Lecture:
Social groups
Social groups are one of the elements of the social structure of society. Social groups are associations of people related to each other by common characteristics (gender, age, nationality, profession, income, power, education, and many others), interests, goals, activities. There are more social groups on Earth than individuals, because one and the same individual is included in several groups. Pitirim Sorokin noted that history does not give us a person outside the group. Indeed, from the very birth, a person is in a group - a family, whose members are connected by blood relations and a common life. The circle of groups expands as they grow older, there are courtyard friends, a school class, a sports team, a labor collective, a party and others. A social group is characterized by such signs as internal organization, common goal, joint activity, rules and norms, interaction (active communication).
In sociology, along with the term social group, the term social community is used. Both terms characterize the unification of people, but the concept of community is broader. Community is the unification of various groups of people for some reason or life circumstances. The main difference between a community and a group is that there is no stable and repetitive connection between the members of the community, which is in the group. Examples of social community: men, children, students, Russians, etc.
A transitional position between a social community and a social group is occupied by a quasigroup - it is an unstable short-term community of people, which is of a random nature. Examples of quasigroups are concert audiences, crowds.
Types of social groups
Social groups |
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Views | Signs | Examples of |
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| 1.
| Primary | Direct personal contact, emotional involvement, solidarity, a sense of "we", individual qualities are valued | Family, school class, friends |
| Secondary | Mediated subject contacts, lack of emotional relationships, the ability to perform certain functions is valued | Professional, territorial, demographic groups, party electorates |
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2. | Large | Large numbers | Nations, age groups, professional groups |
Small | Small number | Family, school class, sports team, workforce |
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3. | Formal | They arise at the initiative of the administration, the behavior of group members is determined by job descriptions | Party, labor collective |
Informal | Created spontaneously, the behavior of group members is not regulated | ||
| 4. | Reference | A real or imagined significant group with which a person identifies himself and which he orients himself to | Political party, denomination |
| Unreferential | A real group of little value to the person who studies or works in it | School class, sports section, labor collective | |
5. | Professional | Joint professional activity | Doctors, lawyers, programmers, agronomists, veterinarians |
Ethnic | General history, culture, language, territory | Russians, French, Germans |
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Demographic | Gender, age | Men, women, children, old people |
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Confessional | Common religion | Muslims, Christians, Buddhists |
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Territorial | Common territory of residence, unity of living conditions | Citizens, villagers, provincials |
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Functions of social groups
American sociologist Neil Smelser identified four socially significant functions of social groups:
1. The function of human socialization is the most important. Only in a group does a person become a person and acquire a socio-cultural essence. In the process of socialization, a person masters knowledge, values, norms. Socialization is closely related to education and upbringing. A person receives education at school, college or university, and upbringing is mainly in the family.
2. The instrumental function is to carry out joint activities. Teamwork in a group is essential for the development of a person and society, because a person is not able to do many things alone. By participating in a group, a person acquires material means and realizes himself.
3. The expressive function of the group is to satisfy a person's needs for respect, love, care, approval, and trust. Communication with group members brings joy to the person.
4. The supporting function is manifested in the desire of people to unite in difficult and problematic life situations. Feeling group support helps the person to ease the unpleasant feelings.
Social groups and their classification
The most important elements of the social structure of society are social groups and social communities. As forms of social interaction, they are such associations of people whose joint, solidarity actions are aimed at meeting their needs.
Social group- ϶ᴛᴏ a set of people with common social characteristics, performing a socially necessary function in the structure of the social division of labor and activity. Social groups are characterized by:
- stable interaction, contributing to the strength and stability of their existence;
- a relatively high degree of unity and cohesion;
- clearly expressed homogeneity of the composition, suggesting the presence of signs inherent in all members of the group;
The ability to enter broader social communities as structural units.
Since each person in the process of his life is a member of a wide variety of social groups, differing in size, nature of interaction, degree of organization and many other characteristics, it is extremely important to classify them according to certain criteria.
