discussion unit 7

Unit 7 – Informal Organization

In this section we will look at the informal organization. In the readings that follow, you will be introduced to the theories surrounding the informal (as opposed to the formal) organization, but the chances are you will have already experienced it.

In every group, there is usually a formal structure, and we hope it is well thought through and organized, leading the organization to achieving its goals and objectives. However, even in poorly organized businesses (or other groups) there is always a well- functioning informal organization that arises due to the fact that we are social creatures and pay attention to many cues, norms and expected behaviors of our groups. While we will learn more about these social needs later, for now, let’s investigate the characteristics of the informal organization and note how they can address

• the social needs of status (our place in the social hierarchy) • politics (the formation of coalitions that support or resist certain issues) and • power (the ability to cause others to act in a desired way)

that exist outside of the formal structure. While informal organizations can be a source of resistance, they also can be great re-enforcers of company policy.

Licensing Information: This text, “Principles of Management,” was adapted by Saylor Academy under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License without attribution as requested by the work's original creator or licensor. Some header and font editing has been done by BC Online. Saylor Academy would like to thank Andy Schmitz for his work in maintaining and improving the HTML versions of these textbooks. This textbook is adapted from his HTML version, and his project can be found here.