SOCY101: SOCIOLOGY

Lecture-20
Topic: Group and Organization
Instructor: Muhammad Adeel Irshad
Email: adeelsociologist@lgu.edu.pk
Lahore Garrison University, Lahore
 Group
Two or more people regularly
interacting on the basis of
shared expectations of others'
behavior; interrelated
statuses and roles.
 Social Groups
Social groups, a description
of various human groups.
Frequent interaction leads
people to share values and
beliefs.
 Types of Social Groups
PrimaryGroups
Secondary Groups

In-Group & Out-group

 Social Groups
 In its elementary sense, a group “is a number of units of
anything in close proximity to one another”.
 Social group is a collection of human beings who are
brought into social relationship with one another with a
common goal under a common set of codes.
 It may be a pair, number of persons or even a collection
of millions of people ex. Sports club, a political party, a
family etc.
 Social relationships needs – reciprocity – mutual
awareness – consciousness of joint interaction.
 Definitions
 William – Social group is a given aggregate of
people playing inter-related roles and recognized
by themselves or others as a unit of interactions.
 Horton and Hunt – “Groups are aggregate or
categories of people who have a consciousness of
membership and of interaction”.
 Ogburn and Nimkoff – “Whenever two or more
individual come together and influence one
another, they may be said to constitute a social
group”.
 Characteristics
 Reciprocal Relations
 Sense of Unity

 ‘We’ feeling

 Common interests

 Similar behaviour

 Group norms
 Classification of Social Groups
 Cooleyclassified groups on the basis of kind of
contacts.
– Primary group
– Secondary group
 F.H. Giddings classified group into
– Genetic (involuntarily. Ex: family)
– Congregate (voluntarily. Ex: union)
 Classification of Social Groups
 George Hasen classifies groups one the basis of their
relations to other group into
– Unsocial group (does not participate in large society. ex: Tribe)
– Pseudo-social group (mix with all for own gain. ex: common)
– Anti-social group (destroys public property)
– Pro-social group (welfare of the people)
 Miller divided social groups into
– Horizontal groups
– Vertical groups
 Classification of Social Groups
 Sumner made distinction between an
– In-group
 The groups with the individual indentifies himself are his
ingroup, his family or tribe or sex or college or occupation or
religion.
 Usually expressed in the contrast between “they” and “us”.

 Every group they are communists; we are Hindu, they are

Muslims; we are Brahmians, they are others not my people
etc.,
 Out-group
– Its opposite of in-group
 Characteristics of a Primary Group
 Physical proximity
 Small Size

 Stability

 Similarity of background

 Limited self-interest

 Intensity of Shared interests

 Importance of Primary Group
For the individual:
 The first things to be impressed about group is that it is a
medium through which we learn culture, use culture and
change culture.
 The group is an important factor in shaping the
personality of the individual.
For the society:
 Help in the socialization of the individuals and maintain
social control over them.
 The attitudes of sympathy, love, tolerance, mutual help
and sacrifice which provides this cementing force.
 Secondary Group
 Secondary group is a large group like a city, nation,
political party, corporation and labour union etc.,
 Here human contacts become superficial and
undefined.
 He communicate with them by such indirect means as
the written word. No face to face relations.
 H.T. Mazumdar – “When face-to-face contacts are not
present in the relations of member, we may call that
is secondary group”.
 Importance of Secondary Group
 The primary group have an important place in a
simple and small society. But in modern era the
trend is towards secondary groups.
 The changing trends of modern society man now
depends for his needs more on secondary groups
then primary groups.
 Efficiency (the emphasis is on getting the job
done).
 Open Channels of Opportunity.

 Wider Outlook.
 In-group vs. Out-group
 Sumner’s classification between in-group and
outgroup.
 The individual belong to number of groups which
are his in-groups.
 All other groups to which he does not belong are
his out groups.
 Family, tribe, the college are examples of
ingroups.
 In-group vs. Out-group
 In in-groups their relationships towards each other they
display:
– Sense of belonging
– co-operation
– goodwill
– mutual help
– solidarity
– feeling of brotherhood and
– readiness to sacrifice
 In-group signifies their unity by the word “we” and their
distinctions from the others by applying to those the term
“they”.
 Organization
 An organized group of people with a particular
purpose, such as a business or government
department.
 A company, business, club, etc., that is formed for
a particular purpose.
 Formal organization is a fixed set of rules of intra-
organization procedures and structures. As such,
it is usually set out in writing, with a language of
rules that ostensibly leave little discretion for
interpretation.
 Formal Organizations
A deliberate division of labor and power.
 A written set of rules, policies, and procedures.

 A system for replacing members.

 Types of Formal Organization
 Coercive Organizations - members are typically
forced to join with complex rules, norms, and
sanctions (prison or a rehabilitation centre).
 Utilitarian Organizations - a group of
individuals join in order to receive the monetary
reward or some other benefit that is offered to
members of that organization (LGU).
 Normative Organization - people join as a
means to promote some important social issue or
cause (volunteer)
 Features of Formal Organization
 achievement of organisational goal
 each individual is assigned a specific job

 every individual is assigned a fixed authority

 results in creation of superior-subordinate

relations
 scalar chain of communication
 Advantages of Formal Organization
 Systematic Working
 Achievement of Organizational Objectives

 No Overlapping of Work

 Co-ordination

 Creation of Chain of Command

 More Emphasis on Work

 Disadvantages of Formal Organization
 Delay in Action:
 Ignores Social Needs of Employees:

 Emphasis on Work Only:

 Informal Organization
 the main purpose of such structure is getting
psychological satisfaction
 people working at different job positions interact
with each other to form informal structure and the
job positions are created in formal structure
 Features of Informal Organization
 without any intended efforts of managers
 to get psychological satisfaction.

 No fixed path of flow of authority or

communication
 No source of infomration

 informal organizational structure depends on

formal organization structure
 Advantages of Informal Organization
 Fast Communication
 Fulfills Social Needs

 Correct Feedback
Disadvantages of Informal Organization
 Spread Rumours
 No Systematic Working

 May Bring Negative Results

 More Emphasis to Individual Interest