There are the following types of social groups:
1. Given the dependence on the nature of the interaction - primary and secondary.
Primary group is a group in which the interaction between members is direct, interpersonal and characterized by a high level of emotionality (family, classroom, peer group, etc.). Carrying out the socialization of the individual, the primary group acts as a link between the individual and society.
Secondary group- this is a larger group in which interaction is subordinated to the achievement of a certain goal and is of a formal, impersonal character.
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In these groups, the focus is not on the personal, unique qualities of the group members, but on their ability to perform certain functions. Organizations (industrial, political, religious, etc.) are examples of such groups.
2. Considering the dependence on the way of organizing and regulating interaction - formal and informal.
Formal group- ϶ᴛᴏ a group with a legal status, interaction in which is regulated by a system of formalized norms, rules, laws. These groups have a deliberately set goal, a normatively fixed hierarchical structure and act in accordance with the administratively established order (organizations, enterprises, etc.).
Informal group arises spontaneously, on the basis of common views, interests and interpersonal interactions. It is deprived of official regulation and legal status. These groups are usually led by informal leaders. Examples are friendships, youth groups, rock music lovers, and so on.
3. Taking into account the dependence on the belonging to them of individuals - ingroup and outgroup.
Ingroup- ϶ᴛᴏ a group to which the individual feels a direct belonging and identifies it as “my”, “our” (for example, “my family”, “my class”, “my company”, etc.).
Outgroup- ϶ᴛᴏ a group to which this individual does not belong and, therefore, evaluates it as “alien”, not his own (other families, another religious group, another ethnic group, etc.). Each individual of the ingroup has its own scale for evaluating outgroups: from indifferent to aggressively hostile. For this reason, sociologists propose to measure the degree of acceptance or closeness in relation to other groups according to the so-called "scale of social distance" of Bogardus.
Reference group- ϶ᴛᴏ a real or imaginary social group, the system of values, norms and assessments of which serves as a standard for the individual. The term was first coined by the American social psychologist Hyman. The reference group in the system of relations "personality - society" performs two important functions: normative, being for the individual a source of norms of behavior, social attitudes and value orientations; comparative, acting as a standard for the individual, allows him to determine his place in the social structure of society, to evaluate himself and others.
4. Taking into account the dependence on the quantitative composition and the form of implementation of connections - small and large.
Small group- ϶ᴛᴏ a directly contacting small group of people, united to carry out joint activities.
The small group can take many forms, but the initial ones are "diad" and "triad", they are called the simplest molecules of the small group. The dyad consists of two people and is considered an extremely fragile union, three people actively interact in the triad, it is more stable.
The characteristic features of the small group are:
- small and stable staff (usually from 2 to 15 people);
- spatial proximity of group members;
- stability and duration of existence:
- a high degree of coincidence of group values, norms and patterns of behavior;
- the intensity of interpersonal relationships;
- a developed sense of belonging to a group;
- informal control and information saturation in the group.
Large group- ϶ᴛᴏ a group that is numerous in its composition, which is created for a specific purpose and the interaction in which is mainly mediated (labor collectives, enterprises, etc.). This also includes numerous groups of people who have common interests and occupy the same position in the social structure of society. For example, social-class, professional, political and other organizations.
Team(lat. collectivus) is a social group in which all vital connections between people are mediated through socially important goals.
Characteristic features of the team:
- combination of interests of the individual and society;
- a community of goals and principles that act for team members as value orientations and norms of activity. The team performs the following functions:
- subject - the solution of the problem for which it is created;
- social and educational - a combination of the interests of the individual and society.
5. Considering the dependence on socially significant features - real and nominal.
Real groups are groups distinguished according to socially significant criteria:
- gender - men and women;
- age - children, youth, adults, elderly;
- income - rich, poor, well-to-do;
- nationality - Russians, French, Americans;
- marital status - married, single, divorced;
- profession (occupation) - doctors, economists, managers;
- place of residence - townspeople, rural residents.
Nominal (conditional) groups, sometimes called social categories, are singled out for the purpose of conducting a sociological study or statistical accounting of the population (for example, to find out the number of passengers on privileges, single mothers, students receiving personal scholarships, etc.).
