 |  Sociology: The Core, 6/e Michael Hughes,
Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University
Carolyn J. Kroehler
James W. Vander Zanden,
The Ohio State University (Emeritus)
Social groups and Formal Organizations
Internet Exercises| Exercise 1
Technological developments have affected formal organizations in a number of ways, among them the way in which information can be transmitted and work can be accomplished outside of the traditional office and beyond traditional office hours. Go to the reengineering.com Web site and read the article entitled “The Many Virtues of the Virtual Office” (http://www.reengineering.com/articles/apr96/VIRTOFC.htm) by Stephen Bouvet; then answer the following questions.
a. Does the rise of the virtual office affect the importance of the seven characteristics of Weber's Ideal Bureaucracy? Does any characteristic become more important because of this change in where work is performed? Does any characteristic become less important?
b. Do you think a virtual office would encourage or discourage social loafing? Explain why you feel this way.Exercise 2
There have been a number of instances in which groupthink has interfered with a group's ability to make good decisions. The trick is to recognize the symptoms of groupthink and find ways to eliminate it even as one is participating in a group that is struggling with a difficult decision.
Log onto About.com/Sociology/Groupthink (http://sociology.about.com/cs/groupthink/). Scroll down and click on the “Groupthink Model” and review the conditions under which groupthink occurs. Then click on “Summary of Groupthink” and read how members of a group may identify signs of groupthink creeping into the group's decision-making process. Use this information to answer the following:
a. If you were a leader of a group struggling to make a difficult decision, what warning signs would alert you to the possibility of groupthink occurring? Name three strategies you could use to eliminate groupthink.
b. How would your options change if you were merely a group member? What risks would you be taking if you tried to intervene and stop groupthink from forming if you weren't the group leader? Exercise 3
Open this Web page: http://lcweb.loc.gov/global/executive/fed.html.
This site, maintained by the Library of Congress, provides a set of links to the executive branch of the U.S. government.
Explore these sites looking for evidence that the executive branch of the U.S. government conforms to Weber's model of bureaucracy.
Write a short report on the evidence you have found.
Which aspects of Weber's model are revealed here? Which aspects are not?
Thinking about the information in these sites and information from other sources, including news reports over the past several years,
does the executive branch conform to Weber's ideal type of bureaucracy? Why or why not?
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education