Chapter 5: Vocabulary Flashcards
aggregate
a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but share little else in common.
authoritarian leaders
leaders who make all major group decisions and assign tasks to members.
bureaucracy
an organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters.
bureaucratic personality
a psychological construct that describes those workers who are more concerned with following correct procedures than they are with getting the job done correctly.
category
a number of people who may never have met one another but share a similar characteristic, such as education level, age, race, or gender.
conformity
the process of maintaining or changing behavior to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.
democratic leaders
leaders who encourage group discussion and decision making through consensus building.
dyad
a group composed of two members.
expressive leadership
leadership that provides emotional support for members.
goal displacement
a process that occurs in organizations when the rules become an end in themselves rather than a means to an end, and organizational survival becomes more important than achievement of goals.
groupthink
the process by which members of a cohesive group arrive at a decision that many individual members privately believe is unwise.
ideal type
an abstract model that describes the recurring characteristics of some phenomenon.
informal side of a bureaucracy
those aspects of participants’ day-to-day activities and interactions that ignore, bypass, or do not correspond with the official rules and procedures of the bureaucracy.
ingroup
a group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity.
instrumental leadership
goal- or task-oriented leadership.
iron law of oligarchy
according to Robert Michels, the tendency of bureaucracies to be ruled by a few people.
laissez-faire leaders
leaders who are only minimally involved in decision making and who encourage group members to make their own decisions.
leadership
the ability to influence what goes on in a group or social system.
network
a web of social relationships that links one person with other people and, through them, with other people they know.
outgroup
a group to which a person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility.
rationality
the process by which traditional methods of social organization, characterized by informality and spontaneity, are gradually replaced by efficiently administered formal rules and procedures.
reference group
a group that strongly influences a person’s behavior and social attitudes, regardless of whether that individual is an actual member.
small group
a collectivity small enough for all members to be acquainted with one another and to interact simultaneously.
triad
a group composed of three members.
