I do if they ______my department head today?

■ VI. BUREAUCRATIC DYSFUNCTIONS

■ A. Assigning People to Roles Not Suited to Their ______

■ 1. e.g. the ______

■ B. ______Principle: people are promoted to their level of incompetence

■ 1. What happens if you do a good job in your current position?

■ C. Lack of C______To Written Rules and Impersonality: informal norms of behavior ■ 1. e.g. “here’s how we really do things” during workplace socialization

■ D. Lack of Communication between ______

■ 1. e.g. What would you do if you found out you were actually enrolled in a different section of Soc 2000?

■ E. ______: devotion to official procedures becomes a ritual, losing sight of the reason the rules were created, “red tape”

■ 1. e.g. getting an ______

■ F. ______Law: work expands to fill the time available for its completion

■ 1. the importance of “______”

■ G. Goal ______: the adoption of new goals by an organization, often because the first goal was fulfilled

■ 1. e.g. the ______

■ H. Bureaucratic ______: feeling powerless, normless, and cut off from the product of your own labor

■ 1. What examples of alienation are there in “Feel Like a Number”?

■ 2. How does the narrator react to this feeling of alienation?

■ FEEL LIKE A NUMBER

Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band

I take my card and I stand in line

To make a buck I work overtime

“Resident” letters keep coming in the mail

I work my back till it’s wracked with pain

The boss can’t even recall my name

I show up late and I’m docked;

It never fails

I feel like just a number

A spoke in a great big wheel

Like a tiny blade of grass in a great big field

To workers I’m just another drone To Ma Bell I’m just another phone

I’m just another statistic on a sheet

To teachers I’m just another child

To IRS I’m another file

I’m just another consensus on the street

Gonna cruise out of this city

Head down to the sea

Gonna shout out at the ocean

“Hey, it’s me!”

I feel like a number

Feel like a stranger

A stranger in this land

I feel like a number

I’m not a number

Dammit, I’m a man

I said I’m a man

Group Exercise:

■ 1. What examples of alienation are there in “Feel Like a Number”?

■ 2. How does the narrator react to this feeling of alienation?

■ VII. Conclusions

■ A. The groups to which we belong affect many aspects of ______

■ B. The ______of a group is one major determinant of how groups operate and how they affect their members

■ C. Bureaucracies are part of ______of our everyday lives

■ D. Bureaucracies developed to allow ______to grow and connect the world into one world economy

■ E. Bureaucracies have many ______