Groups and Social Structure

Social structure
    Organization – prediction
    Patterned relationships that reflect the underlying values and culture of the society

Individual - individualism

Group – more than one person
 
    Aggregate – place

    Category – a shared attribute

    Group – common identity

Membership groups – regularity of meeting, develop as sense of group identity

Reference groups – group values, norms, beliefs and behaviors become the basis for one’s own daily life, identity

Primary / Secondary Groups

    Primary – important in the socialization of the individual and in the maintenance of the groups’ identity/culture (family)

    Secondary – more formalized, created and organized for specific purposed, role players, can be interchangeable (football team)

Ideal types – logical constructs that present the features of some phenomenon.  A conceptualization of the real world.

Size  - Dyad, Triad

Formal Organizations – large deliberately planned, established membership and procedures, rules for carrying out objectives.

Normative – voluntary organizations – charitable, community service,
 Goals are socially or morally worthwhile

Coercive – force people to join and remove them from normal contact.
 Total institutions (prisons, military)

Utilitarian – members seek some tangible benefit from their participation. (employment, universities_

Bureaucratic – maximizing human efficiency when dealing with large numbers of people, logical, orderly structuring of human behavior, develop patterned formalized procedures.

Max Weber –

Bureaucratic Ritualism – following the rules replaces task accomplishment or goal meeting.

Informal Organization – set of relationships that develops outside of the formal organization, may be based on jobs to be done, or people who regularly come into contact with each and meet informally.


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