Introduction
Social groups are formations or a collection of two or more people who interrelate and work cooperatively towards accomplishing common set and internalized goals. In the pursuit of these set targets, each member is assigned obligations, responsibilities and roles. A social group is distinct from other groups or collections of people in that there is a shared culture, ideology and identity that form the binding forces holding the group together. Social groups are classified in to either primary or secondary. The primary ones are characteristic with intimate relations, small size and long life. Secondary social groups on the other hand are larger, institutionalized and have formal relations. Both the primary and secondary groups either break or live long depending on the management, interrelationships and success towards the common set goals. (Schaefer, 2006)
The social groups I have been part of include my high school as a secondary social group that had the common goal of imparting secondary education. It also sought to give students the social maturity that can only be attained from high school, develop a comprehensive sense of understanding about oneself and the people they live together with and the knowledge on development that majorly takes place within the high school age. The goals of these groups also form the role it plays in the society.
The social function played by the high school includes development of the sense of cooperative work and community. The other social function of this group is to nurture leadership and other talents and skills of students as these abilities show during the development period covered by high school education. High school also plays the social function of nurturing the students to maturity in the social and physical aspects of individuals. (Schaefer, 2006)
I have also been a member of a team which is a secondary social group. Our team was meant to help us achieve the highly complex tasks that also needed cooperative work so as to succeed having members with complementary skills to help strengthen the weak points of the members and further develop the strengths. Being a member of this high school football team the common goal and role was to achieve physical fitness, win in high school football matches to get the promotional rewards that were given to the winners like sporting equipment and to further develop the football skills that can also form a lifelong profession. The social function of the football team was that it developed us socially, was a source of physical and mental health development and it developed our football career. (Schaefer, 2006)
Currently I am a member of a franchise which generally speaking is a group of workers who operate in different regions using the rights granted to them by the franchiser to market and distribute his products. The marketing work is paid on a commission basis in addition to the contracted monthly salary. Working with this advertising firm, our work is communicating the products of different producers to potential consumers on a contract agreement with the producer. Our firm does this by persuading the consumers and potential consumers to purchase or increase the consumption of the particular products or services.
The mode that the firm often uses is television and magazine advertising. The role of this secondary group in this case is to market the brand, products and services of the producers who seek for the firm’s services. The social function the institution plays is generally availing the information about these products and services to the potential consumers and increasing the level of purchase of the products of the producers we are working for. (Hare, 1962)
The effects of the franchising social group to my personal and professional development include
The advertising work being social based has helped my sense of working cooperatively with others in a complementary working environment. During the time of work with the advertising firm my professional skills have been highly cultivated from attending marketing seminars organized by the firm. From working with the firm I gained the skills of salesmanship which I did not have by the time I joined the group. Professionally it created employment and a source of income that I have used for my personal development. (Huber &Shipan, 2002)
From a personal point of view the group has given me a chance to advance my social status as I have been promoted once which further improves the feelings of personal worth and esteem. Personally and professionally I have learnt so much about advertising and customer creation methods that I can use to the success of my personal investment projects. The group has also helped me in encouraging and motivating others on maters of success in the society including family and friends. Working as an advertiser has also helped develop my expressive power to a great extent. (Huber &Shipan, 2002)
Weber’s characteristics of an ideal bureaucratic organization
For a bureaucratic system of leadership to work effectively there should be specialization on given activities as part and component of the whole system. There should also be an expressly planned hierarchy of power and rule, rules and policies should be written down, impartiality should be employed and there should be recording of everything taking place. The characteristics of bureaucratic systems that have been applied best within the operation of this firm are that of specialization as every member is assigned their specific roles. (Schaefer, 2006)
The benefits of working within a bureaucratic system are that there is respect, responsibility and accountability. Earning and promotion is by merit and sanctions are based on rules and regulation. The negative effect of working with such a system are that decision making is very slow, vices of tribalism and corruption affect the process, creativity is not cultivated and opinion of lower staff is often not recognized. (Schaefer, 2006)
Conclusion
It can be argued that social groups especially the secondary type that have goals that need to be achieved through enforcement and implementation of the various activities that form the whole system, are better off working under a bureaucratic system that attempts to make the operation of each component within the system efficient. It can also be argued that a bureaucratic system is comparatively more efficient when the ideal characteristics of such a model are well used.
List of references
Hare, A. (1962). Handbook of small group research. New York: Macmillan.
Huber & Shipan. (2002). Deliberate discretion: The institutional foundations of bureaucratic autonomy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schaefer, R. T. (2006). Sociology: A brief introduction (6th Ed.).