Groups and Organizations
How do groups influence you?
What types of groups are
there?
Primary
 Secondary
 Reference
 In-group
 Out-group

What are your primary
groups?

Small, personal, intimate
– The family
– First groups in our lives
– Primary importance in our lives
Socialization
 Social identity
 Provides comfort and security
 An end in itself

What are your secondary
groups?
E.g. Microsoft
 Large, impersonal, formal
 Weak emotional ties
 Short duration
 Lawsuits increase with increasing
secondary ties
 A means to an end

What are your reference
groups?
Point of reference in making evaluations
and decisions
 Family
 Friends
 Gang
 Professors

What are your in-groups and
out-groups?
Your in-groups

In-groups
The group you are in
 Family
 Friends
 Clubs

Your out-groups
– The groups you are out of.
» A social group toward which we feel competition or
opposition
» Lead to unfairly negative views of out-groups
Do you remember?
What types of groups are there?
 What characterizes each type of group?
 Can you be in several types of groups at
once?

What group leadership styles
are there?

Instrumental
– Completing tasks
– Emotionally distant

Expressive
– Collective well-being
– Emotionally involved
What group decision making
styles are there?
Authoritarian
 Democratic

– Collective decisions on egalitarian basis

Laissez-faire
– Downplays position of power
What kinds of formal
organizations are there?

Normative organizations
– Voluntary organizations
» Red Cross
» PTA (Parent Teacher Association)

Coercive organizations
– Involuntary commitment
– Maximum security prison or mental hospital

Utilitarian organization
– Company - Material benefits (money)
Do you remember?
What group leadership styles are
there?
 What group decision making styles
are there?
 What kinds of formal organizations
are there?

Will you conform in a group?
Solomon Asch Experiment
 Milgram’s experiment

What did the Solomon Asch
experiment tell us?
Comparison of lines
 People will compromise their own judgment
to avoid being seen as different

What did the Milgram
experiment tell us?

People follow both legitimate authority and
ordinary individuals
Do you remember?
What did the Solomon ash
experiment tell us?
 What did the Milgram experiment
tell us?
