How do small groups differ in structure, leadership, size and membership?
Answers
the primary group is based on intimate, face to face interaction whereas a secondary group is less cohesive, more formal and less supportive of members.
How important is social support to the quality and length of life?
Social support has been found to significantly increase an individual's satisfaction with life, promote health and well-being of individuals and reduce the effects of stress in a person's life. People who have supportive primary group relationships also live longer.
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How do leaders emerge within groups?
Members who have the highest rate of group participation are most often chosen to be leaders. Other traits associated with leadership are intelligence, enthusiasm, dominance, self-confidence and egalitarianism. Democratic leadership is most useful when there is sufficient time to involve the entire group in decisions.
How is group decision- making different from individual decision-making?
Group decision-making is much slower than individual, but group decisions tend to be more accurate. People in a group are sometimes willing to make decisions involving greater risk than they would alone. Groups first orient themselves, evaluate control the expression of negative and positive reactions and then achieve solidarity in making a decision. In some cases, groups seek concurrence so strongly that groupthink occurs, creating a situation in which alternatives are not viewed realistically but only in terms of making the group members happy with each other. This can be combated by the leader being receptive to the opinions of everyone by asking for outside advice on the issue and by assigning group members to troubleshoot suggested options.
What is a formal organization?
A formal organization is a group deliberately constructed to achieve specific objectives through explicitly defined roles and specified rules. Modern societies are characterized by the growth of such organizations and the reduction of primary groups.
What are the stages in the development of bureaucracy?
Three conditions are necessary for the rise of bureaucracy: a money economy, a steady income to the bureaucracy and a large population base.
What are the six characteristics of Weber's ideal bureaucracy?
Bureaucracies are large-scale, formal organizations that are highly differentiated and organized through elaborate policies and procedures in a hierarchy of authority. They are characterized by fixed division of labor, hierarchy of offices, written documents, management by trained experts, official work as the primary activity and management by rules.
What are the functions and dysfunctions of modern bureaucracy?
Bureaucracy allows a society to accomplish large and complicated tasks, provides an efficient means for repetitive tasks and creates order in society. It also facilitates large-scale conflict by sometimes creating inappropriate or harmful rules, slowing upward communication of bad news, promoting antagonism between superiors and subordinates, perpetuating itself after it has served its purpose, growing beyond a size t hat is efficient, creating a situation in which workers feel dehumanized, creating a gulf between those at the top and those at the bottom and becoming a tool for exploitation. Robert Merton suggests that working in a bureaucracy for extended periods tends to entangle workers in rules, reinforcing timid and rigid attitudes among them.
How does the Peter Principle work?
Peter Principle states that in a hierarchy competent employees tend to be promoted until they reach a level at which they are not competent to do the work, and then they remain there because they feel insecure about their shoddy work. They begin to concentrate on rules and regulations, reducing the quality of their work even more.