Term
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Definition
the social processes and social structures thatdevelop in groups
• Group Conformity and Group Think
• Obedience to Authority
• Group Leadership
• Diversity and Group Participation and Influence
• Group Size and Group Performance
• Altruism and Diffusion of Responsibility |
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Term
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Definition
All of us have, at one time, or
another done things in a
group that we later regretted,
or at least that we realized we
would not have done except
for the influence of the group |
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Term
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Definition
occurs when individual group members oppose the decision of a group but are afraid to speak out against what they
perceive to be the group consensus. In such situations, dissensus
may be viewed as disloyalty. --Irving Janis (1967)
• Groupthink is most common in small cohesive groups with strong
leaders.
• Groupthink can be disastrous for groups
– the range of options given serious consideration is narrowed
– options may be ruled out to maintain group cohesiveness
– this can prevent a frank and honest discussion
– the group fails to take advantage of the different perspectives individuals
bring to the group.
– The result often is poor decisions |
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Term
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Definition
are people who assume or are assigned
responsibility for seeing that the group fulfills its goals.
• Groups vary in the extent to which they have and recognize leaders.
Secondary groups are more likely to have leaders than primary groups. |
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Term
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Definition
instrumental leadership emphasizing completing tasks and achieving
goals and
– expressive leadership emphasizes group solidarity and morale.
• These two types of leadership are sometimes linked to gender, with females
more likely to take expressive leadership in the family and males more likely
to assume instrumental leadership (Parsons and Bales, 1955). |
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Term
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Definition
authoritarian leadership in which the leader takes personal control
and demands compliance from others,
• democratic leadership which involves all members in decision
making and pays more attention to expressive tasks, and
• laissez-faire leadership allows the group to find its own way with
little influence from the leader and which is usually the least effective
at promoting group goals --Ridgeway, 1983. |
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Term
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Definition
The status characteristics people bring to a group tend to affect their
participation and influence in the group, and to affect the structure
and interaction of the group in general....members of a group holding
the highest status within the group tend to be people who hold higher
statuses outside the group as well |
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Term
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Definition
| tasks where the performance of the group can only be as good as the performance of the weakest link or weakest member. |
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Term
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Definition
tasks where if any one individual can solve them, then
the entire group is likely to solve them as well.
• Examples of disjunctive tasks are "eureka problems"--those where once
you are shown the solution it seems obvious (so obvious you might even
shout "eureka!"). For such tasks it is easy for the person seeing the correct
solution to persuade the rest of the team of the correct solution.
• Disjunctive tasks larger groups perform better |
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Term
| Diffusion of Responsibility |
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Definition
a tendency for members of a group to
each assume others will take responsibility for a decision or action
and hence, not taking responsibility themselves. |
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Term
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Definition
group in which people have intimate face-to-face associations that endure for long periods of time.
– generally small, close-knit, and personal
– strong identification, much cooperation
– spend time together and know one another well
– interested in other members as individuals
– help one another freely
– profound impact, basis for lifetime friendships |
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Term
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Definition
is a group that is large and impersonal, members do not know each other intimately or completely, there are weak ties, and the group typically has a less profound impact on the members.
– Secondary groups are usually formed for a specific purpose.
– They are often of short duration.
– They usually are much larger than primary groups.
– They are typically narrow in scope involving only a few activities, and
– the group is often seen as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself. |
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Term
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Definition
is any group a person considers when evaluating his
or her actions or characteristics.
– For example, someone may consider their peers, their family, a religious
group, or some other group when deciding how they might respond in a
situation, what clothes to wear, how to act, what to do, and so on.
– "If only my friends could see me now."
– "What would my parents think if they knew I was doing this?" |
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Term
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Definition
a series of social relationships linking
individuals directly to other individuals and indirectly to still other
individuals.
• Links may include group memberships, dyadic friendships, workers,
neighbors, and relatives, both casual and intense.
• Social networks can be very limited. Members are often not copresent
(in the same place), they may not have common goals, and
they may not even perceive themselves to be part of a network.
• Yet, social networks are often used effectively to achieve important
goals, such as obtaining social support, advancing a career, and
influencing political event |
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Term
| Functionalist and Conflict View of Networks |
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Definition
Functionalists point out that networks can provide social support,
information, job opportunities, and serve other important functions for
people.
– Carol Stack’s domestic networks are consistent with this functional view.