Along with social groups in sociology, the concept of ʼʼ quasigroupʼʼ.
Quasigroup- ϶ᴛᴏ an informal, spontaneous, unstable social community that does not have a definite structure and system of values, the interaction of people in which is, as a rule, an external and short-term nature.
The main types of quasigroups are:
Audience is a social community united by interaction with a communicator and receiving information from him. The heterogeneity of this social education, due to the difference in personal qualities, as well as cultural values and norms of the people included in it, determines the different degree of perception and assessment of the information received.
Crowd- a temporary, relatively unorganized, unstructured accumulation of people united in a closed physical space by a common interest, but at the same time devoid of a clearly perceived goal and related to each other by the similarity of an emotional state. Highlight the general characteristics of the crowd:
- suggestibility - people in a crowd are usually more suggestible than outside it;
- anonymity - an individual, being in a crowd, as if merges with it, becomes unrecognizable, believing that it is difficult to “calculate”;
- spontaneity (contagion) - people in a crowd are subject to rapid transmission and change of emotional state;
- unconsciousness - an individual feels invulnerable in a crowd, out of social control, in this regard, his actions are "saturated" with collective unconscious instincts and become unpredictable.
Given the dependence on the method of forming the crowd and the behavior of people in it, the following types of it are distinguished:
- random crowd - an indefinite collection of individuals formed spontaneously without any purpose (to watch a celebrity suddenly appear or a traffic accident);
- Conventional crowd - a relatively structured gathering of people influenced by planned predetermined norms (spectators in the theater, fans in the stadium, etc.);
- an expressive crowd - a social quasigroup formed for the personal pleasure of its members, which in itself is already a goal and a result (discos, rock festivals, etc.);
- an active (active) crowd - a group performing some kind of action, which can act in the form of: a gathering - an emotionally excited crowd, gravitating towards violent actions, and a rebellious crowd - a group characterized by special aggressiveness and destructive actions.
Social groups and their classification - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "Social groups and their classification" 2017, 2018.
A person participates in public life not as an isolated individual, but as a member of social communities - a family, a friendly company, a work collective, a nation, a class, etc. His activities are largely determined by the activities of those groups in which he is included, as well as interactions within and between groups. Accordingly, in sociology, society acts not only as an abstraction, but also as a set of specific social groups that are in a certain dependence on each other.
The structure of the entire social system, the totality of interrelated and interacting social groups and social communities, as well as social institutions and relations between them is the social structure of society.
In sociology, the problem of dividing society into groups (including nations, classes), their interaction is one of the cardinal and is characteristic of all levels of theory.
Social group concept
Group is one of the main elements of the social structure of society and is a collection of people united by any essential feature - common activity, common economic, demographic, ethnographic, psychological characteristics. This concept is used in jurisprudence, economics, history, ethnography, demography, psychology. In sociology, the term "social group" is commonly used.
Not every community of people is called a social group. If people are just in a certain place (on a bus, at a stadium), then such a temporary community can be called “aggregation”. A social community that unites people only on one or several similar grounds is also not called a group; the term "category" is used here. For example, a sociologist might classify students between the ages of 14 and 18 as youth; elderly people to whom the state pays benefits, provides benefits for utility bills - to the category of pensioners, etc.
Social group - it is an objectively existing stable community, a set of individuals interacting in a certain way based on several characteristics, in particular, the shared expectations of each member of the group in relation to others.
The concept of a group as an independent one, along with the concepts of personality (individual) and society, is already found in Aristotle. In modern times, T. Hobbes was the first to define a group as "a known number of people united by a common interest or common cause."
Under social group it is necessary to understand any objectively existing stable set of people connected by a system of relations governed by formal or informal social institutions. Society in sociology is viewed not as a monolithic entity, but as a set of many social groups interacting and being in a certain dependence on each other. Each person during his life belongs to many similar groups, including a family, a friendly collective, a student group, a nation, etc. The creation of groups is facilitated by similar interests and goals of people, as well as the realization of the fact that by combining actions one can achieve a significantly greater result than by individual action. At the same time, the social activity of each person is largely determined by the activities of those groups in which he is included, as well as by interaction within and between groups. It can be argued with complete confidence that only in a group does a person become a person and is able to find complete self-expression.
