Essay on Interrelationship between the Formal and Informal Organisations – The formal and the informal organisations are very much interrelated. They are not mutually exclusive. We find many informal organisations existing simultaneously with the formal organisations.
A single formal organisation like the state, the university, the industry, the church, etc., may consist of several informal organisations in the form of ‘chiques’, gangs, friendship groups, etc. The line separating formal and informal organisations is not always clear.
It is observed that no formal organisation by itself is sufficient to achieve its goals. Any formal organisation functions best when the informal organisation supports it. The most orderly and efficient structure does not automatically produce a successful organisational administration if the members have no goodwill towards one another and have 6nly personal hostilities. The exercise of authority in such situations brings nothing but resentment, which makes the orderly intercourse of people difficult, [if not impossible].
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On the contrary, the best goodwill in the world will be insufficient for the successful pursuit of an organisational activity if the formal organisation is deficient. Two good friends placed in a top position in an organisation may very quickly become enemies because of conflict between them.
Further, if the formal organisation breaks down at some point, it may be replaced by informal organisation. “The most efficient and satisfactory organisation is the one in which formal organisation is supported by the informal organisation”. When the discrepancy between the two becomes too great the organisation….is in danger of dissolution.
The relationships between the formal and informal organisations are ‘always subtle, always complicated, and always interesting. And it is in this ared”, particularly with respect to the political organisation of society, that sociology and political science meet on common ground ‘.-Robert Bierstedt
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Sociologist Charles H. Page has opined that the continuous interaction and association among the members of formal organisation result in the emergence of informal structure of roles and relationships. He calls such informal structure consisting of primary group relations, friendships and cliques, ties of mutual obligations of aid and assistance,- ‘bureaucracy’s other face.’
According to Charles Bernard the informal organisations are necessary “to the operation of formal organisations as a means of communication, of cohesion, and of protecting the integrity of the individual.” The experiments of George Elton Mayo conducted in Hawthorne Works in Chicago of the Western Electric Company have proved convincingly that the informal organisations are important and without them no large-scale system could ever be stable and efficient.