Republic of the Philippines

Province of Ilocos Sur

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN PHILIPPINES
Graduate School

HUMAN BEHAVIOR IN ORGANIZATIONS

Kent Alvin L. Guzman GEORGE ABE ANYOG,

MPA, Ll.B.
MPA-GA Professor

INFORMAL ORGANIZATION
According to Hodgettes, the Informal organization plays a significant role in
the dynamics of human behavior in organizations. Given the proper
attention, the informal organization works hand in hand with the formal
organization in the attainment of overall objectives. However, if not properly
manage, it may also become uncooperative, thus, organizational objectives
will become harder to achieve. (Hodgettes, 1980)
NATURE OF INFORMAL ORGANIZATION:
a. Interpersonal Relations
In the formal Organization, relationships between people are clearly defined.
Everyone is supposed to be doing their assigned and official jobs. However,
over time, workers begin to form friendships with one another. They start to
do things beyond their job descriptions and carry out activities that are more
to their liking. Social relationships starts to develop among the group
members. Although each person is supposed to be working independently of
others, we know that every group there are slow workers and fast workers.
Additionally, some of these workers are so well like that their peers help
them with their work. Conversely, some will be dislike and will be ignored by
their fellow workers. (Hodgettes, 1980)

b. Informal Leadership
In the formal organization, a leader is designated by the management, while
in an informal organization the leader is chosen by the members of the
informal group. If the formal leader does a good job, he is often promoted
away from the department. If the informal leader does a good job, he
maintains the position, but if he does a poor job, someone else will be
chosen who can help the group meet its objectives. (Hodgettes, 1980)
When we compare the formal and informal leaders we can see that the
formal leader has authority and the informal leader has power. Authority id
the right to command, while power is the ability to influence, persuade, or
move another person to ones point of view. What makes this concepts of
authority and power in the formal and informal organizations so interesting is
that the person who has the authority may not always have the power.

c. Behavioral Control
When people in the formal organization do something right, they are given
rewards; if they do something wrong, they are punished. In the informal

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organization, also rewards and punishments are dispense to the members.
These however usually take the form of giving or denying need fulfillment. If
the members of the group conforms to group norms, he is included in group
activities and provided with social interaction. If one member violates group
norms or refuses to act properly, he is ostracized, and may even be
subjected to pressure and ridicule and made to look foolish in the eyes of the
members. (Hodgettes, 1980)

d. Dependency
Despite the strength of the informal group leader, the formal leader has a
greater capacity for rewarding and punishing the personnel. The formal
leader can give both physical and psychological rewards to those who obey
organizational directives and do this thing well. Because the informal leader
can only give psychological rewards, not everyone conforms to informal
group norms. Those individuals who agree with the informal groups norms,
however, strive for membership and depend on the group for social
interaction and support. As a result, there are three sub-groups in an
informal organizational structure (Hodgetes, 1980).
1. Nucleus Group consists of full-fledged members of the informal
organization. All activities of the informal organization, these members are
always the front runners.
2. Fringe Group consisting of those seeking admission to the informal
organization. These people are often new members of the work force who are
being screened for membership by the nucleus group.
3. Outer Group consists of individuals who have been rejected for
membership. These people have failed to measure up the requirements set
for admission to the group. Numerous reasons can be cited for this failure:
1. doing too much work
2. doing too little work
3. having am unpleasant personality
4. squealing to the supervisor about a member of the nucleus group.
Sociogram refers to the schematic drawing that shows the social
relatioships that exist between members of a group (Hodgettes, 1980). In
this case the relationship is being measured in terms of who helps whom.
Sociogram provide interesting insights to informal group behavior because
they help pinpoint those members who are most popular, those who do all
the work, these who get help from others, and those whom no one interacts
(Hodgettes, 1980).
Illustration:

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 = work assistance rendered by an individual member

Note that Jeff and Ed are helping two of their co-workers but they are not
receiving any help in return. This indicates that Jeff and Ed are probably very
fast workers. Chuck receives assistance from the four of his fellow workers,
so chuck is not a fast worker. However, the other members of the group liked
him and are therefore willing to assist him in his works. Finally, Joe neither
receives help from anyone nor they give any. Perhaps, he is aloft or he is not
wanted by the members of the group.
INFORMAL COMMUNICATION
One of the most important behavioral aspects of the informal organization is
its communication network. This is commonly referred to as the grapevine.
This communication network is used to carry information between members
of the informal organization (Hodgettes, 1980).
The grapevine arises from social interaction and tends to be oral. As opposed
to written form of communication. Much of the information carried by the
grapevine deals with matters that are of current interest to the personnel.
This is particularly true when the message is viewed with concern or fear.
Grapevine netwroks:
1. Gossip chain
-a grapevine network in which one person passes information to all
the others in the informal organization.
2. Single strand
-a grapevine network in which each person receives information
from one individual and passes it to another. The flow of
communication moves down the line.
3. Probability chain
-a grapevine network in which people randomly pass information to
the other members of the informal organizations.
4. Cluster chain- a grapevine network in which people pass
information to other member of the informal organization
selectively. In this process, some people are given information and
others are deliberately by passed.
According to Hodgettes, (Hodgettes, 1980), people tend to engage in
grapevine activity when:
1. People lack information
2. There is insecurity in a situation
3. People have personal interest in the situation

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4. They have new information