Unit 5 Goals
During this unit, you will:
- Learn about social groups, and study various types of groups ranging from small and very informal groups to large and highly ritualized bureaucratic organizations;
- Distinguish primary and secondary groups;
- Study theories that help us understand leadership in groups, conformity, and how group size affects structure;
- Understand the characteristics of modern, bureaucratic organizations, including why people participate in formal organizations, how bureaucratic organizations evolved, characteristics that distinguish bureaucracies, how individual formal organizations create their own cultures, and some of the negative aspects of formal bureaucracies;
- Appreciate the extent to which bureaucratic organization has creeped into our lives by studying George Ritzer's notion of the "McDonaldization of Society."
Unit 5 Objectives
Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:
- Describe the difference between primary and secondary attachments and groups;
- Identify and describe two leadership roles and three leadership styles;
- Explain the effect that group size has on group organization;
- List and characterize six traits of formal, bureaucratic organizations;
- Explain how the structure of bureaucratic organizations is moderated by the culture (or environment) of individual organizations;
- Identify and describe five common problems that bureaucracies present.
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