Sociology: Understanding and
Changing the Social World
Chapter 4
Groups and Organizations
Learning Objectives
• Describe how a social group differs from a
social category or social aggregate
• Distinguish a primary group from a
secondary group
• Define a reference group and provide one
example of such a group
• Explain the importance of networks in a
modern society
• Explain how and why group dynamics change
as groups grow in size
Learning Objectives
• Describe the different types of leaders and
leadership styles
• Be familiar with experimental evidence on
group conformity
• Explain how groupthink develops and why its
development may lead to negative
consequences
• Describe the three types of formal
organizations
• List the defining characteristics of
bureaucracies
Learning Objectives
• Discuss any two disadvantages of
bureaucracies
• Explain Michels’ iron law of oligarchy
• Describe the two ways in which groups
and organizations play an important role
in social change
• Discuss how whistleblowing is relevant to
a discussion of groups, organizations, and
social change
Social Groups
• Social group: Two or more people who
regularly interact on the basis of mutual
expectations and share a common identity
• Social category: Collection of individuals
who have at least one attribute in common
but otherwise don’t necessarily interact
• Social aggregate: Collection of people who
are in the same place in the same time, but
otherwise don’t necessarily interact, except
in the most superficial of ways, or have
anything else in common
Social Groups
Primary group
• Small in size
• Extensive interaction and strong emotional ties
• Lasts over time
Secondary group
• Large in size
• More impersonal than a primary group
• Exists to achieve a specific purpose
Social Groups
• Reference group: Sets a standard for
guiding our own behavior and attitudes
• An example:
– Friends act as a reference group in your
adolescence — You dress up the way they do
• In-group: Members feel particularly loyal
and take great pride in belonging
• Out-group: Group with which an in-group
feels it is competing for various kinds of
rewards and compared to which the in-group
feels superior
Social Groups
• Network: The totality of relationships
that link us to other people and groups
and through them to still other people
and groups
• Networks are important for:
– Getting advice
– Borrowing small amounts of money
– Finding a job
– Receive better medical care
Social Groups
• Factors affecting our involvement in
networks:
– Social class
– Occupational status
– Race
– Ethnicity
– Gender
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Group size is important for:
– The functioning of a group
– The nature of its members’ attachments
– The group’s stability
• Dyad — Two person group; the smallest
group
– Relationships are emotionally intense, but very
unstable and short-lived
• Triad — Three-person group
– Relationships are fairly intense, but it is more
stable than a dyad
Group Dynamics and Behavior
– Advantage of a triad
• If two people have a dispute, the third
member can help them reach some
compromise that will satisfy all the triad
members
– Disadvantage of a triad
• Two of its members can become very close
and increasingly disregard the third member
Table 4.1 - Number of Two-Person
Relationships in Groups of Different Sizes
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Types of leaders
– Instrumental — Main focus is to achieve group
goals and accomplish group tasks
– Expressive — Main focus is to maintain and
improve the quality of relationships among
group members and to ensure group harmony
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Types of leadership styles
– Authoritarian
• Primary focus on achieving group goals and on rigorous
compliance with group rules and penalties for
noncompliance
• Leaders make decisions on their own and tell other
group members what to do and how to do it
– Democratic
• Involves extensive consultation with group members
on decisions and less emphasis on rule compliance
• Leaders make the final decision, after considering
group members opinion
Group Dynamics and Behavior
– Laissez-faire
• The leader more or less sits back and lets the group
function on its own and really exerts no leadership
role
• Less effective than authoritarian and democratic
• Authoritarian or democratic leadership?
– Group values task accomplishment than how
well group members get along and how much
they like their leader — Authoritarian leadership
– Group members place their highest priority on
their satisfaction with decisions and decisionmaking in the group — Democratic leadership
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Some small groups shun leadership and
operate by consensus
– No decision is made unless all group members
agree with it
– Advantage — Group members feel good about
the final decision and about being in the group
– Disadvantage — Group’s inability to make quick
and efficient decisions
• Gender differences in leadership styles
– Women — More likely to be democratic leaders
– Men — More likely to be authoritarian leaders
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Experimental evidence on group
conformity:
– Solomon Asch and Perceptions of Line
Lengths
– Stanley Milgram and Electric Shock
– The Third Wave
– Zimbardo’s Prison Experiment
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Groupthink — People go along with the
desires and views of a group against their
better judgments, because:
– They do not want to appear different
– They have come to believe that the group’s
course of action may be the best one after all
• Groupthink can have negative consequences
because the group members quickly agree
on some course of action without thinking
completely of alternatives
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Types of formal organizations
– Utilitarian — Provides an income or some other
personal benefit
• Examples — Business organizations, colleges, and
universities
– Normative — Allows people to pursue their moral
goals and commitments; members do not get
paid instead they contribute
• Examples — Churches and synagogues, Boy and Girl
Scouts, and the Kiwanis Club
– Coercive — Seeks to control all phases of their
members’ lives
• Examples — Prisons and state mental institutions
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Key aspects of bureaucracies
– Specialization
– Hierarchy
– Written rules and regulations
– Impartiality and impersonality
– Record-keeping
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Disadvantages of bureaucracy
– Impersonality and alienation
– Red tape
– Trained incapacity
– Bureaucratic incompetence
– Goal displacement and self-perpetuation
Group Dynamics and Behavior
• Michels’ iron law of oligarchy
– Large organizations inevitably develop an
oligarchy, or the undemocratic rule of many
people by just a few people
– Leaders increasingly monopolize knowledge
because they have more access than other
organizational members to information and
technology
– Leaders begin to think they are better suited
than other people to lead their organizations,
and also do their best to stay in their positions
of power, which they find very appealing
Groups, Organizations, and Social
Change
• Two ways in which groups and
organizations play an important role in
social change:
– Social reform
– Maintaining the status quo
Groups, Organizations, and Social
Change
• Whistleblowing — Raising concerns
involving illegal and/or potentially
harmful behavior
• It is not easy to be a whistleblower —
Several whistleblowers have been
harassed, fired, or sued
• Various federal and state laws have been
passed to protect whistleblowers