Chapter 5: Vocabulary

Question 1

aggregate

Answer 1

a collection of people who happen to be in the same place at the same time but share little else in common.

Question 2

authoritarian leaders

Answer 2

leaders who make all major group decisions and assign tasks to members.

Question 3

bureaucracy

Answer 3

an organizational model characterized by a hierarchy of authority, a clear division of labor, explicit rules and procedures, and impersonality in personnel matters.

Question 4

bureaucratic personality

Answer 4

a psychological construct that describes those workers who are more concerned with following correct procedures than they are with getting the job done correctly.

Question 5

category

Answer 5

a number of people who may never have met one another but share a similar characteristic, such as education level, age, race, or gender.

Question 6

conformity

Answer 6

the process of maintaining or changing behavior to comply with the norms established by a society, subculture, or other group.

Question 7

democratic leaders

Answer 7

leaders who encourage group discussion and decision making through consensus building.

Question 8

dyad

Answer 8

a group composed of two members.

Question 9

expressive leadership

Answer 9

leadership that provides emotional support for members.

Question 10

goal displacement

Answer 10

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.

Question 11

groupthink

Answer 11

the process by which members of a cohesive group arrive at a decision that many individual members privately believe is unwise.

Question 12

ideal type

Answer 12

an abstract model that describes the recurring characteristics of some phenomenon.

Question 13

informal side of a bureaucracy

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

ingroup

Answer 14

a group to which a person belongs and with which the person feels a sense of identity.

Question 15

instrumental leadership

Answer 15

goal- or task-oriented leadership.

Question 16

iron law of oligarchy

Answer 16

according to Robert Michels, the tendency of bureaucracies to be ruled by a few people.

Question 17

laissez-faire leaders

Answer 17

leaders who are only minimally involved in decision making and who encourage group members to make their own decisions.

Question 18

leadership

Answer 18

the ability to influence what goes on in a group or social system.

Question 19

network

Answer 19

a web of social relationships that links one person with other people and, through them, with other people they know.

Question 20

outgroup

Answer 20

a group to which a person does not belong and toward which the person may feel a sense of competitiveness or hostility.

Question 21

rationality

Answer 21

the process by which traditional methods of social organization, characterized by informality and spontaneity, are gradually replaced by efficiently administered formal rules and procedures.

Question 22

reference group

Answer 22

a group that strongly influences a person’s behavior and social attitudes, regardless of whether that individual is an actual member.

Question 23

small group

Answer 23

a collectivity small enough for all members to be acquainted with one another and to interact simultaneously.

Question 24

triad

Answer 24

a group composed of three members.