Concept, formation and types of social groups
The most important elements of the social structure of society are social groups and . As forms of social interaction, they represent such associations of people, joint, solidarity actions of which are aimed at meeting their needs.
There are many definitions of the concept of "social group". So, in the opinion of some Russian sociologists, a social group is a collection of people with common social characteristics, performing a socially necessary function in the structure of the social division of labor and activity. The American sociologist R. Merton defines a social group as a set of individuals who interact in a certain way with each other, who are aware of their belonging to this group and who are recognized as members of this group from the point of view of others. He identifies three main features in a social group: interaction, membership and unity.
Unlike mass communities, social groups are characterized by:
- stable interaction, contributing to the strength and stability of their existence;
- a relatively high degree of unity and cohesion;
- clearly expressed homogeneity of the composition, suggesting the presence of signs inherent in all members of the group;
- the possibility of entering broader social communities as structural units.
Since each person in the process of his life is a member of a wide variety of social groups, differing in size, nature of interaction, degree of organization and many other characteristics, it becomes necessary to classify them according to certain criteria.
There are the following types of social groups:
1. Depending on the nature of the interaction - primary and secondary (Appendix, Scheme 9).
Primary group, by definition Ch. Cooley, is a group in which the interaction between members is direct, interpersonal and characterized by a high level of emotionality (family, school class, peer group, etc.). Carrying out the socialization of the individual, the primary group acts as a link between the individual and society.
Secondary group- this is a larger group, in which interaction is subordinated to the achievement of a specific goal and is of a formal, impersonal nature. In these groups, the focus is not on the personal, unique qualities of the group members, but on their ability to perform certain functions. Organizations (industrial, political, religious, etc.) are examples of such groups.
2. Depending on the way of organizing and regulating interaction - formal and informal.
Formal group Is a group with a legal status, interaction in which is regulated by a system of formalized norms, rules, laws. These groups have a deliberately set purpose, statutory hierarchical structure and act in accordance with the administratively established order (organizations, enterprises, etc.).
Informal grouparises spontaneously, based on common views, interests and interpersonal interactions. It is deprived of official regulation and legal status. These groups are usually led by informal leaders. Examples are friendly companies, youth associations, rock music lovers, etc.
3. Depending on the individuals belonging to them - ingroup and outgroup.
Ingroup- this is a group to which the individual feels a direct belonging and identifies it as “mine”, “our” (for example, “my family”, “my class”, “my company”, etc.).
Outgroup - this is a group to which this individual does not belong and therefore evaluates it as “alien”, not his own (other families, another religious group, another ethnic group, etc.). Each individual of the ingroup has its own scale for evaluating outgroups: from indifferent to aggressively hostile. Therefore, sociologists propose to measure the degree of acceptance or closeness in relation to other groups according to the so-called "Scale of social distance" Bogardus.
Reference group - it is a real or imaginary social group, the system of values, norms and assessments of which serves as a standard for the individual. The term was first coined by the American social psychologist Hyman. The reference group in the system of relations "personality - society" performs two important functions: normative being for the individual a source of norms of behavior, social attitudes and value orientations; comparative, acting as a standard for the individual, it allows him to determine his place in the social structure of society, to evaluate himself and others.
4. Depending on the quantitative composition and the form of implementation of connections - small and large.
Is a directly contacting small group of people united to carry out joint activities.
A small group can take many forms, but the original are "dyad" and "triad", they are called the simplest molecules small group. Dyadconsists of two people and is considered an extremely fragile association, in triad actively interact three persons, it is more stable.
The characteristic features of the small group are:
- small and stable composition (usually from 2 to 30 people);
- spatial proximity of group members;
- stability and duration of existence:
- a high degree of coincidence of group values, norms and patterns of behavior;
- the intensity of interpersonal relationships;
- a developed sense of belonging to a group;
- informal control and information saturation in the group.
