1. Networks and Organizations
Chapter 5
Networks and Organizations
Lecture PowerPoint
© W. W. Norton & Company, 2008

2. Social Relationships Dyad – 2 people only (couples, best friends)
Triad – 3 people
Aggregate – people who share common characteristic (age, gender, race)
Group – 3 or more people who
Have something in common
Share identity as a group

3. Georg Simmel: Group size determines social relations
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

4. Social Groups Dyad: most intimate form of social interaction
members are mutually dependent on each other
if one member leaves, dyad ceases to exist.
Requires “symmetry” (mutual participation, consensus)
No supra-individual control over members.
“Group” can put pressure on members
“Couple” cannot do that
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

5. Triad – Role of the third person
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

6. Classifying groups: Simmel
Small Group
Face to face interaction
Unifocal
No formal structure
Party
Like small group but multifocal (may be larger)
Large Group
Formal structure
Status differentiation

7. Classifying Groups: Cooley
Primary group
Intimate, face to face
Personal – members not interchangeable
Important in socialization
Secondary group
Impersonal
Instrumental
Interchangeable

8. Other types of “groups”
In-group – more powerful, majority
Out-group – less powerful, minority
Reference group – Group to which we compare ourselves. May be source of opinions or standards.
Age group, generation
College students
Occupational group
Social class

9. Conformity to groups
Solomon Asch: 1940s experiment - “Which line is the same length as line on left?” Subjects were put in groups; group chose wrong answer; 1/3 of subjects expressed “serious discomfort”
Photo Courtesy of Getty
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

10. Ties and Networks
Tie: set of stories that explains our relationship to the another person
Friend
Co-worker
Tennis partner
Social network: set of relations between dyads
held together by ties
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

11. Types of Ties
Strong tie – “embedded” – reinforced through indirect paths, e.g. lots of mutual friends
Weak tie – few or no indirect paths
May be link between different networks (think about why)
May be effective way to connect with others (e.g. networking for job search)
Granovetter: “strength of weak ties” - weak ties more likely to provide new opportunities than strongly embedded ties

12. Figure 5.4 | The Strength of Weak Ties

13. Networks and society Social capital
Information, knowledge of people or ideas, and connections that help individuals enter preexisting networks or gain power in them.
High levels of social capital in a community are desirable
community is tightly knit
can come together to face challenges,make improvements.
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

14. Is social capital declining?
YES
Decline in civic engagement.
Less time for community activities
More individual leisure activities
More people live alone
Institutions have become individualized
You May Ask Yourself
Copyright © 2008 W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.

15. Is social capital declining?
NO:
People still desire intimate relationships
Young people are more politically active
Civic engagement is cyclical
Social networks may just be more informal
Internet has created new ways of bringing people together

16. Figure 5.5 | Analysis of High-School Sexual Relationships

17. Figure 5.7 | Romantic “Leftovers”

18. New types of networks – open source
Internet forums
Facebook, myspace
Technically a network
Ties are of different type – not personal, not face to face
Potential for thousands of ties