Chapter 6: Networks, Groups, Bureaucracies, and Societies

Beyond Individual Motives

How Social Groups Shape Our Actions
1. Norms of solidarity demand conformity: when we for relationships with friends, lovers,
spouses, teammates, and comrades-in-arms, we develop shared ideas or “norms of
solidarity” about how we should behave toward them to sustain the relationships
2. Structures of authority tend to render people obedient: most people find it difficult to
disobey authorities because they fear ridicule, ostracism, and punishment
- Milgram’s experiment teaches us that as soon as we are introduced to a
structure of authority, we are inclined to obey those in power
3. Bureaucracies are highly effective structures of authority:
- Bureaucracy: is a large, impersonal organization compromising many clearly
defined positions arranged in hierarchy. A bureaucracy has a permanent,
salaried staff of qualified experts and writes goals, rules, and procedures.
Ideally, staff members always try to find ways of running the bureaucracy
more efficiently
- Efficiency: means achieving the bureaucracy’s goals at the least cost

Social Networks
It’s a Small World
Social network: is a bounded set of individuals who are linked by the exchange of material or
emotional recourses. The patterns of exchange determine the boundaries of the network.
Members exchange resources more frequently with one another than with non-members. They
also think of themselves as network members. Social networks may be formal (defined in
writing), but they are more often informal (defined only in practice)

The Building Blocks of Social Networks

Dyad: is a social relationship between two nodes or social units (e.g., people, firms,
organizations, countries)
- Marriage: both partners tend to be intensely and intimately involved, it
needs both partners – but to “die” it needs only one to opt out
- The partners must assume full responsibility for all that transpires, neither
partner can shift responsibility to some larger collectively because no largely
collectivity exists beyond the relationship between the two partners

Triad: is a relationship among three nodes or social units (e.g., people, firms, organizations,
countries)
- When a third person enters, relationships tend to be less intimate and
intense
- Triad restricts individuality by allowing one partner to be constrained for the
collective good
- Introduction of a third partner makes possible a completely new set of social
dynamics that are structurally impossible in a dyadic relationship
Is Group Loyalty Always Functional?
Primary and Secondary Groups
Social group: compromises one or more networks of people who identify with one another and
adhere to defined norms, roles, and statuses

Social category: compromises people who share a similar status but do not identify with one
another

Primary groups: norms, roles, and statuses are agreed on but are not put in writing. Social
interaction leads to strong emotional ties. It extends overs a long period, and involves a wide
range of activities. It results in group members knowing one another well.

Secondary groups: are larger and more impersonal than primary groups are. Compared with
primary groups, social interaction in secondary groups, social interaction in secondary groups
creates weaker emotional ties. It extends over a shorter period, and it involves a narrow range
of activities. It results in most group members having at most a passing acquaintance with one
another

Disadvantages of Group Conformity

Groupthink: is group pressure to conform despite individual misgivings

Bystander apathy: occurs when people observe someone in an emergency but offer no help

Group Conformity, Group Conflict, and Group Inequality

In-group: members are people who belong to a group

Out-group: members are people who are excluded from an in-group

Groups and Social Imagination

Reference group: compromises people against whom an individual evaluates his or her
situation or conduct

Formal organizations: are secondary groups designed to achieve explicit objectives

Bureaucracies
Bureaucratic Inefficiency
Dehumanization: occurs when bureaucracies treat clients as standard cases and personnel as
cogs in a giant machine. This treatment frustrates clients and lowers worker morale

Bureaucratic ritualism: involves bureaucrats becoming so preoccupied with rules and

regulations that they make it difficult for the organization to fulfill its goals
Oligarchy: means “rule of the few.” All bureaucracies have a supposed tendency for power to
become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people at the top of the organizational
pyramid

Bureaucratic inertia: refers to the tendency of large, rigid bureaucracies to continue their
policies even when their clients’ needs change

Leadership
Laissez-faire Leadership: allows subordinates to work things out largely on their own, with
almost no direction from above. It is the least effective type of leadership

Authoritarian Leadership: demands strict compliance from subordinates. Authoritarian leaders

are most effective in a crisis, such as a war or the emergency room of a hospital

Democratic Leadership: offers more guidance than the laissez-faire variety but less control than
the authoritarian type. Democratic leaders try to include all group members in the decision-
making process, taking the best ideas from the group and moulding them into a strategy with
which all can identify. Except during crisis situations, democratic leadership is usually the most
effective leadership style.

Organizational Environments
Organizational environment: comprises a host of economic, political, and cultural forces that
lie outside an organization and affect the way it works

Societies
Societies: are collectivities of interacting people who share a culture and, usually, a territory

Foraging Societies
Foraging societies: are societies in which people live by searching for wild plants and hunting
wild animals. Such societies predominated until about 10 000 years ago, Inequality, the division
of labour, productivity, and settlement size are very low in such societies

Pastoral and Horticultural Societies

Horticultural societies: are societies in which people domesticate plants and use simple hand
tools to garden. Such societies first emerged about 10 000 years ago

Pastoral societies: are societies in which people domesticate cattle, camels, pigs, goats, sheep,
horses, and reindeer. Such societies first emerged about 10 000 years ago.

Agricultural societies: are societies in which plows and animal power are used to substantially
increase food supply and dependability as compared with horticultural and pastoral societies.
Agricultural societies first emerged about 5000 years ago.
Industrial Societies
Industrial societies: are societies that use machines and fuel to greatly increase the supply and
dependability of food and finished goods. The first such society emerged in Great Britain in the
last decade of the eighteenth century

Post-industrial Societies
Post-industrial Societies: are societies in which most works are employed in the service sector
and computers spur substantial increases in the division of labour and productivity. Shortly
after World War II, the United States became the first post-industrial society

Post natural Societies

Recombinant DNA: involves removing a segment of DNA form a gene or splicing together
segments of DNA from different living things, thus effectively creating a new life form

Post natural societies: are societies in which genetic engineering enables people to create new
life from