Large group- This is a group that is numerous in its composition, which is created for a specific purpose and the interaction in which is mainly mediated (labor collectives, enterprises, etc.). This also includes numerous groups of people who have common interests and occupy the same position in the social structure of society. For example, social class, professional, political and other organizations.
A collective (lat.collectivus) is a social group in which all vital connections between people are mediated through socially important goals.
Characteristic features of the team:
- combination of interests of the individual and society;
- commonality of goals and principles that act for team members as value orientations and norms of activity. The team performs the following functions:
- subject - solving the problem for which it is created;
- socio-educational - combination of interests of the individual and society.
5. Depending on socially significant features - real and nominal.
Real groups are groups distinguished according to socially significant criteria:
- floor - men and women;
- age - children, youth, adults, elderly;
- income - rich, poor, well-to-do;
- nationality - Russians, French, Americans;
- marital status - married, single, divorced;
- profession (occupation) - doctors, economists, managers;
- location - townspeople, villagers.
Nominal (conditional) groups, sometimes called social categories, are allocated for the purpose of conducting a sociological study or statistical accounting of the population (for example, to find out the number of privileged passengers, single mothers, students receiving personal scholarships, etc.).
Along with social groups in sociology, the concept of "quasigroup" is distinguished.
A quasigroup is an informal, spontaneous, unstable social community that does not have a specific structure and value system, the interaction of people in which is, as a rule, an external and short-term nature.
The main types of quasigroups are:
AudienceIs a social community united by interaction with a communicator and receiving information from him. The heterogeneity of this social education, due to the difference in personal qualities, as well as cultural values and norms of the people included in it, determines the different degree of perception and assessment of the information received.
- a temporary, relatively unorganized, unstructured congestion of people united in a closed physical space by a community of interests, but at the same time devoid of a clearly perceived goal and related to each other by the similarity of an emotional state. Highlight the general characteristics of the crowd:
- suggestibility - people in a crowd are usually more suggestible than outside;
- anonymity - the individual, being in the crowd, as if merges with it, becomes unrecognizable, believing that it is difficult to "calculate";
- spontaneity (infectivity) - people in a crowd are subject to rapid transmission and change of emotional state;
- unconsciousness - the individual feels invulnerable in the crowd, out of social control, so his actions are "saturated" with collective unconscious instincts and become unpredictable.
Depending on the way the crowd is formed and the behavior of people, the following types are distinguished in it:
- random crowd - an indefinite set of individuals, formed spontaneously without any purpose (to observe a suddenly appeared celebrity or a traffic accident);
- conventional crowd - a relatively structured gathering of people influenced by planned predetermined norms (spectators in the theater, fans in the stadium, etc.);
- expressive crowd - a social quasigroup formed for the personal pleasure of its members, which in itself is already a goal and a result (discos, rock festivals, etc.);
- active (active) crowd - a group that performs some action, which can act in the form of: gatherings - an emotionally agitated, violent crowd, and the revolted crowd - a group characterized by special aggressiveness and destructive actions.
In the history of the development of sociological science, various theories have developed that explain the mechanisms of crowd formation (G. Le Bon, R. Turner, and others). But for all the dissimilarity of points of view, one thing is clear: to manage the command of the crowd, it is important: 1) to identify the sources of the emergence of norms; 2) identify their carriers by structuring the crowd; 3) to purposefully influence their creators, offering the crowd meaningful goals and algorithms for further actions.
Among quasigroups, social circles are the closest to social groups.
Social circles are social communities that are created for the purpose of exchanging information between their members.
Polish sociologist J. Szczepanski identifies the following types of social circles: contact - communities that constantly meet on the basis of certain conditions (interest in sports competitions, sports, etc.); professional - gathering to exchange information exclusively on a professional basis; status - formed about the exchange of information between people with the same social status (aristocratic circles, women's or men's circles, etc.); friendly - based on the joint holding of any events (companies, groups of friends).
