Essay on Organised Groups – Sociology – Organised groups are often called associational groups. These groups come to be through a formally articulated process known as ‘organisation’.
Here, the word ‘organisation’ does not refer to social organisation nor does it specifically mean ‘bureaucracy’. It only means the organisation of associations. Organisation is an important phenomenon of modern complex societies.
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1. Element of Organisation:
In modern complex societies a very large number of social relations and social interactions among people are conducted in organised groups. As Ogburn and Nimkoff have said, an organisation is an active group device forgetting something done. It helps us to interact with others for the pursuit of a common goal. It assigns us statuses and roles.
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It regulates our relations and controls our behaviour. It decides who shall command and who shall obey in a group. It adds to the stability of the group and makes it durable. It is the factor of organisation that makes our life livable in innumerable groups.
2. Size of the Groups:
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Organised groups may be as small as the family, the neighbourhood, children’s play group, or as big as political parties, trade unions, international associations and so on. Organised groups may be locally limited or they may be spread over a vast area.
3. Nature of Social Relations:
The social relations in the case of the organised groups may be personal or impersonal, intimate or non-intimate, direct or indirect, specialised or non-specialised, contractual or non-contractual, economic or non-economic in nature. In this sense, all the primary groups and majority of the secondary groups come under the category of organised groups.
4. Durability of the Group:
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Organised groups are comparatively durable. They are not impermanent nor are they transitory. The durability of the group helps the members to pursue their specific interest. Members cooperate among themselves to a great extent for the realisation of their ends; identity of interests may also contribute to a feeling of unity or to a sense of belonging.
5. Group Structure:
The structure of the organised groups may be simple as it is in the case of family or it may be complex as in the case of the modern business corporations or industries. Organised groups may be formal or informal in nature.
The social relations among the members may be formal and specialised as it is in the case of trade unions or political parties, or the relations may be highly informal and unspecialised as it is in the case of friends’ clubs, children’s play groups, peer groups, ‘cliques’ and so on.
6. Further, organised groups may be found in the institutional and non-institutional, territorial and non-territorial, voluntary and involuntary, ‘in-group’ and ‘out-group’ and other forms or types. Modern civilised societies consist of a number of such organised groups.