Chapter 5: Interaction, Groups, and Organizations: Connections that Work

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Chapter 5 Interaction, Groups, and
Organizations Connections that Work
Dr. Santos
Soc 100
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Networks and Connections in Our Social World

• Social networks -- micro-level contacts and
  exchanges between individuals and other
  individuals, small groups, and large (even
  global) organizations
• Networking -- using our social networks to get
  information, favors, or resources

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Family and Friends Micro-Level Networks

• Network links
• casual and personal , or
• based on official positions and channels
• Close Networks
• Personal ties are tight
• Shared personal interest held very high

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Meso- and Macro-Level Networks

• How are we linked
• The internet
• Local civic, sports, and religious organizations
• Community or national institutions
• Our nation(s)
• Global entities
• Networks can open opportunities
• But obligations can limit freedom
• Meso- and macro-level interactions are more
  formal than micro-level ones

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The Elements of Social Interaction

• Social interaction is two or more individuals
  purposefully relating to each other
• All interaction has three important components
• An action
• A common goal
• A social context
• The action, goal, and context helps us interpret
  the social meaning of our interaction

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The Elements of Social Interaction

• People assume that others will share their
  interpretation of a situation
• Shared assumptions create cues for behavior
• Shared assumptions dictate what is appropriate in
  a situation
• Dress
• Manner
• Speech
• Actions
• Socialization helps us determine the expectations
  of social interaction vice-versa

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The Elements of Social Interaction

• People interact using verbal and non-verbal
  communication
• Non-verbal communication are interactions using
  facial expressions, the head, eye contact, body
  posture, gestures, touch, walk, status symbols
  and personal space
• Non-verbal communication are
• Culturally specific
• Learned through socialization
• Used in all cultures

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The Elements of Social Interaction

• Personal space is non-verbal language
• The amount of personal space needed varies by
• Cultural setting
• Gender
• Status
• Social context
• Personal space communicates social positions
• Higher positions and status have greater control
  of physical space
• Gender differences are customary in most societies

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Four categories of social distance in U.S.
culture (Hall)

• Intimate distance
• Private and affectionate relationships
• 0 18 inches
• Personal distance
• Friends and acquaintances
• 18 inches 4 feet
• Social distance
• Impersonal business relations
• 4 12 feet
• Public distance
• Used in formal settings
• Especially with high-status speakers
• 12 feet and beyond

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Theoretical Perspectives on the Interaction
Process

• Exchange/Rational Choice Theory
• Assumes that relationships are formed (and
  persist) based on the rewards and costs of the
  interaction to the individual
• When benefits of the interaction are high and
  costs are low, interaction will be valued and
  sustained
• If the benefits of interaction are low and if the
  costs are high, the interaction will not be
  valued nor sustained
• For exchange theorists, every interaction
  involves
• Calculations of self-interest
• Expectation of reciprocity
• Actions that have current or eventual pay-off for
  actors

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Theoretical Perspectives on the Interaction
Process

• Symbolic interaction theory
• Ethnomethodology the use of empirical methods
  to study how people develop shared meanings and
  consider how common rules originate by
• Breaking norms to discover rules of interaction
• Being interested in peoples responses to norm
  violations
• Not taking interaction norms for granted

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Theoretical Perspectives on the Interaction
Process

• Symbolic interaction theory (continued)
• Dramaturgy the study of social life from the
  framework that life is similar to a play or drama
  on stage, with scripts, props, and scenes to be
  played
• Dramaturgical analysts believe interaction occurs
  on two stages
• Front stage behavior
• Backstage behavior
• Working to create a definition of self through
  social interaction

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Theoretical Perspectives on the Interaction
Process

• Assumptions of Dramaturgical analysts
• We create an impression for our audience as in
  acting in a play
• Individuals learn new lines to add to their
  scripts through socialization
• Individuals perform scripts for social audiences
  in order to maintain certain images, much like
  the actors in a play
• Individuals use props as visible symbols to
  create or reinforce our roles
• Individuals perform according to societys script
  for the situation
• Individuals work to create a positive,
  advantageous impression through impression
  management
• Individuals use tact, humor, and other strategies
  to try to create positive impressions
• Dramaturgical analysts believe interaction occurs
  on two stages front stage backstage

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Social Status The Link to Groups

• Social Statuses are positions that individuals
  hold in the social world
• Define interaction with others
• A status set is the combination of statuses held
  by an individual
• Ascribed statuses are statuses that are assigned
  at birth and do not change during an individuals
  lifetime
• Achieved statuses are statuses that are chosen or
  earned by decisions one makes or by personal
  ability
• Master statuses are statuses that are most
  important and take precedence over others

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Social Status The Link to Groups
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The Relationship between Status and Roles