In conclusion, we note that quasigroups are some transitional formations that, with the acquisition of such characteristics as organization, stability and structuredness, turn into a social group.
One of the general forms of social interaction is a social group, in which the behavior of each member is to a tangible extent determined by the activities and existence of other members.
Merton defines a group as a set of people who interact with each other in a certain way, are aware of their belonging to this group and are perceived by its members from the point of view of other people. The group has its own identity from the point of view of outsiders.
They consist of a small number of people between whom there are stable emotional relationships, personal relationships based on their individual characteristics. Secondary groups are formed from people between whom there are almost no emotional relationships, their interaction is due to the desire to achieve certain goals, their social roles, business relationships and communication methods are clearly defined. In critical and emergency situations, people give preference to the primary group, show loyalty to the members of the primary group.
People join groups for a number of reasons. The group performs:
as a means of biological survival;
as a means of socialization and formation of the human psyche (one of the main functions of the group is the function of socialization);
as a way of performing certain work that cannot be done by one person (instrumental function of the group);
as a means of satisfying a person's need for communication, for an affectionate and benevolent attitude towards oneself, for gaining social approval, respect, recognition, trust (expressive function of the group);
as a means of weakening unpleasant feelings of fear, anxiety (supporting function of the group);
as a source of norms of behavior, social attitudes and value orientations of a person (normative function of a group);
as a source of a standard by which a person can evaluate himself and other people (the comparative function of a group) I am a means of informational, material and other exchange. "The totality of individuals in mental interaction constitutes a social group, and this interaction is reduced to the exchange of various ideas, feelings, wants, mental experiences" (P. Sorokin).
There are several types of groups:
1) conditional and real;
2) permanent and temporary;
3) large and small.
Conditional groups of people are united according to a certain criterion (gender, age, profession, etc.). Real persons included in such a group do not have direct interpersonal relationships, they may not know anything about each other, even never meet each other.
Real groups of people, really existing as communities in a certain space and time, are characterized by the fact that its members are interconnected by objective relationships. Real human groups differ in size, external and internal organization, purpose and social significance. The contact group brings together people who have common goals and interests in a particular area of life and activity. A small group is a fairly stable association of people connected by mutual contacts.
A small group is a small group of people (from 3 to 15 people) who are united by common social activities, are in direct communication, contribute to the emergence of emotional relationships, the development of group norms and the development of group processes.
With a large number of people, the group is usually divided into subgroups. Distinctive features of a small group: spatial and temporal co-presence of people. This co-presence of people enables contacts that include interactive, informational, perceptual aspects of communication and interaction. Perceptual aspects allow a person to perceive the individuality of all other people in a group, and only in this case can we talk about a small group.
Interaction is the activity of everyone, it is both a stimulus and a reaction to everyone else.
Joint activity implies a constant goal in cash. The realization of a common goal as a certain anticipated result of any activity contributes in a certain sense to the realization of the needs of everyone and at the same time corresponds to the general needs. The goal as a prototype of the result and the initial moment of joint activity determines the dynamics of the functioning of a small group. Three kinds of goals can be distinguished:
1) near perspectives, goals that are quickly realized in time and express the needs of this group;
2) secondary goals are longer in time and bring the group to the interests of the secondary collective (the interests of the enterprise or the school as a whole);
3) long-term perspectives unite the primary group with the problems of the functioning of the social whole. The socially valuable content of joint activities should become personally significant for each member of the group. It is not so much the objective goal of the group that is important as its image, that is, how it is perceived by the members of the group. The goals, characteristics of joint activities "cement" the group into one whole, determine the external formal-target structure of the group.
The presence of an organizing beginning in the group is provided. It can be personified in any of the members of the group (in the leader, leader), or it can not be, but this does not mean that there is no organizing principle. It's just that in this case, the leadership function is distributed among the members of the group, and leadership is situationally specific (in a certain situation, a person who is more advanced in this area than others takes on the functions of a leader).
Division and differentiation of personal roles (division and cooperation of labor, power division, that is, the activity of group members is not homogeneous, they make their own, different contributions to joint activities, play different roles).
