Chapter 9
The Structure of Society:
Organizations, Social Institutions and
Globalization
Social Structure
• Framework of society that
exists above the level of
individuals
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Social institutions
Organizations
Groups
Statuses and roles
Cultural beliefs
Institutionalized norms
Adds order and predictability
to our private lives
• Can create tension between
needs of individual and
needs of system
Education
• Education
• Organizations: NEA, PTA,
school board
• Groups: faculty,
administrators, students,
clubs, classes, cafeteria staff
• Statuses: teacher, student,
principal, counselor, coach,
librarian, custodian
• or screaming in the
classrooms
Education
• Role expectations: learning,
teaching, coaching, disciplining,
test taking
• Cultural beliefs: education leads
to financial success; education is
necessary to a democratic society
• Institutionalized norms: everyone
must attend school until at least
age 16; everyone must wear
appropriate clothing; no running
in the halls or screaming in the
classrooms
Social Structure and Catastrophe
• Miners in Chile
– Created a social structure
underground
• Tsunami in Japan
– People created social
structures in community
centers
• Tsunami in Southeast Asia
– Organizations could not
handle the influx of
financial assistance
– Indonesia could not handle
the influx of aid workers
Social Dilemmas
• Potential for a
society’s long-term
ruin because of
individuals’ tendency
to pursue their own
short-term interests
The Tragedy of the Commons
• Medieval towns had
commons where
everyone’s livestock
grazed
• Everyone has to share
evenly for everyone to
survive
• If one person takes more,
ultimately the whole
system fails
• That’s the tragedy of the
commons
What Causes the Tragedy of the
Commons?
• Lack of trust within the
community
• Lack of communication
• People don’t believe
the problem is serious
• People don’t believe
their “tiny” part will
make a difference
Free-Rider Problem
• When people don’t
contribute to something
that they can get
anyway
• At the institutional level
– Education: people want
to limit taxes to fund
public education
– Public education
benefits the whole
society
Solutions to Social Dilemmas
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Creating “clan” loyalties
Privatization
Centralization
Required joining of the
community
Structure of Formal Organizations
• Complex societies require
complex organizational
structures to function
• Max Weber (Mahx Vaybare)
• Bureaucracies
– Large hierarchical
organizations governed by
formal rules and regulations
and having a clear
specification of work tasks
– Necessary to complex
societies
– Efficient and rational
Bureaucracies
• Division of labor
– More efficient
– More goals are possible
• Hierarchy of authority
– In U.S. societies:
pyramidal shape
– Authority attached to
the position, not the
person
Hazards of Bureaucracy
• Tendency toward
conformity over critical
thinking and problemsolving
• Can become overly
dehumanizing
• Lock people in
McDonaldization of Society
• Characteristics and
principles of the fast
food restaurant in other
areas of social life
– Streamlined processes
– Uniform goods or
services
– Speeded up
transactions
McDonaldization of Society
• George Ritzer:
metaphor for harmful
effects of
bureaucratization on
society
– Impelled by economic
interests
– Efficiency has become
culturally desirable
– Parallels other changes
in society
Organizational Hierarchies and Our
Jobs
• Upper echelons
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Few in number
Jobs don’t have clear boundaries
Paid in salary
Insulated from the rest of the
organization
– Similar types of people in these
roles
• almost 90% of chief executives in
the United States are non-Hispanic
whites
• 76% are men
• all but eight of the chief executive
officers in the 500 largest
American companies are men
Organizational Hierarchies and Our
Jobs
• Middle echelons
– May have conflicting role
expectations
– May have little true
opportunity for advancement
• Caught between those
below—who need
cooperation—and those
above—who grant them
authority
• Morale sustained by idea of
moving up
• Vast majority of middle-level
employees do not move up
– May align very strongly with
the organization
Organizational Hierarchies and Our
Jobs
• Lower echelons
– Rarely define their own
occupational tasks
– Work is frequently divided
into small parts
– De-skilling with technological
advancements
– Paid in hourly wages
– Expected to abide by laws,
work hard, be personally
accountable
– Paid the least, valued least,
and considered expendable
Characteristics of Organizations
• Common language,
jargon
• Internalized rules, values,
and beliefs
• Not all rules can be taken
literally—flexibility
– Combination of
formal structural
rules and informal
patterns of
behavior
Institutional Pressures Toward
Similarity
• Nature of problems use
similar methods of
dealing with them
• Continual innovation to
improve methods
Interconnectedness of Organizations
• Textbooks
– Texas accounts for about 15%
of all textbook sales
• TV shows and movies
– Remakes of successful older
movies and shows
• Globalization
– Get cash anywhere in the
world with your ATM card
from your U.S. bank
• Innovation
– The first to innovate can be
very successful, but the rest
will imitate
U.S. Health Care System
• Social institution and
network
• Hospitals tightly linked to
one another
• Formal training
organizations in place
• Funding organizations must
also be linked
• Links to other organizations:
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Equipment
Drug industry
Insurance
Political action groups
Global Economy
• Multinational
Corporations
– Control a significant
portion of the world’s
wealth
– Heavily influence the
tastes of people
everywhere
– Don’t owe their
allegiance to any one
country
Global Economy
• Social problems
– Higher unemployment
in countries losing
manufacturing
– Exploitation of workers
in developing
countries
– Eroding ability of
governments to set
policies to protect
national economy
Global Impacts on Education
• Concern over
competition globally
– Call for education
reforms to math, science
• Concern that children
suffer from far too
much emphasis on
performance and
achievement
– Calls to reduce
homework for
elementary school
Global Impacts on Religion
• Two-thirds of world’s
people belong to three
religions
– Christianity
– Hinduism
– Islam
Global Impacts on Religion
• Some denominations
globalizing to deal with
shrinking membership
— Mormon Church grown by
500% outside of the United
States and Canada since 1980
• Competing worldviews
challenge traditional
beliefs