• Roles are the expected behaviors, rights and
  obligations associated with a status
• Statuses (positions)
• Roles (behavioral obligations of the status)

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Individuals hold formal and informal statuses
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• Role strain is tension between roles within one
  status
• Role conflict is conflict between the roles of
  two or more statuses

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Groups in Our Social World The Micro-Meso
Connection

• Groups are two or more people who interact with
  each other because of shared common interests,
  goals, experiences, and needs
• Create a sense of belonging among members
• Share a common goal
• Members are in contact with one another
• Defined membership norms
• Rules for members behaviors
• Groups form through a series of steps
• Initial interaction between potential members
• A collective goal emerges
• Attempt to expand collective goals by building
  membership and pursuing new goals

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The Importance of Groups for the Individual

• Groups establish our place in the social world
  and deeply influence of state of mind
• Anomie or a state of normlessness
• Suicide (Durkheim)
• Egoistic suicide
• Anomic suicide
• Altruistic suicide

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Types of Groups

• Primary groups are groups with close contacts
  between members with whom members have lasting
  personal relationships
• Characteristics of primary groups
• Strong sense of belonging
• Strong group loyalty
• Strong influence on behavior
• Main purpose is belonging
• Primary groups have intrinsic value

• Secondary groups are groups with formal,
  impersonal, businesslike relationships between
  members
• Characteristics of secondary groups
• Large membership base
• Task-oriented
• Relationships based on accomplishing
• A clear division of labor
• Specialized communication
• Membership can be short-term or long lasting

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Types of Groups

• Reference groups are groups composed of members
  who act as role models to one another and
  establish standards against which members measure
  their conduct
• Peer groups are people who share similar age or
  social status they can also serve as reference
  groups
• Ingroups are groups to which individuals feel a
  sense of loyalty and belonging
• Outgroups are groups to which individuals do not
  belong, but that exists in competition or
  opposition to an ingroup

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Organizations and BureaucraciesThe Meso-Macro
Connection
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The Evolution of Modern Organizations

• Organizational structure depends on the type of
  society
• Modern organizations and bureaucracies began with
  industrialization
• Rationality or the attempt to reach maximum
  efficiency, is the governing principle of most
  modern organizations
• Formal organizations are complex secondary groups
  formed to pursue and achieve certain goals
• Organizational societies are societies where a
  majority of the members work in organizations
• Bureaucracies are specific types of very large
  formal organizations with the primary goal of
  maximizing efficiency

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Characteristics of Modern Organizations

• Organizations are categorized by their ability to
  get members to comply with the rules
• Utilitarian organizations gain compliance by
  providing income that individuals need to live in
  exchange for their labor
• Coercive organizations are involuntary
  organizations where compliance is achieved by
  force
• Normative organizations are groups where
  compliance is based on moral or political
  beliefs individuals tend to join normative
  organizations for personal satisfaction
• Voluntary organizations are groups individuals
  join on their own accord, typically because they
  believe in a cause, or because they enjoy the
  social contact or activity

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Characteristics of Bureaucracies

• Max Weber was the pioneer thinker on them
• Weber found 6 characteristics of ideal type
  bureaucracies
• Division of labor based on technical competence
• Administrative hierarchy
• Formal rules and regulations
• Impersonal relationships
• Emphasis on rationality and efficiency
• Provision of life-long careers
• Bureaucracies also have an informal structure
  (fiefdoms, informal networks, gossip, etc.)

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Characteristics of McDonaldization

• McDonaldization George Ritzers term for the
  process through which the principles of the
  McDonalds corporation have been integrated into
  the operation of all organizations
• The principles of McDonaldization
• Efficiency
• Predictability
• Calculability
• Increased control
• The dysfunctions of McDonaldization
• Dehumanization
• Irrationality
• The desire for efficiency taking over creativity
  and human interaction
• Loss of uniqueness and local flavor

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Individuals in Bureaucracies

• Professionals
• Alienation
• Autonomy
• Minority-status groups
• Glass ceilings -- to barriers which keep females
  and other minority group members from reaching
  high levels of management in organizations
• Disproportional representation in middle or low
  occupational levels

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Problems in Bureaucracies

• Dysfunctions of Bureaucracy
• Alienation
• Worker dissatisfaction
• Oligarchy
• The iron law of oligarchy
• Goal Displacement
• Parkinsons Law
• Alternatives to Bureaucracy
• Alternative organization structure
• Democratic-collective organization

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National and Global Networks The Macro-Level

• Multinational corporations
• National systems and international organizations
• The Internet

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Policy Issues Women and Globalization

• Around the world, women are the most
  economically, politically, and socially
  marginalized group of people
• The United Nations has created may policies to
  help raise the status of women worldwide
• Education initiatives
• Micro-lending agencies