The presence of emotional relationships between group members, which affect group activity, can lead to the division of the group into subgroups, form the internal structure of interpersonal relationships in the group.
The development of a specific group culture - norms, rules, standards of life, behavior that determine the expectations of group members in relation to each other and determine group dynamics. These norms are the most important sign of group integrity. We can speak about the formed norm if it determines the behavior of the majority of the members of the group, despite all the differences of the members of the group. Deviation from group standards, norms, as a rule, is allowed only to the leader.
The group has the following psychological characteristics: group interests, group needs, etc. (Fig. 9).
The group has the following general patterns:
1) the group will inevitably be structured;
2) the group is developing (progress or regression, but dynamic processes occur in the group);
3) fluctuation - a change in a person's place in a group can occur repeatedly.
According to psychological characteristics, they are distinguished:
1) membership groups;
2) reference groups (reference), the norms and rules of which serve as a model for the individual.
Reference groups can be real or imagined, positive or negative, they may or may not coincide with membership, but they do:
1) the function of social comparison, since the reference group is the source of positive and negative samples;
2) a normative function, since the reference group is a source of norms, rules to which a person seeks to join.
By the nature and forms of organization of activity, the following levels of development of contact groups are distinguished (Table 5).
Unorganized (nominal groups, conglomerates) or randomly organized groups (moviegoers, random members of excursion groups, etc.) are characterized by a voluntary temporary association of people on the basis of a similarity of interests or a community of space.
Association - a group in which relationships are mediated only by personally significant goals (a group of friends, friends).
Cooperation is a group that is distinguished by a really operating organizational structure, interpersonal relations are of a business nature, subordinate to the achievement of the required result in performing a specific task in a certain type of activity.
A corporation is a group united only by internal goals that do not go beyond its scope, striving to achieve its corporate goals at any cost, including at the expense of other groups. Sometimes the corporate spirit can take place in work or study groups, when the group takes on the characteristics of group selfishness.
A team is a time-stable organizational group of interacting people with specific management bodies, united by the goals of joint socially useful activities and the complex dynamics of formal (business) and informal relationships between members of the group.
Thus, real human groups differ in size, external and internal organization, purpose and social significance. As the size of the group increases, the role of the leader increases.
The interdependence of the parties, group members in the process of interaction may be equal, or one of the parties may have a stronger influence on the other. Therefore, we can distinguish one - and two-way interaction. Interaction can cover both all spheres of human life - total interaction, and only one specific form or sector of activity. In independent sectors, people may have no influence on each other.
The direction of the relationship can be solidary, antagonistic or mixed. In solidarity interaction, the aspirations and efforts of the parties coincide. If the desires and efforts of the parties are in conflict, then this is an antagonistic form of interaction, if they coincide only in part, this is a mixed type of direction of interaction.
Organized and unorganized interactions can be distinguished. Interaction is organized if the relations of the parties, their actions have developed into a certain structure of rights, duties, functions and are based on a certain system of values.
Unorganized interactions - when relations and values are in an amorphous state, therefore, the rights, duties, functions, social positions are not defined.
Sorokin, combining various interactions, distinguishes the following types of social interaction:
- an organized-antagonistic system of interaction based on coercion;
- an organized solidarity system of interaction based on voluntary membership;
- an organized-mixed, solidary-antagonistic system, which is partly governed by coercion, and partly by voluntary support of an established system of relationships and values.
“Most of the organized socially interactive systems, from the family to the church and the state,” notes Sorokin, “belong to the organized-mixed type. And also can be disorganized-antagonistic; unorganized solidary; disorganized-mixed type of interactions ”.
In long-standing organized groups Sorokin identified 3 types of relationships: family type (interactions are total, extensive, intense, solidarity in direction and lasting, internal unity of the group members); contractual type (the limited time of action of the parties interacting within the contractual sector, the solidarity of relations is selfish and is aimed at obtaining mutual benefit, pleasure, or even getting "as much as possible for less", while the other party is considered not as an ally, but as some "tool" that can provide a service, make a profit, etc.); coercive type (antagonism of relations, various forms of coercion: psychological coercion, economic, physical, ideological, military).