• On the other hand, conflict theorists argue that rich and powerful people—
the elite—are often particularly effective at using social networks to
maintain their advantage over other people. |
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Term
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Definition
a form of social organization that is
purposefully constructed to meet its goals with maximum efficiency,
often consisting of many individuals linked by a collective goal, roles,
rules for behavior, and relationships of authority. |
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Term
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Definition
a form of social organization that is
purposefully constructed to meet its goals with maximum efficiency,
often consisting of many individuals linked by a collective goal, roles,
rules for behavior, and relationships of authority. |
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Term
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Definition
a form of social organization that is
purposefully constructed to meet its goals with maximum efficiency,
often consisting of many individuals linked by a collective goal, roles,
rules for behavior, and relationships of authority. |
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Term
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Definition
force
– total institutions—regulate every aspect of a person’s
behavior
• Prisons and mental hospita |
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Term
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Definition
organizations established to pursue
common interests whose members volunteer and often even pay to
participate.
– interest groups, churches, political action committees, fan clubs,
communes, The Boy Scouts, gangs, the Democratic Party, AARP
may be
– local, regional, national, or even international
– very small or may include millions of members and a paid staff.
– radical, middle-of-the-road, reactionary, or totally apolitical. |
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Term
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Definition
according to Weber, is a pervasive process characterizing
modern society in which traditional methods and standards of social
organization based on tradition, belief, and even magic, are replaced with new
methods and standards of social organization based on objectively calculable scientific criteria. |
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Term
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Definition
1947) a formal organization that
attempts to maximize efficiency and productivity through the rationalization
of work.
• Characteristics of a bureaucracy:
•a division of labor with every member having special duties,
•a hierarchical line of authority clearly defining each member's authority,
•written rules & regulations specifying the rights and duties associated with
each position or status in the organization and procedures required for each
task,
•compensatory reward with employment, promotion, and reward based on
performance, and
•impersonality in the relations among members
• Not all bureaucracies have all of these features. This is an ideal type
providing a pure model that can be compared to actual organizations.
Bureaucracies are not limited to Western countries. Communist countries
typically have huge bureaucracies. |
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Term
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Definition
Negative consequence to division of labor: when members of a bureaucratic organization are unwilling to take bold
decisions to handle problems in new ways and instead try to solve new
problems using old methods (Veblen, 1899).
• Employees become overly specialized and don't consider aspects of the
job beyond their own specialty.
• local rationality - act in a manner which is rational for the individual
irrational or inefficient for the organization as a whole.
• encouraged by pressures to conform in large organizations and the
unwillingness of members to risk challenging "the way things have
always been done" (Kanter, 1983, Chpts 3 and 4). |
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Term
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Definition
People unwilling to make a decision at all.
– They try to avoid responsibility for success or failure.
• encouraged by the hierarchical authority structure in organizations
where virtually everyone in the line of command can point to
someone above or below them to avoid individual responsibility for
a decision. (Today, of course, they can also blame the computer.)
• Most common when a problem does not fit into routine procedures |
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Term
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Definition
When employees in a formal organization
are hired, promoted, and compensated based on their performance
and competence this is called compensatory reward.
– Compensatory reward protects employees from favoritism and arbitrary
dismissal. Typically, there are written personnel policies, a right to
appeal decisions, and in general specific procedures to protect the
employee.
• The most common problem with compensatory reward is when
bureaucracies violate these rules. However, even when they are
applied consistently another problem can occur…The Peter
Princip |
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Term
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Definition
in organizations, talented people are promoted until
they reach a level where they are incompetent. Then they are no longer
promoted because they do not excel at their work ( |
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Term
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Definition
is a bureaucratic norm dictating that officials carry out
their duties without consideration for people as individuals.
• This can reduce bias and give everyone similar opportunities for
advancement
leads to alienation |
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Term
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Definition
overzealous conformity to official regulations where
their rigid application becomes dysfunctional for the organization (Robert
Merton (1968:254-256).
• Goal displacement occurs when the original objectives of an organization
are replaced with others. This occurs in the broadest sense when the
bureaucratic "red tape" and standard procedures are followed blindly by
members even when doing so actually hurts the organization or makes it
impossible to achieve its ostensible goals.
– insisting that every last form be completed before admission to a hospital
emergency room |
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Term
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Definition
- the flexible, implicit norms governing an
organization or group—what people actually do instead of what they are
supposed to do |
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Term
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Definition
4 benefits:Efficiency - There you can expect to get fast, efficient service.
• Quantification - McDonalds, like other rationalized corporations
offers packaged products with low prices for large quantities, with
quantity substituting for quality as an easy measure of value
received.
• Predictability - No matter where in the world you are, when you go
in a McDonalds you can expect the hamburgers to be about the
same as the last one you had—neither horrible nor delectable, but
predictably acceptable.
• Control - Finally, McDonalds offer control over its employees.
Customers can expect fast, courteous service with good quality
control—the same amount of pickles roughly on the hamburger in
Tulsa, Oklahoma as in Beijing, China. |
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Term
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Definition
asserts that even democratic organizations
will eventually become ruled by a few individuals |
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