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.