Chapter 5
Networks and
Organizations
Lecture PowerPoint
© W. W. Norton & Company, 2008
Social Relationships
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Dyad – 2 people only (couples, best friends)
Triad – 3 people
Aggregate – people who share common
characteristic (age, gender, race)
Group – 3 or more people who
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Have something in common
Share identity as a group
Georg Simmel:
Group size determines social relations
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Social Groups
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Dyad: most intimate form of social
interaction
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members are mutually dependent on each other
if one member leaves, dyad ceases to exist.
Requires “symmetry” (mutual participation, consensus)
No supra-individual control over members.
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“Group” can put pressure on members
“Couple” cannot do that
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Triad – Role of the third person
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Classifying groups: Simmel
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Small Group
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Party
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Face to face interaction
Unifocal
No formal structure
Like small group but multifocal (may be larger)
Large Group
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Formal structure
Status differentiation
Classifying Groups: Cooley
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Primary group
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Intimate, face to face
Personal – members not interchangeable
Important in socialization
Secondary group
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Impersonal
Instrumental
Interchangeable
Other types of “groups”
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In-group – more powerful, majority
Out-group – less powerful, minority
Reference group – Group to which we
compare ourselves. May be source of
opinions or standards.
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Age group, generation
College students
Occupational group
Social class
Conformity to groups
Solomon Asch:
1940s experiment “Which line is the same
length as line on left?”
Subjects were put in
groups; group chose
wrong answer; 1/3 of
subjects expressed
“serious discomfort”
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Ties and Networks
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Tie: set of stories that explains our relationship to
the another person
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Social network: set of relations between dyads
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Friend
Co-worker
Tennis partner
held together by ties
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Types of Ties
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Strong tie – “embedded” – reinforced through
indirect paths, e.g. lots of mutual friends
Weak tie – few or no indirect paths
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May be link between different networks (think about
why)
May be effective way to connect with others (e.g.
networking for job search)
Granovetter: “strength of weak ties” - weak ties more
likely to provide new opportunities than strongly
embedded ties
Figure 5.4 | The Strength of Weak Ties
Networks and society
Social capital
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Information, knowledge of people or ideas, and
connections that help individuals enter preexisting
networks or gain power in them.
High levels of social capital in a community are
desirable
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community is tightly knit
can come together to face challenges,make improvements.
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Is social capital declining?
YES
 Decline in civic engagement.
 Less time for community activities
 More individual leisure activities
 More people live alone
 Institutions have become individualized
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Is social capital declining?
NO:
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People still desire intimate relationships
Young people are more politically active
Civic engagement is cyclical
Social networks may just be more informal
Internet has created new ways of bringing people
together
Figure 5.5 | Analysis of High-School
Sexual Relationships
Figure 5.7 | Romantic “Leftovers”
New types of networks – open source
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Internet forums
Facebook, myspace
Technically a network
Ties are of different type – not personal, not
face to face
Potential for thousands of ties
Organizations
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Organization: any social network defined by a
common purpose and having a boundary between
its membership and the rest of the social world.
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Formal organizations have a set of governing
structures and rules for their internal set-up while
informal organizations do not.
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Organizations
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Organizational culture can be defined as the
shared beliefs and behaviors within a social group.
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Organizational structure refers to ways in which
power and authority are distributed within an
organization.
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Structures: Bureaucracy
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An organizational model rationally designed to
perform tasks efficiently (Weber, 1921)
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Specialization
Vertical Hierarchy
Rules and regulations
Technical competence as standard for hiring,
promotion, reward
Impersonality
Formal written communication
Problems of Bureaucracy
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Inefficiency, ritualism, red tape
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(e.g. FEMA and Katrina)
Overemphasis on rules can undermine goals
Inertia – resistance to change, tendency to
perpetuate itself
“Iron Low of Oligarchy” (Robert Michels)
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Few leaders control most resources, use them to
maintain their power
Structures: “McDonaldization”
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Bureaucratic structure – highly rational
Includes 4 principles
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Efficiency (“hamburger in 50 seconds”)
Predictability (Formulas for everything)
Uniformity (same everywhere)
Control (automation, set standards)
Has spread to many other organizations
Structures: “New Workplace”
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Economy based on information, services,
technology
Creative freedom
Team work
Flexibility, openness
Better served by “flatter” organizations
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Control, responsibility more spread out
Fewer levels in chain of command
Sometimes less formal
May involve virtual organizations or networks
The Wealth of Networks
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Open source production
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Virtual organizations
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peer-based
promotes access to the end product’s source materials.
Examples are Wikipedia and Linux
Departments may be spread out geographically
Communicate electronically via internet
May be more “intelligent:” quicker to respond to
environmental forces
May still have hierarchy
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