Groups and Organizations

What We Covered So Far…Defining groups

◦ Interaction◦ Goal(s)◦ Identity◦ As opposed to categories and aggregates

Primary / Secondary groups

Effects of group size: as group size increases (from dyad to triad and beyond) Stability increases Division of labor Formality increases: from primary to secondary

Leadership Functions (instrumental / expressive) Styles (authoritarian, laissez-faire,

democratic) Authority (traditional, charismatic,

rational-legal)

Group Dynamics Conformity (Asch) Obedience (Milgram) In-group / out-group

Group Dynamic: The Power of the Situation Philip Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment:

Video Part 1 Video Part 2 Video Part 3

One More Group Dynamic: Groupthink

Formal Organizations Structured secondary groups to achieve goals in an efficient manner Normative / Coercive / Utilitarian

Bureaucracy Hierarchy of authority Division of labor Explicit rules and procedures Impersonality

Problems Rigidity Inefficiency Goal displacement Resistance to change Perpetuation of inequalities

A Better Model? NetworksNetwork:

Nodes

Links

Clusters

Nodes

Links

Clusters

The Al Qaeda Network Global

Decentralized

Flexible

Multi-directional