The transition from one type to another can be smooth or unpredictable. Mixed types of social interactions are often observed: partially contractual, family, compulsory.
Sorokin emphasizes that social interactions act as sociocultural: 3 processes take place simultaneously - the interaction of norms, values, standards contained in the consciousness of a person and a group; interaction of specific people and groups; interaction of materialized values of social life.
Depending on the unifying values, one can distinguish:
- one-sided groups built on one set of basic values (biosocial groups: racial, gender, age; socio-cultural groups: genus, language group, religious group, trade union, political or scientific union);
- multilateral groups, built around a combination of several series of values: family, community, nation, social class.
You can classify groups in terms of the specifics of the dissemination of information and the organization of interaction between members of the group.
So, the pyramid group is:
a) a closed-type system;
b) it is structured hierarchically, that is, the higher the place, the higher the rights and influence;
c) information flows mainly vertically, from bottom to top (reports) and top to bottom (orders);
d) each person knows his tough place;
e) traditions are appreciated in the group;
f) the leader of this group must take care of the subordinates, in return they obey unquestioningly;
g) such groups are found in the army, in established production, as well as in extreme situations.
A random group, where everyone makes decisions independently, people are relatively independent, move in different directions, but something unites them. Such groups are found in creative teams, as well as in situations of market uncertainty, typical for new commercial structures.
An open group, where everyone has the right to take the initiative, all together openly discuss issues. The main thing for them is a common cause. There is a free reversal of roles, emotional openness is inherent, informal communication between people is strong.
A group of a synchronous type, when all people are in different places, but everyone moves in the same direction, since everyone knows what to do, everyone has one image, one model, and although everyone moves himself, everything is synchronous in one direction, even without discussion and agreement. If an obstacle is encountered, each group reinforces its distinctive feature:
- pyramidal - strengthens order, discipline, control;
- random - its success depends on the abilities, potential of each of the group members;
- open - its success depends on the ability to reach agreement, to negotiate, and its leader must have high communicative qualities, be able to listen, understand, agree;
- synchronous - its success depends on the talent and authority of the “prophet” who convinced and led people, and people believe and obey him infinitely. It is generally accepted that the most optimal group in terms of size should be 7 + 2 (i.e. 5, 7, 9 people). It is also known that a group functions well when there is an odd number of people in it, since in an even number of people, two warring halves can form. A team functions better if its members differ from each other in age and gender. On the other hand, some management psychologists argue that groups with 12 people work most effectively. The fact is that large groups are poorly managed, and collectives of 7-8 people are the most conflicted, as they usually split into two warring informal subgroups; with a larger number of people, conflicts, as a rule, are smoothed out.
Conflict of a small group (if it is not formed by like-minded people) is not least due to the fact that in any work collective there are 8, and if there are not enough employees, then someone has to play not only for themselves, but also for “that guy ", Which creates a conflict situation. The team leader (manager) needs to be familiar with these roles. This is:
1) a coordinator who is respected and knows how to work with people;
2) a generator of ideas, striving to dig into the truth. He is most often unable to translate his ideas into practice;
3) an enthusiast who takes on a new business himself and inspires others;
4) a controller-analyst, capable of soberly assessing the idea put forward. He is executive, but more often he shuns people;
5) a seeker of benefits, interested in the external side of the case. Performing and can be a good mediator between people, since he is usually the most popular member of the collective;
6) a performer who knows how to bring an idea to life is capable of painstaking work, but often “drowns” in trifles;
7) a hard worker who does not seek to take anyone's place;
8) a grinder - it is necessary so as not to cross the last line.
Thus, in order for the team to successfully cope with the work, it must not only consist of good specialists. The members of this collective as individuals must in their totality correspond to the necessary set of roles. And in the distribution of official positions, one must proceed from the suitability of individuals to perform a particular role, and not from the personal likes or dislikes of the manager.